Has anyone ever noticed that a beat up, chewed up, soft plastic bait will catch more fish than a new one? I stumbled onto this many years ago, fishing 4" plastic grubs over a deep ledge. I caught 4 bass on the grub, and received a pull. When I tried to set the hook there was no fish. Reeling back in, it looked like a panfish had grabbed the tail and torn part of it off. I only had 2 grubs with me so I continued to cast the torn grub, and caught a couple more bass. Finally, the grub was shot, and beyond using. Putting on a new grub of the same type, I didn't catch a fish for the next 30minutes. I've seen this happen many times with plastic worms, craw type baits, lizards and even brush hog type creature baits. It's happened enough times that I don't think it's coincidence only. There's some reason for this. Although I'm not much of a Ned rig fisherman, I've read reports that the Z man plastics work better after they've become more beat up. Guys seem to have better luck with them, after some fish have been caught, and the baits are torn, and in rough shape. For years now, I'm not in any big hurry to change a soft plastic bait if its caught fish, even if it becomes rough looking. I'll move the hook slightly to get a good Texas rig, or re rig ball head jigs etc, to.keep using the same plastic bait. Has anyone else experienced this? Do you have an explanation? Some days the old worn, torn worms outfish the new ones. It seems like they outproduce new plastic baits for me
