Anyone ever use these soft plastics?

A friend sent me an old article from FL Sportsman about a guy that blind casts for bones and permit in waist deep water. He had a interesting method for retrieving...see the below captioned quote:

"Most times, though, he is bumping his Chubby Grub along the bottom, albeit in a way rarely seen among most veteran jiggers. Harrington imparts all of the action to his jig with his reel, not the rod. He does that by cranking rapidly for two revolutions of the handle, and then stopping the reel dead. The rod never moves from a position parallel to the water.

The advantage to that technique is that Harrington never gets a bite with his rodtip held high. Up there it’s impossible to strike a fish without first lowering the rod, and likely without cranking a bit of slack out of the line as well. The disadvantage to Harrington’s technique, as far as I could tell, was none. Bonefish bit the heck out of his jigs, which he attaches to 20-pound fluorocarbon leader.

If he feels a bite during the significant pause between spurts of reeling, he can instantly strike with the rod against a tight line. If he feels the bite while he’s reeling, he strikes on an even tighter line. That would be what most of us would call a win/win deal (unless you’re a bonefish)."

Yes, and a nice little item they are. At one time fishing Mosquito Lagoon my main lure was a rootbeer Cotee grub on one of their jig heads. Always bought them at Wal-Mart. As with most lures just drifted on to others over the years.

good grub(s)

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malibu mini-x
jackson coosa

I remember using these...used to be some of the only soft plastic grub bodies out there. Between Cotee, trout touts & a few people making off brand stuff - that was it. I remember being told "you won't catch anything if your not fishing white with a pink tail" ! We've clearly come a long way since then.

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"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
-- Thomas Jefferson

Vinny....you said an old article, and sadly many of those older plastics have "lost favor" with all the newer one and synthetics and "natural baits" (Gulp!! and FishBites and Slurp..or whatever it is named now??).....just like Jeffrey said above here!!

Just reached into a drawer and pulled out some of the "oldies but goldies" that still would produce if people use them: "Old BaySide" plastic tails, Rip Tide plastics, and one of theVERY BEST ever..."H&H Coastal Tackle Cocahoe Minnows".....

I never liked the Cotee Jigheads because the hooks "seemed" to be lower quality than the 100+ that I have gotten free from friends like Bucky or the Circle Hook Jigheads from FlounderPounder.....NOT to mention TBS and Slayer and other great brands!!

Hey....if you have some....cast them into the water and see what bites!!!
JohnYaksJax

I don't think it's that old...2002 maybe? How many is that in fish years?

What I found even more interesting was the bit about the retrieve.

He does that by cranking rapidly for two revolutions of the handle, and then stopping the reel dead. The rod never moves from a position parallel to the water.

When using an unweighted Fluke in glass-calm skinny water, I love the action that a small rod twitch can give it, but any keel-weighted hook or jig-head tends to kill said action. I've experimented with the reel-stop-reel method with keel-weighted weedless flukes and the action looks much better and more natural than a twitching jig retrieve. What I never thought about was how keeping my rod tip low the whole time and having such little slack line would lead to better hook sets.

At least it's one more method to add to my arsenal before I resort to the desperate, I'm getting skunked, so reel as fast as possible and shake the rod like a madman retrieve.