Got grubs? Cut them, melt together, wacky rig

[Spoonminnow]

In spring I found that a small soft plastic stick I pour 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 it had to be 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 I dropped it into the water, it amazed me how like a Senko it acted as the body and tips wobbled all the way down to the bottom with jig in place. 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 is the proof:



and a shot with the jig & stcik:


I didn't bother taking any pictures of the 20 plus crappies caught this way because the photos are part of a log of the location and date fished and a few examples are all that's needed.

Now these grubs were small but 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.

Who says wacky rigged soft sticks are just for bass!?

[SpeckledSlab]

Like the way you think, I'll definitely give it a try. Used worms from any bass fisherman would be a tremendous supply.

[shipahoy41]

Way to think outside of the box. Many times we just take old lures, melt them in a pyrex cup in the microwave, and inject them into a new mold.

[Spoonminnow]

Time to go through the 60 or more boxes of stored plastic to find which have potential for new & improved like this - the tail end of a plastic lizard which also did well:



I cut the curl tail straight and rigged it on a 1/24 ballhead jig. Gills and crappie jumped all over it!

[Spoonminnow]

Forgot to mention that the wacky grub caught crappie under a float along with a shortened slider design worm rigged on a 1/32 oz jig:



This Slider Grub mod into a wacky lure I have a feeling will be amazing!



The top lure was formed from the bodies; the bottom lure formed from the tails.