Twister Tail Grubs

[Swattie87]

I know there's fly imitations similar to these, but I'm talking literally about the soft plastic twister tail grubs, that you'd typically put on a jighead and fish with spin gear.

Does anyone ever put the smaller versions of these (say 3" or smaller) on a bare, unweighted hook, and fish it with a fly rod? They're deadly on spin gear in small to medium WW streams. Thinking of trying it.

The tail often rips or tears out of the fly style imitations prematurely, after just a couple short strikes from fish sometimes. You can get the soft plastic twister tail grubs in bulk much cheaper than buying or tying the fly version.

 

[Acristickid]

Fly fished with a weighted jig head with gulps for stripers in Ocean City. It worked well. White was the color.

 

[poopdeck]

I don't know about the 3" grubs but I got some grubs that are about 1" that would probably work great with a small fly fishing jig hook. Since I'm not a purist, I think I'll give it a go if the freaking water ever comes down.

 

[Dave_W]

Swattie87 wrote:
I know there's fly imitations similar to these, but I'm talking literally about the soft plastic twister tail grubs, that you'd typically put on a jighead and fish with spin gear.

Does anyone ever put the smaller versions of these (say 3" or smaller) on a bare, unweighted hook, and fish it with a fly rod?

I've never done this with a fly rod - I love my flies too much and regard them as superior to molded plastic - however such an effort would probably catch a lot of fish. There's a reason soft plastics are so popular with river spin fishermen, especially tube jigs. Fishing a small Mister Twister unweighted on a fly rod should work very well, especially up and across.

If you give it a try, spend some time with a similar fly and see if the plastic really does out-fish similar flies. I'm willing to bet it doesn't.

 

[melvinp]

Never tried rubber grubs before but have done a some true nymphing using helgermites and yes they will out catch most tied flys.Its actually a very good way for a beginner to learn to nymph with out the getting bored because your not catching anything.

 

[RLeep2]

Many years ago, I took my bro-in-law with me on an overnight backpack trip in the ANF and, with some misgivings, I agreed that we would kill and fry up a skillet of brookies. Just one though..

He doesn't fly fish, so I had him bring his UL spin outfit and I gave him a handful of white 1/16 oz. twisters and told him to cast them up in the heads of the pools and bounce them back to him on the retrieve. Then, we parted and headed for different sections of the stream, agreeing to meet back at the campsite in 4-5 hours, combine our catches and we'd fire up the Coleman stove and fry em up.

I figured he might get 1 or 2 at most and the lion's share of the burden would fall on me. So, I fished hard on top and subsurface. I managed to get my five fish, all between 6.999 and 7.002 inches long, as well as another 30-40 or so dinks. I figured it wasn't going to be much of a brookie fry...

When I got back, he was grinning ear to ear and dumped 5 brook trout between 8 and 10" out of his creel onto the ground.

Those little twister grubs are murder if fished correctly and evidently, even if fish only halfway correctly by some one who pretty much had never fished for small stream wild trout.

I'd never underestimate them. I'm not even sure they should be legal...

 

[poopdeck]

Being equally enthused with a spinning outfit or a fly rod, I have no doubt that rubber will outfish flys. But like anything, somedays the flies will win out and sometime the rubber will win out. However I do believe over time rubber wins out hands down.

 

[jacob]

I managed to get my five fish, all between 6.999 and 7.002 inches long, as well as another 30-40 or so dinks.

I’m curious, at what thousandth of an inch does a brookie transcend dink status? :-D

 

[RLeep2]

>>I’m curious, at what thousandth of an inch does a brookie transcend dink status? >>

For purposes of the above anecdote, dink status is surpassed when the fish gets to 6.999" without having to physically stretch him to the point where his eye pops out.

Otherwise, the other 99.999% of the time I am brookie fishing, any fish over 6" is no longer a dink.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

RLeep2: That seems about right to me.

 

[sandfly]

have fished twisters on the fly rod since the 70's yes they work, 3" for stripers in Delaware to small 1" for trout

 

[JeffK]

I like smallie fishing with 3" to 4" Senkos in the summer and many of the small rivers I fish have trout as well. There are days when I can't keep the trout off the Senkos even though I am targeting smallies. Trout certainly respond to plastics. BTW, I used to fish Twister Tails and Fin-S shad more and they took trout as well, both stocked and wild.

I prefer surface action with a flyrod for smallies (Gurglers, pencil poppers, sliders, or deer hair bugs), but if conditions don't favor topwater action I don't mind going to plastics with a spinning or a fly outfit.

 

[krayfish2]

You'd want to make sure the hook has some type of keeper or you'll be flinging the guns off every couple of fish / casts. Without a doubt, they will kill it in WW. Some plastics are lighter than others. If you use a real light weight one, you can get the fish to smash it on top like a stick bait or a popper.

I've seen the synthetic grub tails that you add to the back of you streamer / popper when tying them.

 

[JasonC]

I have no experience using them with regards to fly fishing but have used them with spinning gear for both trout and bass. Recently stocked trout seem to respond pretty well to them. Bass love them, both surface and sub-surface. Bass fishing using grubs is where you'll have the most versatility with the lures.

 

[FarmerDave]

I am a fan of the small soft plastic auger tail jigs, but have only used them on ultralight for panfish.

Deadly

Sometimes they work better with the tail removed, sometimes not.

Have used them on a bare hook, but I also have (or at least had) some small floating jig heads. Floating is a relative term though. More like small neutrally buoyant (unweighted) jig head. I think my brother gave them to me.

Have never tried them on a fly rod, but I agree it would work. Might even work better than an ultralight. I just don't carry them when I fly fish.

Have used small spinners and Joe's flies on a fly rod. I sometimes carry a few when fishing stocked streams and those stupid rubber fish aren't cooperating.;-)

 

[bigspringdweller]

My dad and I used to fish Glendale lake with exactly what you are talking about back in the 80s. We used the "keeper' style hook with a spike on it and a 1-2in curly tail grub. A couple split shot if needed and you could catch anything that swam in that lake.