(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?