The curly tail grub is the workhorse soft plastic. The body is a solid, often ribbed cylinder of soft plastic, and the tail is a thin, flat ribbon that curls back on itself. When water moves past it - even at a crawl - that tail kicks and pulses, doing the action for you. Rig it on a lead jig head, match the hook size to the body, and you have a complete lure for a couple of dollars.
Sizes 2-4 cover most freshwater work. White is the everyday color for clear-to-stained water. Chartreuse is the high-visibility pick when the water is off-color and fish need to find it. Pumpkin reads as a crawfish or a natural baitfish, and pink draws reaction strikes and works well on stocked trout.
The retrieve is a slow jig. Cast across or up, let it sink, then lift-drop-lift along the bottom and work the seams, the slower edges where current meets slack water. The grub fishes best from 45-70F in low to normal flows and stained or off-color water, where its thumping tail does the finding.