Most fishing lures are not immortal. Many come on strong, live a good life and quietly fade into history.
I couldn’t resist asking these soft-plastic gurus Dudley Vandenborre and Ed Sexton what they thought about the future of soft plastic lures versus live bait.
“I don’t think that live bait will push out soft plastics completely. But live bait availability has certainly increased,” Vandenborre said.
Sexton’s answer was even stronger.
“(Plastics are) my personal option down here (in Venice),” he said. “I will catch them better on plastic in the spring and at least until June. I’ve been side by side with people with live bait and smoked them.”
Vandenborre said he doesn’t see fake baits going anywhere.
“I think that you are always going to have plastic,” he said. “If I wasn’t a guide, I would never use live bait.”
Both experts agreed that the most merit for live bait use is in the months of June, July, and August.
Sexton observed that, while he felt live bait gave him a better chance for catching big fish in the summer, every really big trout he has ever caught was caught on plastics or topwaters.