Softbaits, we all know them, and what a wide variety exists around the world. The offer is truly immense, and within the global soft plastic market, there are a ton of different shapes and sizes one can choose from. To fish any kind of soft bait, in its own shape or form, you’ll need a jig, a screw-in system, or a single hook. For me, jigs have always been a personal favorite, amongst the larger sizes available. Sometimes hard to find good quality vs performance can be a struggle, but luckily there’s a ”new” brand around the corner waiting for you out there; BKK Hooks International!
When it comes to the larger sizes in soft plastics, there’s only one thing that counts, and that is the weight and hookup ratio. One is as much important as the other, these two factors are often overlooked. A good quality soft bait needs an even better quality hook, and for the sake of showing you all in on the new BKK Jigheads Round, this article will be in collaboration with Berkley’s newest range of Sick Softbaits! The New Berkley Sick range consists of a super high-quality product arsenal (Powerbait included) containing exciting new products for the global Esox market, and below you can find several of its contestants that I personally really like. Of course, these baits can be used for other species as well, such as Big Zander fishing for example, but mostly for Pike. In this article, I’m going to give you a complete rundown of the baits, and jigs they fit, as well as a stinger treble hook. There’s also a video at the bottom of this page to show you a bit more than flat text!
”Monster Pike during a Pelagic night session. Big Hooks mean Big Fish!!”
The first bait is the Sick Vamper in 22cm, slim body design, with an oversized V-Tail with a hump on the bottom to cause an upward action of the tail, a medium-thick body, and a really nice overall presentation in the water. In order to fish it in the ”pelagic” range of the water column, equipped with a razor-sharp BKK Jighead Round 50gr 10/0 and a size 1/0 BT621-SS Stinger in the back
The second bait that’s highlighted is the Sick Flanker in 22cm. A really nice design, a big bulky belly, with an oversized paddle tail that can be used in a wide variety of different ways. Casting, trolling, vertical/pelagic style, you’ll name it! Equipped with a BKK Jighead Round 50gr 12/0 to be fished down deep with a size 1/0 BT621-SS Treble in the back
Alongside the Sick Flanker in 20cm is also its smaller brother, the 14cm. A typical ”cold-front” styled bait, that can be cast on days when the fishing gets tough, but also can be used as a great option for Big Zander! Now, this is not a Zander page, but I do want to highlight it, it’s just such a versatile piece of rubber. I have rigged this one on a BKK Jighead Round 30gr 6/0. The hook point stands just a bit further to the back, ensuring a great hookup ratio, and this one can be also finished off with a BT621-UVO Size 1 stinger hook in the back.
And last but not least the Sick Vibe. Also originally designed for Zander, this could work as a nice ”searchbait” to find active fish in deeper pockets of a body of water. I prefer to cast this one on a single BKK Jighead Round 25gr 5/0 and fish it as a single hook only.
Below you can see for yourself what they look like in the video! Enjoy
