Soft Lures for Pike

By Alex Clayton · Updated 23 October 2026

For most UK pike waters, start with a paddle tail or shad of about 12-16cm on a jig head of roughly 1g per foot of depth, fished on a wire trace. That one set-up will fish a canal, a river or a reservoir. Get three things right (body, size and head weight) and soft lures for pike are one of the simplest ways into lure fishing.

Soft plastic lures are cheap, easy to fish slowly and will work any depth from just under the surface down to the bottom. On Windermere a soft shad is often the lure I tie on first when I want to work the drop-offs slowly.

This page covers body types, colours, jig heads and weights, retrieves, then traces and the rules. Rules are for England unless stated. For hard lures, spinners and the rest of the box, see our guide to pike lures.

Shads, Paddle Tails and Jointed Shads: Which Body to Buy First

Two lures can look almost identical in the packet and swim completely differently. Most of that difference is in the tail.

Soft plastic lures are moulded fish imitations made from a flexible plastic that moves as you retrieve it. The body sits on a hook and weight (the jig head, covered below), and the tail shape decides how much it kicks, rolls and pushes water.

Type	Action	Best conditions	Weak spot
Slim shad (straight or small tail)	Tight wobble with little thump	Clear water, pike following but not taking	Easy for pike to miss in coloured water
Paddle tail	Strong tail beat you can feel through the rod	Coloured water, dusk, dull days, a steady retrieve	Can be too much for pressured fish
Jointed shad	Wide, rolling swim from a segmented body	When pike want a bigger, livelier target	Extra drag, so it needs a heavier head

Paddle tail lures are the easiest to fish well because the tail works at almost any steady speed. Slim shads for pike earn their place when fish follow and turn away, and a quieter lure gets the take.

Size matters as much as shape. Angling Times rates soft plastics of about 16cm (6in) as an all-round pike size that casts easily and catches pike of all sizes. A working band of 12-16cm covers most UK waters. As a general guide, drop to 10-12cm for narrow canals and small rivers, and fish the top of the range or bigger on large stillwaters and reservoirs.

Don’t buy a bit of everything. A first kit is just a few paddle tails and a few slim shads in one size band, in one natural and one bright colour. Pike teeth shred soft bodies, so buy spares of the pattern that works.

Soft lures fish slow and deep more easily than hard lures. For the jobs hard lures do better, compare the best pike lures or look at line-through lures, which slide up the trace when a pike takes.

If you only buy one type, start with a 12-14cm paddle tail.

Choosing Soft Lure Colours for Clear and Coloured Water

Racks of colours make it easy to blame a blank on the wrong shade. Depth and speed usually matter more.

Colour is a visibility decision. Match it to how clear the water is and how much light there is:

Clear water, bright light: natural patterns such as roach, perch or silver fish, which look like the food pike already eat.
Coloured water: bright or high-contrast patterns such as firetiger, chartreuse or white, which a pike can see from further away.
Low light (dawn, dusk, dull winter days): high-contrast colours again, because they keep their outline as the light goes.

Colour and vibration work together. In coloured water, the thump of a paddle tail helps a pike find the lure as much as the colour does.

On Windermere, natural colours are my usual starting point.

Change colour last, not first. If nothing is happening, check that the lure is reaching the depth you intended and that you are not retrieving too fast (see the retrieves section below) before you swap shades.

Natural colours earn their place when the water is clear and pike can inspect the lure. Bright colours earn theirs when visibility is poor and pike need help finding it.

Jig Heads Explained: Loaded, Unloaded and Weedless

The rod fishing rules for England and Wales allow lead weights to be used only if they are 0.06g or less or more than 28.35g. Most pike jig heads sit between those two figures, so read the lead question below before you buy.

Jig heads are weighted heads moulded onto a hook. You thread the soft body onto the hook shank, and the weight of the head sets how deep the lure runs (the next section has a weight guide).

Loaded or unloaded

Loaded (pre-rigged) lures come with the weight and hook built into the body. Clip on and cast.
Unloaded bodies are bare soft lures that you put on a jig head of your choice. You pick the weight for the swim and swap bodies on the same head.

When fitting an unloaded body, match the hook gape to the lure so the point exits the back about a third of the way along from the head and the body sits straight. A crooked body spins instead of swimming. Check any venue hook limits too (see the rules section below).

The lead question

Those figures come from the GOV.UK tackle rules. The 2015 regulation for England defines a lead weight as split shot or “any other thing suitable for weighting fishing lines” and controls its supply (legislation.gov.uk). It does not name jig heads.

The rules don’t settle it, so choose non-lead jig heads (tungsten, steel or another non-lead material), or ask the Environment Agency before you fish lead ones. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules, so check locally there.

Weedless heads

Some heads hide the hook point inside the body, which lets you fish lily beds, weedy canals and snaggy margins. For one popular weedless set-up, see how to tie a Texas rig. Weedless rigs tend to miss more takes, so strike firmly.

Best for: loaded lures suit beginners and anyone fishing one water at one depth. Skip if: you fish varied depths or flows, in which case unloaded bodies and a box of heads give you more control.

What Weight Jig Head for Pike? A Depth and Flow Guide

One rule gets you close on almost any water: about 1g of jig head weight per foot of depth. That is Paul Garner’s starting point in Angling Times.

