We all are looking for that secret weapon, that $15 lure or that special sauce that will help us hook up with smallies as things cool down in the winter.

Sure jerkbaits work great a lot of the time but the bass seem to be either on them or completely off of them at any given time in many of our fisheries.

Tubes can work great in cool conditions but sometimes you want to change things up a bit and some of you aren’t patient enough to drag tubes all over the place.

Well there is a little friend that is dirt cheap to use and can be worked in numerous ways. Its called the curly tail grub! (of course, you know that already)

Here’s an example of what it can do in the fall (love those Kalin’s grubs):

Grub techniques

Now that you’ve seen the video, you can see that just swimming a grub can pick up some amazing bronzebacks.

In addition to swimming the grub, you can bounce it on the bottom or lift and retrieve, creating a Yo-Yo type of motion.

Experiment with the speed of the retrieve, depth and color. Sometimes a grub is all you need. Other soft plastics, especially swimbaits can kick ass but the cost of grubs are hard to beat. A regular ball head jig and a pack of grubs will cost you less than $3 and you’re good to go.

Want to learn more techniques, with some underwater video?
Watch Dave Mercer explain:

Don’t forget these simple but effective baits, you’ll have a blast!

Check out the selection of Kalin’s here: click

And some Rage Tail Grubs here: click