In spring I found that a small soft plastic stick I pourED has a great action on the drop wacky rigged using a light jig. Being that the lure was so short, a bare hook couldn't achieve the same action as a Senko with its weighted soft plastic.
The original lure from the mold was too thin so I dipped in hot plastic to thicken it, which at the time never occurred to me to wacky rig like a Senko - especially with a jighead. When wacky rigged using a 1/32 oz jig, I dropped it into the water and it amazed me how like a Senko it acted as the body and tips wobbled all the way down to the bottom. I decided to give the lure a try last Monday in my pond and man did it catch fish!
A day later I just happened to be smoking my pipe by the bube tube in my workshop and noticed the shape of a 2" curl tail grub: thicker body tapered toward the tail. A thought popped up:
who says sticks have to look like a Senko to get the same action? So, I took took two grubs, cut the curl tails off and melted the thin ends together using a candle flame.
Last Fri. the fish were biting all day long so I figured why not try the new design. Again, it caught fish like no tomorrow! Crappie, sunfish and bass clobbered it using two retrieves:
1. let it drop to the bottom, let sit two seconds and raise it - BHAM!;
2. let it drop half way to the bottom and twitch it fast with the rod tip making the tips quiver like crazy, let it drop a few inches dead stick and then twitch some more - BHAM! Here's the proof:
A bass caught on the jig & stick mentioned first:
Now since these grubs were small it got me thinking - why not use the bodies of
3" grubs with the curl tails cut off?! More meat for the fish to target! Plus, instead of using 1/32, 1/24 jigs, I can use 1/16 or maybe 1/8 oz.
I also caught crappie and bass using the lures under a float.
I call it my Wacky Barbell Grub. I'll test them tomorrow.