Nige Webster has spent much of his fishing time using soft curl tail plastics. Here he describes why they are such an effective lure wherever you choose to fish
Humble Beginnings
It is widely known that soft plastics with a curly tail catch fish. The now seemingly ancient Mister Twisters with their multiple tails used to catch fish very effectively. Soft plastics began to gain huge popularity in Australia when tournament anglers, amongst others, began to show us how a plethora of species just loved a soft lure with a wiggly tail. A multitude of lure brands, types and sizes has now fallen on our shores and amongst them the humble curl tail or ‘grub’ as it is often referred, still earns pride of place in so many tackle boxes. The reason for this is that a curl tail lure catches fish wherever it is cast because it continues to imitate so many of our common piscatorial food supplies. This type of lure is also extremely versatile in that it can be rolled, jigged, whipped and burnt and will continue to catch fish. Let’s take a deeper look at the humble grub!
The Wiggle
The addition of a wiggling tail to a soft plastic lure adds versatility for the angler and loads of appeal for fish. The fine vibrations produced by baitfish, prawns and other fish food sources are effectively imitated by the wiggling tail of a grub style plastic. A real charm of these lures is that they vibrate during active and passive stages of a retrieve. For example, as the lure is jigged or pulled through the water the tail will work, furthermore during the critical paused stages of a retrieve as the lure sinks, the tail will be actively working. Being that many bites occur while a lure is sinking, this greatly adds to the attractive qualities of a grub.
The action of a tail adds other important characteristics to these lures as well. A vibrating tail acts to retard the speed of a grub when sinking or being pulled through the water as an example. This is an important consideration when trying to fool cautiously feeding fish. Species such as snapper will often fall for the charms of a slowly sinking grub. Slowly retrieved plastics with an actively vibrating tail are often the catalyst to get species such as freshwater trout and bass to bite. Several curl tail plastics on the market now offer a buoyant body. A weighted lure will lie prostrate on the bottom while a proud tail sits upright, wiggling seductively and attracting the attention of salt and freshwater species searching for crustaceans and the like. A curl tail lure may appear at face value like nothing more than a lure with body and tail, but when you scratch beneath the surface you begin to appreciate how versatile and effective these lures really are.
Grub Applications
There are a huge range of techniques that can be applied to fishing curl tail plastics in the salt and freshwater environment. To cover half of them here would be inconceivable in the space I am allocated. Let’s look at some of the simplest yet most effective methods that will help you catch a few.
Jigging
It would be fair to say that most fish spend time feeding close to the bottom. Jigging a lure close to the substrate accounts for a large number of fish when using curl tail plastics. The style of jigging should vary depending on the mood and type of fish being targeted. For example, flathead will often respond to an aggressively jigged curl tail kept close to the bottom, while bream, trout and the like will be more susceptible to a subtly jigged plastic. It is important when jigging to ensure your lure stays in contact with the bottom for extended parts of the retrieve. Today I notice many anglers fishing too quickly. After having identified prime fish holding locations ensure your lure is jigged along the bottom for as much of the area as possible and your success rates will increase. This means watching your line for signs that the lure is on the bottom, moving the lure so that it does not move too far from fish and then ensuring you wait for the lure to once again hit the ground. Learning to watch the line carefully will highlight when a lure has hit the bottom and also when a fish has bitten a lure as it drops. Experiment with how you jig a lure and it may surprise how varied retrieves will stimulate bites. I have taken fish on aggressively jigged lures, gently hopped plastics and at times by slowly dragging them along the bottom. Keep in mind that many plastics are buoyant these days which means a curl tail lure will stand up enticingly when on the bottom. The one aspect in your favour when jigging with grubs is that the lure is always wiggling: which means you have a chance of getting that bite at any stage.
Slow-Roll
A slowly retrieved curl tail plastic is sometimes referred to as a slow-rolled retrieve. This approach is deadly on many of our favourite species. The speed of the retrieve should be dictated by the relative mood of the fish you are chasing. There is something about a lure wiggling its way through the holding ground of a fish that will generate a lot of bites. Critical to the success of this retrieve is understanding where fish are holding and then finding the best way to slow-roll a lure through the vicinity. This requires that the correct jighead weight be applied and then the lure be cast to a location where it can best be returned through the area holding fish. At times this may mean the lure is retrieved near to the surface or in mid-water. Deeper presentations and at times vertical retrieves are required to target deeply holding fish. Slow-rolled curl tail plastics in impoundments are a great way to target deep bass and golden perch.
At any stage you are using a curl tail plastic, try to best imitate resident bait supplies with a lure that is of similar size and colour and then use your imagination to develop a retrieve that most mimics the behaviour of would-be food items.
Summary
Curl tail plastics are definitely one of the most versatile lures we have at our disposal when it comes to targeting fish in the salt or fresh. These lures can be used to imitate most of the favoured bait of our popular sport fish. Today there are a huge variety of curl tail lures on the market: this means regardless of the fish you choose to target, you are likely to be able to find a curl tail that will fool them.
Nigel Webster is Northern Field editor of Sport Fishing and Field editor for Freshwater Fishing magazines. Based at Noosa he fishes the entire east coast in fresh and salt water – offshore – bream – barra – trout.
