The number of soft plastic shapes is infinite!

[senkosam]

Last week I caught 120 fish in one day and my son and I caught 80 fish on different soft plastic shapes. Yesterday, on a different lake, I caught 60 fish on different soft plastics. The key was using light jigs 1/32 - 1/16 oz, depending on depth: the shallower the fish, the lighter the lure.

I tinker with soft plastics I own, cutting a part from one and melting it on to another using a candle flame. Other modification examples include:
shortening a lure by cutting off the front part and making a lure slimmer (i.e. cutting of the belly of a Sassy Shad)
I do categorize tail shapes: cone or carrot, spike, thin flat tail, pill shape, thin stick and tube tail skirt. Most times, only a few are not as guaranteed to work as the others; those in bold are sure fish catchers! Some lures don't need to be altered, though at times I will use parts of them to build other lures.

Why? It's fun finding new shapes fish slam!

Now, I'm not a believer in matching a lure to prey fish feed on, whether insect, worm, grub, fish or other animal. Fish also don't strike because of hunger or the need to eat a lure. Every lure ever made that catches fish consistently is because of its action, shape and size - in combination and how it is retrieved. Fish may need to become slowly irritated by watching a lure or might chase a steadily retrieved lure like a crankbait or in-line spinner. As for myself, I chose a slow-twitch & pause retrieve for soft plastics and surface lures.
Some shapes that do well:

[Gotfish?]

What are these shapes?

[senkosam]

What are these shapes?

Glad you asked.
Tapered stick added to a tube front:

Flat tail added to a Spring Grub body:

tube skirt added to grub body"

pill shape made by joining two tube bodies:

Mini Mo Magic flat tail grub from a mold:

(Note: small lures do catch big fish.)

Other than soft plastic, fur or feathers added to jigs has great action.
A marabou skirt on a micro-spin after it caught over 20 fish can still catch more.

[Gotfish?]

When I use a candle on soft plastic baits, I get a lot of soot on the baits. How do you avoid this?

I don't know that the fish care, it is more a matter of aesthetics.

[senkosam]

I'm also a big fan of aesthetics. If the plastic parts aren't joined just right, I do over.
I hold the end over the flame briefly until it starts to flame and then immediately blow it out, followed quickly by melting the end of the other part.
Join together. There should be no burned plastic if done fast.

[senkosam]

Micro spin with marabou skirt yellow perch:

Crappie Magnet double straight tail and Runcl swimbait on either side of the pill are two of the best action shapes!:

Also shown are two micro Mo Magic grubs (top left), a mini-stick, a marabou micro spin and on the right, a Runcl body/reversed on a 1/32 oz jig head
I've also added the Runcl tail (1" only) to a small grub body that drives fish nuts!

Infinite possibilies and fun when fish attack like no tomorrow.

(BTW SDfish.org has been one of my favorite forums due to design and member feedback.)

[senkosam]

Two body parts I forgot to mention:
French Fry (i.e.Zoom) - four flat textured sides

and
Ring Fry (Lake Fork) - round ribbed

Texured bodies + flat tail combos are some of the best for all species!

I have three sizes of a flat-tail grub labeled Mo Magic:

Flat tails can be added to any worm or grub body.
(A mini-mo magic grub (in shape collection photo) is one of my top lures for finicky fish.)

I add one to a segment of the French Fry stick and fish go berserk hitting it!

Many parts of different lures can be added to either Fry segments such as a claw:

con'd in reply

[senkosam]

French Fry and curl tail:

[senkosam]

Granted, small lures for the most fish; larger lures for fewer fish but bigger fish.
Also, crankbaits and spinnerbaits need a horizontal steady retrieve, whereas finesse lures use a pause & dart retrieve that irritates the crap out of fish making them strike

[Gotfish?]

What would be nice would be a good way to fish 2 baits side by side to see which one is really best. The donkey rig is used for flukes as is . Umbrella rigs also can do this. But these rigs are either bulky or not well suited for jigs.

Fishing with one bait for a while and then a different one is not a controlled comparison. You don't know if the difference is truly due to the bait or whether the bite turned on or off, moved to a better or worse area, the fisherman unconsciously changed retrieves, etcetera. Sure, if the difference is overwhelming, it might be conclusive.

