Only a non-fisher would dispute the fact that soft plastic lures have just about taken over our estuary and inshore lure fishing. The rise in popularity has been gradual over the past 50 years with many milestones and significant events along the way. It all started in the early 1970s when Mister Twister heads and curl tails were introduced to Australia. They instantly became popular with estuary anglers because they were cheap, easy to fish and effective. A myriad of US manufactured plastics flooded the market in the following decade and it just snowballed from there. It didn’t take long for Aussie anglers to realise the benefits of soft plastics and their fish catching potential.
The advantages of plastics are enormous and probably far outweigh any other type of lure on the market. For starters they’re soft and can closely resemble so many food sources including baitfish, prawns, crabs and even individual bait species such as mullet and whiting, etc. They feel like the real thing so most fish will hang onto them instead of spitting them straight back out when they eat something hard. They come in all sizes, shapes and colours and some have very realist swimming features. They can be fished at a wide range of speeds from “do nothing” to being cranked flat strap. They
