It is no secret that some of my favourite lures are paddle-tail soft plastics. Many a Sunshine Coast tackle shop would verify this as truth and my bank account tells the story. They are eye-catching, realistic and – most importantly – catch fish with phenomenal consistency.
The Pro Lure Fishtail is a profile that recently caught my eye while cruising the aisles of my local store. A line-up of nine colours in rather classy packaging was screaming for closer inspection. The Fishtails featured a broader body profile that I have come to love. This profile (without bulk) gives rise to a more streamlined swimming action and the taper towards the tail end looked absolutely perfect. In conjunction with this profile, the large paddle-style tail brings together a perfect swim. In my opinion, a beautifully straight and true swimming action with a nice ‘thump’ of the tail is as effective and realistic as any soft plastic could be.
With smaller estuary jewfish, barramundi and mangrove jack all in mind, it was now time for the Fishtails to do their thing. Heading upriver, I was greeted with the perfect stage of the tide and rigged a Fishtail in the ‘natural shad’ colour pattern. This features a slight mother of pearl belly with a glittery fleck through the body and finishes with a nice dark-brown to green back. A quick swim boat-side and a small cast and slow retrieve back revealed that the Fishtail’s swimming action was crazily lifelike. Now in the almost lifelong ritual of cast and retrieve, I set about playing with various retrieves, and a double hop and pause while on the bottom was quickly met with that serious ‘thud’ from a nice estuary jewfish. Some nice powerful runs and violent head shakes made for a nice little contest before the fish slid into the waiting net. The Fishtails had ticked a box almost instantly and from the moment I saw these plastics it was obvious they would be a magnet to jewfish.
The session then went from strength to strength with numerous jewfish coming aboard and trevally also muscling their way through for a piece of the action.
The next test was to see how well the Fishtails swam when rigged as weedless presentations. Again, the profile and shape were ideal as the broadness (but not overly exaggerated width and thickness) made for easy and neatly aligned rigging using a weedless hook pattern and twist lock holder. With barramundi and mangrove jack now the target, I chose the ‘Albino’ colour pattern as this would stand out nicely in the darker brackish water. With a nice warm north-east wind and warm day leading the way it did not take too long before I received that sharp ‘tap, tap’ style bite from a small barra and he soon found himself launching to the air in defiance. To be honest I had known well before casting that the albino colour would work amazingly well and in a system plentiful with small herring and poddy mullet, the fish tail profiles were just once again like a neon sign saying ‘eat me’.
The Pro Lure Fishtails boast huge versatility. They have been purposefully designed and can be taken anywhere from our estuaries to the blue water playground offshore. Although I have not used these on snapper myself as yet, I can already imagine the reception when I get the chance. Another very pleasing aspect is the price point of the Fishtails, at $9.99 for a pack of six tails they offer genuine value for money
Words & Images: Peter Morris
Distributed by: Pro Lure Australia
