Alpha prawn - open/top pour soft plastic

These 120mm long top pour soft plastics are my take on a soft plastic imitation of a prawn and I use them when targeting not only Threadfin and salt water Barramundi but also other larger fish, that thrive on prawns, such as Fingermark, Flathead and Grunter.

The key features of My Alpha prawn are:

• Realistic durable plastic eyes that are molded permanently into the body.
• The six legs are located under the Alpha prawn in much the same location as the main legs of the natural and each leg is split at 90 degrees to the body. The front half of each leg is a little shorter than the other half of the same leg so with any movement the current created by that movement separates each leg into two parts in a very enticing way.
• The tail is flat and thin so that it has a great fluttering action on the drop and then glides up and down with each rise or fall of the lure.
• Two rostrum on the head of the lure are important also as they partly camouflage the connection of the leader to the lure.

I make my Alpha Prawn in only 4 colours:

• Dark prospector: This a relatively dark gold created by mixing gold and motor oil and adding equal parts of white and red 3mm shred flex throughout. Motor oil was the colour of the first soft plastic that I was introduced to and that was something like 40 years ago. That was fishing for yellow tail bream in Mullet Creek which feeds into Lake Illawarra near Wollongong NSW.

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• Pale prospector: These are similar to the dark prospector except it’s all pale gold in colour. This is a great search colour for a wide range of fish and is always worth a swim.


 

• Albino: This all white version has silver 3mm shred fleck throughout and is my goto option for Threadfin and Salt Water Barramundi in coloured water.


 

• Pink scrounger: This all pink version is great for targeting fish such as Fingermark, Grunter, Flathead, Mangrove Jack, Barramundi and Threadfin, that are scrounging around mangroves as falling tides flush prawns and small fish out of mangroves and discolors the water.

Rigging the Alpha Prawn.

I watched Alpha prawns swim with all sorts of set ups and the five below are the ones I have chosen as the best way to set them up. For all five set ups the center of gravity is low and the Alpha prawn therefor swims on the retrieve at various depths and across the bottom and on the the pause and on the lift maintaining a realistic disposition.

I rig the “Alpha Prawn” in 4 different ways on #6/0 to #7/0 hooks making them a very versatile bait.

• May favourite rig for the Alpha Prawn is on a #7/0 O’Shaughnessy style straight eye hook to which I add my own weight with lead wire. I add a drop or two of super glue to the lead wire to lock it to the hook and the Alpha Prawn when rigging up. By varying the amount of lead wire used the bait can be used as a top water bait to a bottom bait in deeper water. The hooks I use for this set up are Mustard 34007 SS hooks.

 

• Rigging weedless is a great option when fishing into mangroves and other structure not only because the weight on the shank ensures that the prawn has a low center of gravity, so it will swim well, but also that you will get less snags. There are a few weedless hooks on the market but my preference for the Alpha prawn soft plastic is size #6/0 TT Weighted shank hook. Even though weedless setups have a reputation of not hooking up as well as exposed hook set ups I don’t think that is the case if the right size hook is chosen. You can see in the picture that there is plenty of room for the soft plastic to compress down on the strike exposing the business end of the hook.

 

• Loaded on a #6/0 unweighted twistlock Owner beast hooks, with a TT Snake Lock head in front also works really and there is the added advantage that TT Snake Lock hooks come in a range of weights and you can change the swim depth by changing your choice of weighted Snakelock.

 

• Rigger on a #6/0 Owner flashy swimmer set ups the Alpha prawn lends itself to being fished in discoloured water particularly for Threadfin and Barramundi. The Owner Flashy Swimmer set up is relatively weedless and snag-less and in discoloured water they can be fished right on the bottom with the willow blade making them more obvious and making heaps of noise as the Alpha Prawn is bounced across the bottom.

Foot note:

Interestingly I noted today (21/10/22) a new post by ZMan Lures where they are promoting the launch of their 2.5″ PrawnZ that except for size has many of the key elements of my Alpha prawn