Hybrid soft plastics

[SpoonMinnow]

I have many molds I've used for many years, but you can only catch so many fish before boredom sets in. Instead, I found a way to add some excitement to my lure making by joining the parts of two soft plastic lures to make a totally unique shape. 

Lure facts:  Fish don't have a clue what lures represent but are hypersensitive when comes to how lures move based on their shape. Lures are strike-triggers as well as being fish finders. We search areas far from where we cast our lure hoping to provoke a fish to hit. The spot the fish hit may lead to more strikes in the area and indicate a pattern. 

We chose lures for certain scenarios: shallow/deep water; surface/ bottom; weeds and pads; steady retrieve and trolling or slow retrieve with pauses; horizontal vs vertical lure movement; noisy flashy lures vs subtle and quiet. When it comes to soft plastics, I find them to be the most versatile and catch the most fish on average as well as fish small to large in size. I am addicted-to-the-strike and will cast anything that gets me more, I don't care what fish strikes. (note: targeting fish such as bass is a fallacy except when only larger lures are cast where, most times, will not cause panfish to react.)

When it comes to soft plastics, there are an unlimited number of shape/size/action combinations that make fish react. Lure shape doesn't have to resemble any prey animal though coincidences happen. Again, lures DO NOT FOOL fish into striking. Fish react to lures - NOT TO EAT THEM, but because fish are bullies that simply react to something that just entered their zone-of-sensitivity. When it comes to live bait, fish senses recognize the moving object as food whether minnow, worm or bug, but the result is the same - the strike. Do fish prefer live bait over lures? You'd have to ask the fish though I doubt you'd get an answer. In general, lure action is key to getting strikes and generally speaking,

Lures are unnatural moving shapes. To say otherwise is the imagination at work pretending fish identify a lure as this or that they bite to consume. Lure sales depend on it.

Lure shapes and action types have made companies bunches of money over many decades - especially soft plastics. I own enough hard and soft lures to last 5 lifetimes - most collecting dust in my basement. But a few years ago, I came up with a way to change plastic shapes in such a way as to get the most strikes on any day. Enter a candle flame and a blade to cut. Soft plastic baits in intrigue us making us wonder if a design could be the next best thing as the barbed hook. The imagination is key (or someone else's...) some days nothing excites/ other days - WELL I'll BE! In fact, here is a design that defies reason as to why it catches so many fish: cut the tail off a curl tail grub and work it. This is the first fish caught on a Mr Twister grub that lost its tail to a fish:

This super-simple shape caught over 15 more fish that day that included crappie, perch, sunfish, a few bass and a pickerel in shallow water. A light jig and slow, horizontal twitch & pause retrieve gave the shape a darting/dying action. After that, the sky was the only limit to capitalize on the design. Here are examples:

Recently I caught the 3.120 lb bass (digital scale) (rt. photo) on the shape in shallow water. It also contributed to large numbers of fish caught in the last month.

Other hybrid shapes: 

Wacky rig:

Edited May 22 by SpoonMinnow

[SpoonMinnow]

A few more hybrid plastics:

 

Texture can matter. The French Fry Worm segments were added to different tail and did well. Claw and fin tails have a unique up & down flutter when twitched slightly.

Remember the Uncle Josh pork Frog? I used it for years on my skirted bass jigs and decided to make them from plastic poured into plaster molds I made.

I found that if I rigged it on a 1/16 oz ball head/no skirt jig, I could catch everything - including the 2 3/4 lb bass.

 

Edited May 22 by SpoonMinnow