Oh what a difference between lures of a similar design!

[Spoonminnow]

I'm big into making my own soft plastics and sometimes get lucky coming up with a unique design. The two pictured below are examples:





The next photo is that of Big Bite Bait's MinnR grub:



Big differences exist between the three! :
The top thin flat tailed lure flutters with no angler input, plus a softer plastic is used to insure the tail action.

The rat-spaghetti tail lures differ in that the shapes of the body and tail are different: mine has a flat body making it go through the water differently using certain retrieves than the BBB grub. The plastic is also softer allowing for a very reactive tail action. One last important thing: where the tail attaches to the MinnR is triangular; mine is small as it is uniformly round making for a different action on a slow retrieve.

I gave a friend some rat tails in 2" and his twitch,twitch,twitch retrieve made that spaghetti tail shimmy like a snake, resulting in him catching 5 baby bass in less that five minutes near a dock and weed edges. They wouldn't let the lure pass by without trying to kill it! He rigged it on a jighead less than 1/32 oz and was still able to cast it over 20', keeping it at a depth of less than 3' on a super-slow retrieve all the way back to shore.

The BBB's prong-tail action is still very effective when fish are active - I proved that on a large number of shallow fish on Sunday. But when the bite requires a super slow retrieve or fishing under a stick float, the MinnR falls short and the other two come to the rescue because of a super finesse tail action.
Note: Because the MinnR is made from a harder plastic, the prong tail needs more rod tip action to make it quiver and a harder plastic weighs more requiring a faster retrieve.

The friend I mentioned immediately saw the potential of the rat tail, which is longer than a few other rat tail grubs (ratio of body-to-tail length) and softer texture of the round body of the MinnR and Strike King's grub which has a tiny ball at the end of the tail (not a good idea when small sunnies are around).

Certain presentations cause certain lures to react differently and that can make all the difference in the world when fish in one location are picky when it comes to presentation and lure design. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but my friend is the best angler I know for pan fish and bass (other than myself tsk tsk ) and if he can't catch them as easily with one lure versus another, I take notice! Of course superstition and presumption may affect anyone's testing of the lures mentioned, but time will always tell. When it comes to curl tail grubs, flat, prong or rat tails always win!!!!

[huntinslabs]

I'm big into making my own soft plastics and sometimes get lucky coming up with a unique design. The two pictured below are examples:





The next photo is that of Big Bite Bait's MinnR grub:



Big differences exist between the three! :
The top thin flat tailed lure flutters with no angler input, plus a softer plastic is used to insure the tail action.

The rat-spaghetti tail lures differ in that the shapes of the body and tail are different: mine has a flat body making it go through the water differently using certain retrieves than the BBB grub. The plastic is also softer allowing for a very reactive tail action. One last important thing: where the tail attaches to the MinnR is triangular; mine is small as it is uniformly round making for a different action on a slow retrieve.

I gave a friend some rat tails in 2" and his twitch,twitch,twitch retrieve made that spaghetti tail shimmy like a snake, resulting in him catching 5 baby bass in less that five minutes near a dock and weed edges. They wouldn't let the lure pass by without trying to kill it! He rigged it on a jighead less than 1/32 oz and was still able to cast it over 20', keeping it at a depth of less than 3' on a super-slow retrieve all the way back to shore.

The BBB's prong-tail action is still very effective when fish are active - I proved that on a large number of shallow fish on Sunday. But when the bite requires a super slow retrieve or fishing under a stick float, the MinnR falls short and the other two come to the rescue because of a super finesse tail action.
Note: Because the MinnR is made from a harder plastic, the prong tail needs more rod tip action to make it quiver and a harder plastic weighs more requiring a faster retrieve.

The friend I mentioned immediately saw the potential of the rat tail, which is longer than a few other rat tail grubs (ratio of body-to-tail length) and softer texture of the round body of the MinnR and Strike King's grub which has a tiny ball at the end of the tail (not a good idea when small sunnies are around).

