Tested more soft plastic lure ideas and most did great!!!

[Spoonminnow]

As many of you know, I pour most of my own soft plastic baits as well as modify lures I had in storage for years. These did excellent in the two lakes I fished today:








The top chartreuse grub is a Mr Twister with curl tail modified to a prong tail. It works much better than a curl tail; The middle bait was hand poured; the bottom bait is a dyed 3" Kalin grub rigged on a 1/8 oz. jighead.



Water temp was a nice 65 degrees and clear down only 3'; post spawn; bright sunny day, no clouds, with 3-8 mph breeze.

[Spoonminnow]

What amazes me are the designs I never thought could catch fish. The fat soft slug rigged on a 1/8 oz jig got slammed by all sizes of fish. A rounded tail design allows the lure to zig & zag on a slow retrieve - kind a like a Zara Spook.

I would have never believed that the tail cut from a Trick Worm could have any action. But as long as small rod tip twitches are used along with allowing the lure to glide 6", fish can't resist. It even amazed me that even small fish hit the Kalin which must be retrieved slowly to allow the tail to slowly flutter/ flap like a flag in the wind.

More lures will be tested tomorrow.

[warhawk]

Those look a lot like the "NED rig".

Z-Man | Ned Rig Finesse Fishing

[warhawk]

Those look a lot like the "NED rig".

Z-Man | Ned Rig Finesse Fishing

[Crestliner08]

Great looking stuff! If you haven't tried the 3" Senko yet, give it a try, you may be surprised at it's effectiveness. You are almost there with your designs now.

[Spoonminnow]

It seems the only difference between the Ned Rig and the baits I'm using are the baits. I wouldn't use half a Senko on a mushroon head jighead to catch pan fish. The definition of the Ned rig is using little baits with light line on spinning outfits. Not very definitive considering the fact that crappie anglers have been using that combination of tackle since the dawn of light tackle fishing. It also seems a bit commercial - the selling of Ned Rig baits - which is nothing more than downsizing lures and using them on an exposed hook jig head. The videos also show wacky rigged stick baits, labeling it the Ned Rig because they are 3" long.

There is a big difference in what I've be experimenting with vs what bass anglers suggest is a form of finesse fishing.

First, the original Ned rig concept of using a mushroom head jig/ soft stick cut in half combo is not the same as using 1.5" - 3" soft, soft plastic lures that quiver on a very slow horizontal retrieve. Curl tail grubs, shad tails or any action tail soft plastic lures are not used because they require a steady retrieve which bass anglers would call a type of power fishing - covering more water faster with a faster retrieve.

The cone shaped and smooth stick hand pours are made with soft plastic vs stick baits that are much firmer because of salt added and have little quiver when cut in half. Granted, they can be jerked with the rod tip, but the action is different because of overall weight.

My suggestion is to cut off 2" or less of a plastic worm's tail (remove the curl tail if it has one), rig it on a 1/8 oz or lighter jig and twitch away. Use any soft plastic lure vs stiff plastic lure to get the most body action and then notice how well it does under a float (named the float & fly technique by bass anglers decades ago).

If anything, the technique could be called the slightest-quiver in-place rig, which isn't saying much.

[Spoonminnow]

Fished the same two bodies of water yesterday testing more lures, catching fish on most.

The rat tail grubs on the left needed to have the body made thinner - as you can see by the piece I cut off using scissors. The jig head needed to be downsized from 1/8 to 1/16 oz. The lure then started catching fish more often.
The Hoodaddy on the right was modified by removing the double tail and slicing each flapper thereby making four from two. It also got slammed after the mod!

I think of the lures we mostly use to catch pan fish and I would think that most are in the finesse size category. These are fairly large lures and don't fit the finesse description yet still got slammed by crappie and medium to large perch and sunfish.

(BTW, the day was perfect: clouds with just a sprinkle of rain, water temperature 63 degrees and a light breeze to dead calm. Fish are usually nearer the surface or at least stay out from the weeds in open water on cloudy days.)