Just a little tip on using soft plastic baits, I have found through my experimentation that fish will more then likely go for something that does not look exactly like what everyone else if throwing at them.
I tried this a few times a long while ago and my fish catch ratio started to increase, whenever I am using soft plastic baits like jigs, swimbaits, worms, tubes or creature baits I slightly scuff them up or fine tune them a bit.
Manufacturers have done a great job with so many products on the market, by making them look very close to the real thing BUT at times I think they have done too good of a job ! What I do is beat the baits up a little by crushing them with plyers or rubbing them around on a hard surface, in my case that is the carpeted boat platform.
What this does is take a lot of that perfect bait look away, example you do this with a tube jig and you will see the rubber particles break up giving it a different appearance. You can do this to anything BUT the point it not to do extensive damage to the bait, just enough so it starts to look different.
With creature style baits I sometimes trim things around, like the legs or tentacles which in the end makes my creature bait stand out against anything else others are using.
This is a great little tip to keep in mind, WHY because fish get used to seeing the same old thing, so by making yours appear a little different can make a huge impact in the end.
The AMFisH guy…