Fishing Forum

 
  


(Note the clear tail)

Short sticks rigged on light jigheads catch all species, the cone tail just one shape. The action for all is the same when worked with rod tip twitches with pauses: a darting back-&-forth changing depth slightly when paused. 
Here are some other examples:



The bottom two have thin tails that flutter when paused and whip when jerked. I compare the action of mini-sticks to a Zara Spook surface lure that zig zags side-to-side except subsurface. Mini-sticks catch more than curl tail grubs when fish don't want to chase a lure moving at a steady speed to get the tail moving. Crappie Magnet grubs are mini-sticks except the tail is split.

Another example is a neon bulb-shaped tail:


...as well as the body of a Sassy Shad minus the paddle tail (colors added with a Spike-It pen)


Do fish see the above as food? Does it matter just as long as they get struck consistently? 

I saw some of those for sale recently and was thinking about you, wondering if you had gone into business selling your design.

I thought about selling lures I have molds for, but making lures can be stressful. i.e. making sure colors are consistent, the right plastic is used (med., sinking, firm, soft, etc.), the right size and amount of glitter is added, time consuming laminates and getting orders out ASAP. I do like sending samples of my creations to anglers interested in trying something new of which my unique small-plastic shapes are. Disappointed in that I've gotten no feedback how they worked or didn't except for partners that fished with me that I showed how to work certain lures. Our catches blew them away!

I'm convinced that fish have super senses that detect everything about a lure - especially its action! The magic combination of shape, action, size and sometimes colors that enhance those three, is a search as important as catching fish consistently any time/ anywhere. There must be encoded in a fish's DNA that is tuned to certain combinations that force a reaction. 

 Recently I caught over 54 fish in 56-degree water using two shapes: one was a shortened Crappie Magnet (gold pearl laminate) on a 1/24 oz jighead; the other a flat thin-tail in pearl that has proven itself time after time. 

In fact, I recently downsized my lure selection to about a dozen shapes that have done well and will substitute a few at a time with new and old designs to see which are A#!. No point carrying a lot of crap around that will not get cast.

This is a link to a post I did earlier this year that shows more samples of finesse soft plastics that caught fish.

lure mutations that catch fish

All of the lures shown can catch fish once fish are found. Some are a bit better than others using certain retrieves, but generally speaking, they result in more fish-in-the-boat than casting much larger lures or trolling. Granted, a lot of peewee fish are hooked but so are some nice ones regardless of species. Rule: you want to target larger fish and cover more water, cast larger lures.

Note: each lure type shown has an optimal rate-of-retrieve. The ones shown are used with very slow retrieves with just enough pauses to show off their finesse actions. Fish are bullies with super sensitivity and eyes that capture every little thing that moves - especially finesse motions of a lure body or its parts. It's why T rigged plastic worms and bass jigs with trailers have caught millions of fish when first introduced decades ago and more recently the wacky rigged Senko and Ned rig TRD (The Real Deal) sticks.

In fact, I discovered some different mini-stick profiles that did fantastic this year! All colors worked. (see photos in the above link.) You can make them from plastic lures you already own. Perfect lures for kids - especially first timers!!