Curlytail Grubs

[Outdoor Zack]

As I was going through my tackle box yesterday, I found a few odd plastic baits.  Among the cheap rubber worms, tube baits, and salamanders, I found a few curlytail grubs.  I've never used them before, but I am headed out this weekend, so I'll get a chance to fish them and a few other lures I picked up the other day.  Have you ever been successful with them?  Did you fish the grub fast or slow?  Do you have any other critical advice that you're willing to pass on?  Thanks in advance.

[A-Jay]

Grubs have been catching quality bass for a long long time.  Smallmouth bass In particular have a real affinity to a properly presented grub.

 

Here's some light reading.

 

A-Jay

 

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/about-grubs.html

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http://www.bassresource.com/fish/grubs.html

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http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/smallmouth.html 

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/rigging-grubs.html

 

 

 

 

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[MIbassyaker]

As I was going through my tackle box yesterday, I found a few odd plastic baits.  Among the cheap rubber worms, tube baits, and salamanders, I found a few curlytail grubs.  I've never used them before, but I am headed out this weekend, so I'll get a chance to fish them and a few other lures I picked up the other day.  Have you ever been successful with them?  Did you fish the grub fast or slow?  Do you have any other critical advice that you're willing to pass on?  Thanks in advance.

 

Several years ago, Field and Stream listed the curly tail grub the greatest lure of all time:

 

Http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/fishing/bass/2006/04/50-greatest-lures-all-time

 

Along with in-line spinners, 3" and 4" curly tail grubs on 1/8 oz jigheads were the first artificial lures I ever regularly caught fish on. Granted, it wasn't always bass -- I have caught crappie, rock bass, white bass, yellow perch, walleye, pike, and channel catfish on them too-- but they'll definitely catch both largemouth and smallmouth. You can fish them any way you fish any other plastic bait (especially a tube), although they've always seemed to work best hopping or swimming. I like using a yo-yo retrieve -- cast, let fall, lift by raise with the rod tip to 12 o'clock, drop the rod tip while reeling the slack, raise again, etc..  Or swim with a crank-pause-crank-pause...etc.

[WRB]

Take a look at Glenn's vedio.
Tom

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/rig-tube-bait.html

[Todd2]

I fished with an older gentlemen a few years ago that almost fished them exclusively. He'd just cast and do a steady retrieve. Some days he'd smoke me on it.

[ww2farmer]

A 4" grub is my #1 go to swim jig and chatterbait trailer. As much as I fart around with things like paddle tail baits, flapping creature baits,etc...the grub outfishes them all. It just works...cold water,dirty water, clear water, warm water.....it seems to be the best all around trailer for me.

[wytstang]

I love MegaStrikes grubs (laminate smoke, craw, watermelon silver) on a chatterbait or swim jig as well (The Mega Bug is amazing as well).

[NotnatsSamoht]

I have grubs that I rarely fish as well, but after reading some of these comments I will be using them my next time out.

[scaleface]

Like all soft plastics they work real well.  Ive used them Texas rig , carolina rig , on jigs and buzzed on top .There are just so many baits too fish and so little time  that I just dont use them much anymore .

[dcmclassic]

I use them on swimjigs a lot. My favorite way to rig then is on a rockport rattler jig head and a scrounger head.

[Raul]

Throw them away, they don´t work.

[buzzed bait]

when all else fails, the curly grub on a jig head seems to still catch a fish or two.

 

one day a buddy and i were getting skunked badly in the yaks....  saw a kid maybe 11 or 12 on the bank that appeared to be wearing them out. I asked him how it was going and what he was using.  he said the only bait he brought was the 3" curly tail and had already caught about 20, but lost count!

my buddy and i hung our head in shame all the way back to the ramp....  neither of us had any curly tail grubs.  i now keep some white, green pumpkin and chartreuse on me all the time.

[Outdoor Zack]

Thanks all.  I'll try them this weekend.  It can't hurt, can it?

[Fishing Rhino]

Here's how I rig them.  Most of the time it's with a 1/8th ounce weight.  A drop of super glue at the nose keeps the bait buttoned up to the weight.  The bait is upside down in the photo.

 

A good jig head is the Keitech Super Round Tungsten jig head.  I use the 1/8th ounce with a 2/0 hook.  But I also have 1/16th ounce, 3/16th ounce and 1/4 ounce hooks for experimentation.

 

The bait in the image is a Rage Tail Craw.  But Zoom craws and the grand daddy Mister Twister also work well. 

 

You can catch several fish on a single bait, unless the pickerel or other toothy critters are after them.

