Does anyone got any tips for fishing a soft plastic, or jig in a river, or stream with a current?

How fast is the current? If its pretty slow I'd try a finesse style football jig with a small Yum Chunk trailer, or Paca/rage chunk. I'd also give tubes a try.

Now if the current was a bit quick, I'd use Fat Ikas or Senkos/stickbaits.

agree with the senkos however the ikas seem to look like turds floating

i am a stream fisherman first and foremost you can fish any bait that you can fish in a stream that you would fish in a lake

just remember understanding the current is more important then what to use

if you are going for smallies and are wanting to use soft plastics i would recommend using tubes with regular football style jigs

vary your weight to the current you want a weight that gets it down where you need it but does not snag every two seconds

personally i use cabin creek tubes

i used to live down by there and they always treated me great and i really like their plastics however i am sure there are countless other of companies out there that can help you out i know a lot of people use *** from this site and i will most likely give them a try once my stock dwindles

alot of people will use large grubs i have had alot of friends that had success but i have never needed to use them

If your stream has decent visibility, fluke type baits work very well for Smallies also.  We fish rivers much more than lakes and have found tubes and flukes to be our two most productive soft plastics for Smallies.  Because of the many recommendations on this and another site, we plan to fish various types of worm baits this year also.  Good luck with your stream fishing, but be careful, it can be very addictive.

I fish a small river in Ga. frequently.  Here is what I have found.  Current is the key.  Most bass seem to hide in current breaks caused by logs, rocks, etc.  I guess they are waithing there for something to float by that they can eat.  I cast beyond the structure and let the current pull the bait past the current break and have lots of successs.  I prefer a texas rigged Zoom finesse worm with enough weight to maintain bottom contact.

In slow moving areas I cast weightless trick worms and Senkos to shaded areas, especially the deeper banks and let them sink, twitch them a few times and let them sink.

Works great around here for large mouth bass.  Not sure how it will translate in Wisconsin.  Good luck.

If your stream has decent visibility, fluke type baits work very well for Smallies also.  We fish rivers much more than lakes and have found tubes and flukes to be our two most productive soft plastics for Smallies.  Because of the many recommendations on this and another site, we plan to fish various types of worm baits this year also.  Good luck with your stream fishing, but be careful, it can be very addictive.

I'll second that! The current will really get flukes wiggling and smallies love it!  Tubes are also a solid choice and work best around heavy cover and rocks. Give em a try and see what works best for your area