Tip #35 Rubba-Dub-Dub Next Time Try A Grub

Sometimes fishing challenges presented by those dogdays of summer can turn up some surprises worth passing on.

Over the years I have accumulated a significant number of curly tail grubs in various sizes and colors. The larger sizes were intended for halibut and rockfish while my tiny grubs looked like a great wintertime icefishing lure for trout and landlocked salmon. And as often as I tied on one of these small leadhead jigs and worked it below the ice, it never paid off. So they take up space in my tackle box waiting for a vacation trip to the Lower 48 where I know crappie and bluegill will be delighted to nail them.

A friend and I recently put the rubber duck in a local lake which is stocked with rainbow trout and landlocked coho salmon. We were really hoping for a glassy calm day so we could do some dry fly fishing but the lake was too choppy for that. With that option not available we turned to our spin gear and the vast assortment of small spinners to to drag behind the raft. But inspite of knowing there were literally tens of thousands of catchable fish in this lake, the spinners were getting very little action.

Searching through the tackle box, we decided to try 1/16 oz. and 1/8 oz. leadhead curly tails since the tail provided some enticing action which might work as a trolled lure. Within minutes I realized I was finally getting my money's worth from those little grubs. As we cruised around the lake we would hit "hot spots" with schools of trout where both rods would dip at the same time.

We fished for four hours - until midnight - and lost count of the number of rainbows we landed and released - some up to eighteen inches.

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