 

 

There is no right or wrong way to fish 'em.  Vary your retrieve, and let the fish tell you what they want.  Our most common practice is to wait five to ten seconds after splash down depending on the depth we are fishing.  From there you can twitch and jerk and let it settle after each "jump".  You can also swim it.

[yugrac]

I use them on the classic "safety pin spinner"   I buy different sizes of jig heads, spinners and grubs, and rig my own. Black is my go to color in this configuration.

[Goose52]

Bait rigged:

 

 

 

Catch:

 

[bigbill]

My buddy uses a 2" yellow curly tail grub on a light jighead. He just drops it down in the weeds. I like to use the weedless mepps timber doodle silver blade with the mister twister 4" split double tail grub. I use the mister twister 4" split double tail grubs in different colors as trailers. They look real when moving. They look alive and like there really swimming. On spinnerbaits, top props there awesome. I haven't tried them on Buzzbait and chatterbaits yet.

[macmac]

I fished for gills with an elderly fellow and watched him wacky rig a  1 and 1/2 inch grub sideways on the hook.  Fishing weeds with light weight 1/16 oz. jighwads he dominated the scene that day.

 

He was catching two to my one, consistently.......  The "struggling" curl tail grub was making more of a commotion as it passed through the weedy area and didn't fall fast on the pauses in his gentle retrieve, making the lure create more vibrations being sideways and all....making it much easier for the fish to find the lure among the weeds.

 

He taught me a lot that day....

 

White Pearl, and Charteuse Pearl worked the best on that particular day.

[scaleface]

I fished for gills with an elderly fellow and watched him wacky rig a  1 and 1/2 inch grub sideways on the hook.  Fishing weeds with light weight 1/16 oz. jighwads he dominated the scene that day.

 

He was catching two to my one, consistently.......  The "struggling" curl tail grub was making more of a commotion as it passed through the weedy area and didn't fall fast on the pauses in his gentle retrieve, making the lure create more vibrations being sideways and all....making it much easier for the fish to find the lure among the weeds.

 

He taught me a lot that day....

 

White Pearl, and Charteuse Pearl worked the best on that particular day.

You never know . I would have never thought to do that .

[MFBAB]

Goose52, are you fishing your grub weightless?

 

Is that a sinking or floating grub? 

 

Just curious, I've never tried one that way other than buzzing twin tails on top, wondered how you are fishing it??  Nice fish!!

[NotnatsSamoht]

Went and fished a grub today, after not getting anything on topwater all morning I tried the grub and started catching fish. If it weren't for this thread I would have forgotten those grubs in my bag and they would have been trailers.

[bigbill]

Went and fished a grub today, after not getting anything on topwater all morning I tried the grub and started catching fish. If it weren't for this thread I would have forgotten those grubs in my bag and they would have been trailers.

Trust me we all forget at times. Sometimes the first few pages in a logbook should be a list of different baits/rigs/plastics. I do have a 3700 tackle tray loaded with pre rigged plastics.

My memory at 65yo is slipping sometimes. I forget what new baits I have squirrels away. I was going to order inline spinners I found a whole box full today.

[Goose52]

Goose52, are you fishing your grub weightless?

 

Is that a sinking or floating grub? 

 

Just curious, I've never tried one that way other than buzzing twin tails on top, wondered how you are fishing it??  Nice fish!!

 

Yes - weightless and rigged weedless.  I fish, depending on what I want to do, Zoom Fat Alberts, Kalins (in the photo), and Gander Mountain 5" grubs - they all sink.  Zoom is sorta the standard. I fish Kalins when I want a bit more weight than a Fat Albert (usually when tossing it with a BC rod/reel) and the Kalins is still fairly soft to enable a light-power BC rod to pull through the plastic on the hookset. The Gander Mountain grubs are just about identical in size/form to the Kalins but are harder and as such they skip very well.

 

How do I fish them?  Every way I can.  I usually cast, let them sink for a second, then start a twitching retrieve. The retrieve can be either underwater, or on top, depending on what I think will get bit.  Since they're rigged weedless, you can toss them into slop, grass, etc. and retrieve them on top, letting them sink into holes in the vegetation.

 

The bass in the photo was 7.4lb, and is my largest grub fish. I targeted some mid-lake emergent grass with the grub and she must have been holding on, or patrolling along, that weedline. She nailed the grub on splashdown - just inhaled it. In the photo below, you can see the grub all the way at the back of her throat...

 

[F14A-B]

Try Kalins 8" Mogambo grub...

[Outdoor Zack]

You guys have convinced me.  I've got to try those grubs!  By the way, nice fish, Goose52.