Water	Typical depth	Starting head weight	Go heavier if
Canal or small river	Shallow, around 1.5m (5ft)	About 5g	There is flow or a strong wind
Lake	2-3m (6-10ft)	About 10-20g	You use a bulky paddle tail or jointed shad
Deep reservoir	Deep water off dams and drop-offs	Up to about 30g	Wind bows the line or you can’t feel bottom
Flowing river	Any	One band up from the depth figure	The lure skates up in the current

Other guides group heads into rough bands: light at 10-15g, medium at 15-25g for 1-3m of water and heavy at 25g and over for deep, flowing or windy water. Use them as a cross-check, not fixed figures.

The two sets of numbers don’t match exactly, partly because lure size and retrieve speed change the answer. A 5g head suits a slim shad in a still canal. Put a big jointed shad on it, with the extra drag described in the body section above, and it will barely sink.

On your first cast, count the lure down until the line goes slack on the bottom:

If it takes an age, or you never feel it land, go heavier.
If it snags on every cast, go lighter or lift the rod tip sooner.
Note the count, then fish just above it.

Only the heaviest reservoir heads clear the 28.35g lead figure. Everything lighter falls under the lead question in the jig heads section.

The verdict: start at 1g per foot of depth, then add weight for flow, wind and bulky lures until you can feel bottom on a steady count.

How to Fish a Soft Lure for Pike: Retrieves by Season and Water

A pike that follows the lure to your feet and turns away is a familiar soft-lure frustration. The fix is usually a pause.

Start with this basic retrieve:

Cast and let the lure sink, counting it down.
Reel slowly and steadily so the tail just works.
Every few turns, stop for one or two seconds so the lure drops.
Strike on a hit, or when the line goes slack when it shouldn’t.

Paul Garner’s advice in Angling Times is that pauses trigger following pike, and that you should vary the depth by counting the lure down to different points, because the fish are often holding at one level.

Change the retrieve before the lure:

Count-down variation: fish a count of five, then ten, then fifteen across a few casts until you find the fish.
Lift and drop: in deeper water, lift the rod to hop the lure off the bottom and let it fall back on a tight line.
Steady wind: in coloured water, a paddle tail on a slow, even retrieve does the work by itself.

In cold water, fish slower and deeper. In warmer months pike will chase faster lures higher in the water. On Windermere, working a soft lure slowly along the drop-offs is the method I keep coming back to in the colder months.

The Pike Anglers’ Club advises against fishing for pike when the water is 18C or above. That is welfare advice, not law. Separately, the coarse fish close season on English rivers runs from 15 March to 15 June, while most stillwaters and canals are open all year, subject to local byelaws and fishery rules (GOV.UK). See fishing seasons in the UK for the detail.

A typical outfit for 12-16cm shads is a rod of about 2.4m rated around 20-60g, with a braid mainline. Full rod and reel advice is on our best pike lures page.

If you get follows but no takes, slow down and add a longer pause.

Traces, Stingers and the Rules for Soft Lure Pike Fishing

Pike teeth can cut through mono and fluorocarbon. That is why the Pike Anglers’ Club says to always use a wire trace for lure fishing, and does not endorse mono or fluorocarbon traces (PAC leaflet).

Wire traces and mainline

PAC guidance gives a general bait trace length of 18in or more, and says shorter traces are acceptable for lure fishing. Many fisheries set their own minimum. For the build, see how to make a wire trace.

Mainline advice varies. The PAC leaflet gives braid of about 65lb (0.41mm) as a general guide, heavier for large lures. Angling Direct suggests lighter line, around 20lb braid for 12cm lures and 30lb for bigger ones. Pick within that range to suit your lure size and the venue rules.

Stingers

Pike often hit the tail of a soft lure and miss the single hook at the head. A stinger is a small treble on a short wire link, set near the tail to catch those short takes. It adds another hook point to remove, so fit one only when you are missing fish, and check how many hooks the venue allows.

Fish care and the law

The PAC recommends semi-barbless or crushed-barb hooks, long forceps, an unhooking mat or cradle, and never a gag. See how to unhook a pike.

GOV.UK’s rules for England and Wales ban gaffs and tailers. Any fish hooked anywhere other than the mouth or throat must be returned alive. You also need a rod licence, covered in our fishing licence guide.

Venue rules often go further than the law. Two examples:

Bristol Water (2025 pike rules): wire traces at all times, minimum 18in and 40lb; no more than two trebles or two doubles per trace; lures debarbed; unhooking gear carried (Bristol Water).
Menteith Fisheries, Scotland: wire traces always for lures, no fluorocarbon traces, debarbed hooks, trebles no bigger than 2/0 and no more than two hooks per lure (Menteith Fisheries).

Rules change, so check with the fishery before you travel.

Stinger best for: waters where pike keep nipping the tail. Skip if: you are hooking fish cleanly, or the venue limits hook numbers.

Frequently asked questions

What size soft lure is best for pike?

About 12-16cm covers most UK waters. Angling Times rates 16cm (6in) as a good all-round size that casts well and catches pike of all sizes. Drop to 10-12cm on small canals and rivers. See the body types section above for which shape to pick.

What weight jig head for pike fishing?

Start with about 1g of head weight per foot of depth, so around 5g in a shallow canal and up to about 30g in a deep reservoir. Go heavier for flow, wind and bulky lures. The depth and flow table above gives starting weights by water type.

Do I need a wire trace for soft lures?

Yes. The Pike Anglers' Club says to always use a wire trace for lure fishing, because pike teeth cut mono and fluorocarbon. Many fisheries, including Bristol Water, make wire traces a condition of fishing, so check the venue's minimum length and strength.

Are lead jig heads legal in England?

GOV.UK says lead weights can be used only if they are 0.06g or less or more than 28.35g. The rules do not name jig heads, and most pike heads fall between those figures. Use non-lead heads, or check with the Environment Agency before fishing lead ones.