[senkosam]

Catching fish on different lures while anchored in a spot is comparable. Catching fish on other waters using the same lures is proof enough. I have a list of must-take lures I can always count on regardless of the bite.
These are dependable lure shapes:
Cr. Magnet
fin tail grub
Fr Fry with mo m tail
jig trailer (frog)
joined bodies – bulb tail
Kut tail worms (G.Y.) for chatterbaits
Micro Crappie spinnerbaits and Beetle spin
Mo Magic small, grn prl med.- and for tails
Pill
ribbed 3.5" and 2.5" ribbed Dovesun
Runcl swimbaits and small grub with R tail
Runcl tail added to small grub body
Mann's Shadow
Spike tail – different sizes and shapes and fin
Sticks – mini

There are more, but these come to mind.

[senkosam]

When I use a candle on soft plastic baits, I get a lot of soot on the baits. How do you avoid this?

I don't know that the fish care, it is more a matter of aesthetics.

Once the parts are joined, which may contain a bit of soot at the seam or an uneven surface, I use a battery powered soldering iron to smooth and strengthen the joint all the way around. The parts stay together no matter how many fish caught.

Note: on all my soft plastic jigs, I attach a wire grabber that keeps lures up on the hook. It's easy to attach and well worth the effort!

[senkosam]

Great day catching fish on many different shapes in water 1-13'
The reason it did so well:
1. added the spike tail to a thick body
2. bright white made that tail flick more prominent

The homemade spinner and various tails got hit by sunfish, crappie and yellow perch

The thicker body and wider flat tail also stood out in the murky water.

64 fish on a bright sunny day using many different shapes. Can't get better than that!

Give you and idea how murky the water was after 2" fell yesterday:

[Gotfish?]

I have to say that I kind of like your goofy Frankenstein lures. They show what nonsense claims are that fish strike lures because they look like crayfish, minnows, shad, etcetera. Other than a few extreme cases (e.g. trout feeding during a hatch or ocean fish feeding on chummed anchovies), fish strike lures mainly by instinct. No one claims that a dog chases a ball because it looks like a rabbit or that a cat chases a shoestring because it looks like a mouse, so why do people say stupid stuff like a fish attacks a plastic worm because it looks like a minnow or craw? Anthropomorphism, I guess.

While you ascribe importance to lure design, I guess that you work the lures differently than most fishermen. I would guess slower, lighter weights, more twitches and more attention to what works. I bet you would out fish most people side by side using identical lures.

[senkosam]

While you ascribe importance to lure design, I guess that you work the lures differently than most fishermen. I would guess slower, lighter weights, more twitches and more attention to what works. I bet you would out fish most people side by side using identical lures.

We are on the same page (except for the goofy adjective )

I've been saying it for years: many lures are meant to be worked, whereas other lures can be trolled or retrieved at a steady speed. When things get slow, as in very cold or very warm water/murky water, finesse is key, and no better demonstrated than the subtlety of a lure's action and the imparted retrieve that brings it out. Examples:
A Senko's success is due to its slow fall and subtle body/tips wobble all the way to the bottom.
A skirted bass jig and trailer's subtle motion is its trailer flapping on the bottom, along with the pulsating skirt. (BTW, I skirted jig & trailer can be retrieved like a spinnerbait when action is imparted.)
A Rapala worked on the surface with slight twitches replicates a dying minnow action - something fish relate to when it comes to the surface ripples caused by the stop + go repetition of slight dives/surfacing and dead stops.
A short-arm spinnerbait's action is very different from that of a long-arm. The blade is usually a small Colorado and meant to revolve on the drop, near or on bottom. The skirt and maybe a trailer, do the rest.

When I work finesse action lures, I cause the tails to quiver. Some lures have that quiver built in and work with a steady retrieve (i.e., Runcl Swimbait). Others must be worked with rod tip twitches + pauses - just like the Rapala. I recently noticed the side-by-side quiver of the small tails of a Crappie Magnet grub. No doubt that's why it's a sure thing lure for all fish species when twitched.

When it comes to soft plastics, body-to-tail proportionality is important and definitive. Different proportions = different profiles and actions. Some combinations work/ others are ignored. Hybrid experiments (Frankensteining if you will, of body parts) prove some combinations work and must be added to the list of sure-thing lures.
This hand-poured grub design (not a hybrid) has caught fish from 4" to 4 lbs. This and three others like it were caught yesterday - some in open water/some near shore/ some near weed patches:

Fish senses betray them. The more vulnerable a lure (or prey), the more a fish practices being a lethal bully. It has to, to survive. It doesn't always attack for consumption's sake, but must because that is what nature intended. Death & dying are a big part of a wild animal's world - hopefully not the latter .