do soft plastics work of a night?

They certainly do diver1. I catch alot of flatties at night with plastics but I must admit where I usually use them is around a bridge with artificial lighting. I always try to use ones that would resemble the size and shape of a prawn and have as much flash as possible. I know of guys that catch jewies on the beach at night on big plastics and although I have tried so far to no avail. Just remember big fish can catch little fish and prawns and the like at night and that is what your lure is representing.