Certain presentations cause certain lures to react differently and that can make all the difference in the world when fish in one location are picky when it comes to presentation and lure design. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but my friend is the best angler I know for pan fish and bass (other than myself tsk tsk ) and if he can't catch them as easily with one lure versus another, I take notice! Of course superstition and presumption may affect anyone's testing of the lures mentioned, but time will always tell. When it comes to curl tail grubs, flat, prong or rat tails always win!!!!

Thats a pretty bold statement. Believe I could disprove that real quick bout mid October, here longlining.

[Special K]

It's great to experiment and take notice of what works and how well it works during the various seasons and changing seasonal conditions. I guess that's what's so intriguing and challenging about crappie fishing. It's pretty cool that you are so analytical to dive into the physics and/or science of the thing and take such copious notice of such details and retain it all as your cumulative findings and/or outcome(s) from which you derive and explain your relative positions, tactical approaches and hypotheses. Interesting indeed.

If you don't mind me asking... what is your profession? You surely must have some type of scientific or engineering background. Thanks for sharing.

[Spoonminnow]

If you don't mind me asking... what is your profession? You surely must have some type of scientific or engineering background. Thanks for sharing.

Radiology technician and then trained myself as a medical diagnostic sonographer in all specialties; Associate degree with emphasis on animal and human sciences. Retired after 42 years.

so analytical to dive into the physics and/or science of the thing and take such copious notice of such details and retain it all as your cumulative findings and/or outcome(s) from which you derive and explain your relative positions, tactical approaches and hypotheses.

Thanks! The more I learn by experience, the more I realize I don't know. But what I do know is that multiple successes aren't coincidental and there has to be a reason for them day in and day out. All the above fall into the category of hypothesis - an educated guess that tries to put the pieces together to make some logical sense of why something works or doesn't. Chance will always be a factor as well as the activity level or level of fish susceptibility to lures, but regardless of how susceptible, one angler will prove better time after time than another in the same boat using the same or different choice of lure. Longlining curl tail grubs may indeed work better at that time of year, though will never know unless Huntnslabs compares my lures to his. The proof is in the catching and catching fish in different seasons is what determines which lures excel but only in the hands of someone who knows how to use them.

I tried the above three lure types and admit that they all produced well. The water temp was 80, green with algae with weeds continuing to die all over the lake. The best action was in 8-12' using a 1/16 oz. jig head and varying the slow retrieve using the rod tip or reel handle. The Strike King lure worked least well (though it did catch a 1.5 lb catfish in the same water crappie, perch and sunfish swam.) The MinnR worked very well, but especially in a certain color:
super bright florescent pink body/ bright chartreuse prong tail. (Both colors obtained using Spike-It.) But then again the thin-tail grub in bright white did as well as did the clear plastic thin-tail containing chartreuse and black flakes. The question that comes to mind: was color or color brightness important?

The lure specific variables are there for anyone to assess were or weren't important - color, brightness, tail action, body shape. But what was most important IMO was the presentation that was mutually complimentary to some of those lure variables and that is what made neutral fish bite. Of the over 50 fish caught (including the catfish) no one can say all those fish were feeding or active in open water not near any weeds. The same goes for Sunday on a different lake with monster slabs and yellow perch in shallow and deep open water using the same three lure designs accounting for over 50 fish, including a 4lb bass on a 4' deep flat.

The search for the truth (or something close to it) continues....

[Cane Pole]

Have you ever been over exposed to radiation?

[Spoonminnow]

Have you ever been over exposed to radiation?

Possibly .... fluoroscopic procedures for hours - head not protected from the secondary radiation. I also wasn't breast fed - could that have something to do with it? lol

[lowe175]

I make most of my own baits as well. I like to experiment with colors and different types of baits. I agree that rat tail baits are very effective and that's what I use most of the time. I've seen times when a curly tail will out fish a rat tail. Also have had days when a marabou jig was the best. I like to have a I bit of everything. Them are some nice grubs your making too.

