[craytail]

I want to give soft baiting a go for fishing for salmon.

I’m interested in any advice/best technique for using them.

Any tips or hints would be greatly appreciated.

Obviously it depends on the water flow, but do you want to be fishing soft baits as a canal style of fishing IE drifting them down through the current or do you cast, slow retrieve jig etc.

Do you want the soft bait just drifting down off the bottom, through the current or do you want it hitting the bottom?

Main areas of fishing would be the Kaiapoi River, Kaiapoi Mouth, Waimak etc.

[troutfishernz]

Got 2 salmon at the Opihi mouth last year on softbait on both occasions I sited the fish and just dead drifted the softbait past them similar to canal fishing.

[craytail]

OK been out today in the Kaiapoi, trying some soft baiting. No salmon caught where I was fishing. Tried 3 inch dragon paddle tail soft bait and some Berkley 3.5 inch paddle tail. The dragons where the best for life-like action. Tried canal style drifting; slow retrieve; slow retrieve jig; faster retrieve jig. The canal style drift felt the best but I’m not sure which I should be concentrating my time on doing more of. Are the paddle tails the way to go? I’ve been using the salt water Berkley jigs in 1/12 oz in size 2 hooks. Seem good to get a drift going and not hit the bottom. I’m going to catch my next salmon on a soft bait, so any help to make this happen would be bloody awesome. It won’t be through lack of trying! I use a small trout set up and 10 lb braid.

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