I would like to hear other members soft plastic hook set technique. I find myself unsure about setting the hook after a soft bite. Should I weigh the line or just rip their lips off?

How much time do I have to set the hook if I'm not in position to set the hook when I feel the bite?

When fishing soft plastics, I like to feel them out before I set the hook.  There are a couple fine lines here though.  Wait too long and they swallow or spit out the bait and if you apply too much pressure while feeling them out, they will let go too.

Learning those lines come with experience.  

I use JJ's Magic with all of my soft plastic fishing and it gives me plenty of time to set the hook after sensing a soft bite.  

Also depends on how your fishin the plastic's too.  C rig is a sweeping side motion, all others are as straight up and down as possible. I set the hook on the fisrt tap. As was mentioned, wait to long, and the fish likely gets gut hooked. Also for dropshoting, use a circle/octopus hook vs a worm or straight shank hook, if a dink hits the ds, your less likely to hook them in the eye, but I've always had good luck with circle hooks.

Also I don't RIP my hooksets, unless I'm in deep water or weeds, ect..use sharp Owner hooks..

On the first tap I am reeling down....and setting the hook. A guy I learned alot of bass fishing from used to say at least a dozen times everytime we were on the water....."hook sets are free"

The art of feeling a worm bite is a fine combination of watching your line and feeling for unnatural sensations of what your bait shouldn't feel like. Some times you will feel that classic Tap, some times you'll only see line movement, some times your line will simply go slack, but some times there will only be a feeling of heaviness that is almost like you're hung on something. The bites where the bass moves after inhaling you bait are the easy ones to feel because there is line movement, the bites where the bass simply inhales your bait and just sits there are the hardest to feel. Feeling a worm bite requires keeping a certain amount of tension on your line while at the same time keeping a certain amount of slackness in your line. To the average angler this makes no sense at all but to the worm angler it makes total sense.

Bass do not have hands so when in doubt, drop the rod, reel the slack, & set the hook

I come from the "if you feel something odd, set the hook", of course I have set the hook on a large number of stumps/limbs/rocks/hubcaps (see the picture) and garbage bags.  I have also cast back on a missed "tap" and caught a fish.  Of course bream/bluegill/warmouth/sunfish will drive you crazy.  Especially when more than 1 is hitting the plastic.

This works for me and may not work for others.

If I feel or see ANYTHING unusual, I will reel the slack and set the hook.  I don't yank like crazy, if you have sharp hooks it shouldn't be hard.

What Catt said!