[Gabepeeps]

I microwave all my store bought plastics for 10 -15 seconds. They are made with a denser plastic for durability. But if you zap for 10 seconds, 15 for thicker plastics, they will become more flexible. Learned that from bass fishing with plastic worms. REALLY works well with Senkos.

[Spoonminnow]

The nice thing about using lures is that: there is no absolute best lure that there will ever be a consensus on primarily because each of us has ways to make our pet favorites work. The very top lure pictured works for me all 12 months.
It's like choosing color: there is no one color we can all agree on, as it should be, because of the waters we fish. Colors I may find worthless, another may chose under certain conditions.

But other than favorite lures, one might ask why they work as well as they do and, IMO, it relates to a fish's extraordinary senses of detection, it's simple nervous system that substitutes as a brain (in place of one that can think) and how those two factors account for a fish striking something totally unnatural.

The catfish caught yesterday bit the modified Strike King grub pictured beneath it as did a number of panfish of different species.




What was it thinking!?? or better yet, what was it reacting to?!! Could be the bright colors and color contrast; could also be the whip tail; could be the body profile and thickness; could be the combination of all three and including the right presentation.

Same for the bass caught on the hybrid in its mouth:





The color and body modifications of 1 and 2, I feel, sets a fish up to strike something that irritates its senses - a stimulus: something that incites to action. Seeing as how the bright pink Spike It dye color worked for over 20 fish, I'd have to say it contributed. But a bright white of # 4 also worked. Equally important if not most important were the two quivering tail designs shown.

So when choosing lures, consider lure qualities a fish reacts to and pair the lure to what fish do react to.

[shipahoy41]

Quote by Spoonminnow........"I tried the above three lure types and admit that they all produced well. The water temp was 80, green with algae with weeds continuing to die all over the lake. The best action was in 8-12' using a 1/16 oz. jig head and varying the slow retrieve using the rod tip or reel handle. The Strike King lure worked least well (though it did catch a 1.5 lb catfish in the same water crappie, perch and sunfish swam.) The MinnR worked very well, but especially in a certain color:;;;;;;super bright florescent pink body/ bright chartreuse prong tail. (Both colors obtained using Spike-It.) But then again the thin-tail grub in bright white did as well as did the clear plastic thin-tail containing chartreuse and black flakes. The question that comes to mind: was color or color brightness important?
The lure specific variables are there for anyone to assess were or weren't important - color, brightness, tail action, body shape. But what was most important IMO was the presentation that was mutually complimentary to some of those lure variables and that is what made neutral fish bite. Of the over 50 fish caught (including the catfish) no one can say all those fish were feeding or active in open water not near any weeds. The same goes for Sunday on a different lake with monster slabs and yellow perch in shallow and deep open water using the same three lure designs accounting for over 50 fish, including a 4lb bass on a 4' deep flat....The search for the truth (or something close to it) continues.... "

Well, IMHO, if you cannot convince them with brilliance then dazzle them with El Toro poo poo.




QUOTE=Special K;3035847]It's great to experiment and take notice of what works and how well it works during the various seasons and changing seasonal conditions. ...... and take such copious notice of such details and retain it all as your cumulative findings and/or outcome(s) from which you derive and explain your relative positions, tactical approaches and hypotheses. Interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing.[/QUOTE]

Wayne, I believe Spoonminnow is saying he has CONFIDENCE in the lure, size, action, presentation and movement of particular lures to attract the fish and then induce them or trigger them to biting the lure. CONFIDENCE is the MOST IMPORTANT tool in your tackle box. If you do not believe in a lure you will never buy it or having bought it, the lure will stay in the bottom of your tackle box. The lure (size, colors, shape, scent etc.) will attract the fish. The action of the lure, or the presentation action that you impart to the lure, will trigger the bite.