Non action-tail soft plastics may surprise many of you

[SPOONMINNOW]

Many times, the best way to catch fish on a slow day, pops up when fish aren't attacking action-tail lures such as the curl tail grub or crankbaits: go slow & small or go home. Specific retrieves matched to certain lures bring out the strike-trigger of a lure that provokes fish to attack. The Ned rig is one.

It looks like a salt-weighted Senko cut in half and rigged on a heavy jig. It has no action on the surface or at mid-depth and is a bottom hopper. Lure action is from the slight flex of the body. The shape got me thinking: why not make a similar shape that is light and small rigged on a light jig, allowing the lure to be worked mid-depth with an unsteady retrieve. This one is a hybrid of a grub front melted onto a grub front. Jig weight can be 1/32, 1/24 or 1/16 oz. which allows a darting/gliding action at any depth with rod tip twitches and slight turns of the reel handle.

Another is the tail end of a clear taper-tail stick I poured added to the front part of a soft stick worm:

Another example is 2 grub bodies joined with the flame:

The first time I caught a fish on a grub body last year was when a pickerel bit off the tail of a curl tail grub. I figured it couldn't hurt to cast it out and sure enough it caught this little bass and many other fish that day:

This evolved into many similar short plastic shapes - ALL proven to catch fish even on the slowest days.
A short, slim plastic worm can be wacky rigged on a light jighead, but better yet, two spike tail grub tails melted together to a grub body:

You can imagine the tip quiver imparted with rod tip twitches that drive fish nuts!
One poster called the above a copy of the Ned Rig. But in fishing, and especially for lures, details matter. The above is unique and proven, call it what you will.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Even on days when action tails get bit, stick baits will too. I no longer use any twister tails, the few I have left get most of the tail trimmed off and a V notch cut into the remaining stub. Am replacing walleye specific Keitech boot tail Easy Shiners with straight tail Shad Impacts, still a work in progress considering the walleye masters still outfish me with the booties on well practiced lift drop retrieves.


Slow twitch retrieves are best served with stick baits as action tails tend to impede any angler input side to side darts or up n down hops.