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As the name implies these flies are built using a soft plastic lure body.

I am happy to call this a fly because I fish it on a fly rod and fly line, cast it, retrieve it and land fish caught on it in the same way that I do when fish a traditional fly made of say fur and feather for say a brown trout in Lake Jindabyne NSW.

I like to use 2 1/2" and 3" paddle tail type soft plastics in 'oil' colours being my preference.

They work well when targeting temperate species such as bream and flathead etc and tropical species such as mangrove jack, small trevally and queenies etc. The jury is still out on whether the tail should be up or down but on balance I prefer to have the tail up. These paddle tails are readily accepted by bream, flathead and other species and have an advantage over crescent tail soft plastics in that the tail does not foul up when casting.

Materials

Process

A	Wind the thread from the 95% position to the bend of the hook and then back to the 90% position. Understanding hooks Tie in a set of bead chain, dumbbell or real eyes. Tying in the eyes Return the thread to the bend of the hook.

B	Tie in a length of chenille at the bend of the hook and tie it as an under-body flat along the top of the hook shank all the way to the eyes.

C	Mix a very small amount of epoxy and put just a small amount on top of the chenille at the bend of the hook. Working with epoxy

D	Prepare the soft plastic by trimming it square at the front with the body equal in length to the shank of the hook.

E	Take the fly out of the vice and thread a soft plastic body onto the hook shank. As you do this the epoxy will be forced all the way along the under-body and when it sets it will hold the soft plastic in place. Put the fly back into the vice.

F	Figure eight wrap the chenille around the eyes. Tie the chenille off at the eye of the hook and trim the excess. Whip finish the thread behind the eye of the hook, trim the thread and apply a drop of head cement to the whip finish.

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