Z Man plastic lures

My question is there a lot of cost savings? Figuring while wacky worming may go thru 8 or so bags a trip that’s 64 worms or cutting wacky’s in half for Ned rigs they go fast as well. Thinking the Z Mans a bag of TRD’s they went a long time. Not a bleeding heart but I lose so many Wacky worming and the fish have to eat them up at some point. The O ring trick works but noticed the catch rate went down and they still rip in half. Just thinking 4-5 bags to fish with or drag 3 pounds of wacky worms with. Any body use Z man to tell me.

Oh man, this is a thread I’m looking forward to.

My first (and only) Z-man bait was the original green pumpkin TRD when I first learned to fish a Ned rig. I have caught so many large/smallmouth on that dumb little worm on both rivers and lakes that I won’t go on the water without it any conditions/any season.

It is no exaggeration to say I’ve caught 30 or more fish on a single TRD, and it is absolutely true that the more they wear out the better they get. I cry when I finally lose or have to otherwise retire one. They become like pets.

Over time, I started buying more Z-man stuff, including their new-ish micro finesse line, and some of their bigger baits. You really have to learn how to rig them, and find the right style of keeper to hold them (or even a dab of super glue, but I’ve never needed it) but once they are on, they are on.

They now have a drop-in replacement for almost all styles of plastics (with some notable exceptions) and this season, I went a little crazy and converted virtually all of my plastics to Z-Man, from the teeniest bugs to creature baits to worms and swim baits.

I haven’t had a chance to use most of them but I’ve been breaking them out slowly as the fishing changes. I caught at least 60-70 crappie/gills over the past few weeks on a single LarvaZ rigged on a 1/32oz z-man ned jig.

There are two key things to know:

1. You can not get them near any other type of plastic. They will start to melt in globs when exposed to the chemicals in other plastics.

2. This is actually a good thing; they are non-toxic and contain none of the PVCs or other harsh chemicals that (almost) all other plastic lures are made of, and they are technically biodegradable (though it will take quite awhile.)

I’ll shut up now but let’s just say I’m a big fan and looking forward to trying out the long list of Z-Man plastics I bought for the season.

p.s. here is a good article re: biodegradable plastics and there is another recent I article I can’t seem to track down that explains exactly how much toxic plastic we are all leaving in the lakes, and its effect on all the critters.

Are Biodegradable Lures The Future Of Fishing?

Neither Z-Man (nor Berkeley Gulp, another option) are quite there yet but I hope this style of plastic takes off. If they can maintain even 50% of their current longevity but biodegrade at a rapid rate once out in the wild, I can't see why any thinking man would not choose that option.

p.s. that said I still carry a pouch of Senko, just in case

Thanks Broeker Just what I’m looking for. Thinking about slowly switching over to all the Z man. Not sure if they have a good wacky worm some seem to like them or hate them on reviews. Do remember getting a lot on the TRD Ned worm should have given them another shot just didn’t know how to properly store them and to keep them cool. It would be great to bring just a hand full of baits with instead of the kitchen sink space is limited in my boat. On average if you can catch say 30 fish on one bait and only 2-3 on say a Yum dinger cut in half I would call that a big savings. Great post thanks you!

Yeah they last. Almost too good. If you have a hook or ned rig with a hook keeper plan on using scissors to get the plastic off if you want to switch colors. That plastic drives me nuts.

64 worms in a trip/day?! I use senkos quite a bit and I probably don’t use that many in an entire summer.

I have no experience with ZMan stick worms but their neds last a long time.

My trick with normal wacky worm rigs is a using 5/16″ heat shrink tubing instead of the o-rings. Don’t need to shrink it. Just rig the hook through the middle and the worm lasts a very long time.

How do you go through 8 bags a trip ? 3 of us fishing don’t do that in 5 trips, something is wrong with that. I don’t even use o rings half the time.
But as for z man plastics I like them on Ned rigs and to throw them Texas rigged. Not so much wacky rigged.

As for keeping them cool they sit in my boat cubby in a Rubbermaid tub the entire year. Never had one melt. Keep them out of direct sunlight. I have over 100 packs in my boat 24 7

Bearcat89 wrote:

As for keeping them cool they sit in my boat cubby in a Rubbermaid tub the entire year. Never had one melt. Keep them out of direct sunlight. I have over 100 packs in my boat 24 7

This only applies if you are keeping them in the same container as other plastics. Let em get as hot as you want, doesn’t matter. but keep them in the same container as other plastics and one of them will be a puddle. Some kind of chemical reaction with traditional plastics.

Jake wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
As for keeping them cool they sit in my boat cubby in a Rubbermaid tub the entire year. Never had one melt. Keep them out of direct sunlight. I have over 100 packs in my boat 24 7

This only applies if you are keeping them in the same container as other plastics. Let em get as hot as you want, doesn’t matter. but keep them in the same container as other plastics and one of them will be a puddle. Some kind of chemical reaction with traditional plastics.

I did not know that. I guess all plastics stay in the original package but I put them in a big Rubbermaid tub with about 50 to 60 packs in each tub. I always carry 2 tubs

There has to be one right. I’m not a real big fan of the Zman plastics. I really wanted to be. I’ve tried them several times over the years and just don’t seem to get bit as much on them. They are Crazy durable though. If your going to use o rings on them. Don’t put the orings on in advance and don’t leave them on when you are done. The oring will eat into the bait and will almost end up cutting them in half. . Then again I don’t see a reason to use a oring with one of them. It is easy to go through a lot of normal plastics in a day. Some brands of baits you are lucky to catch more than a fish or two per bait. I had one of my best bass # days last Monday evening. In 3 hours or so of fishing my buddy and I caught probably over 150 bass. All on wacky rigged stickworms. I can tell you the O-ring really cuts down on baits used. I was using a o-ring on my setup and my buddy was not. He probably went thru 4X more baits than I did. I do think I made it thru the outing using less than 1 bag of stickworms.

Jake wrote:

Let em get as hot as you want, doesn’t matter.

I’ve had an entire bag of zman elaztech melt into one big gooey mess when they got too warm. I would highly advise to keep them in the original bag, away from other plastics, and not in the direct sunlight. Don’t leave them in a hot car for hours on end either, whether or not they are in the sun. That’s how mine melted.

As far as durability, they are the best. But they are also buoyant, which is not what I always want.

I have been using the double o ring trick when wacky rigging where I cross them and put the hook under where they cross. Has helped catch more fish and improve durability.

8 bags is a lot to go through, even in one season. I go through maybe 2 all season. If you are going through that many in one outing, you are doing something wrong.

8 bags is a lot to go through, even in one season. I go through maybe 2 all season. If you are going through that many in one outing, you are doing something wrong.
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Something very wrong.

Best Turds on the market. Gorilla Glue Super Glue Gel is your friend. Glue them to the jighead. Lasts all season without drying, not cheap though.

Have some just have not had a good bite on them in years, think they are a bit too bouyant, maybe don’t swim in the water as naturally, regular plastics will hit the bottom then slowly fall to a flat position, think that might be a good trigger for LMBs.

tim hurley wrote:

Have some just have not had a good bite on them in years, think they are a bit too bouyant, maybe don’t swim in the water as naturally, regular plastics will hit the bottom then slowly fall to a flat position, think that might be a good trigger for LMBs.

I honestly think most plastics work just fine if you know how to fish them.

That said, I have reliably caught more fish on a z-man TRD than any other plastic combined (including 5″ senkos or anything else.) I have caught giant Brown trout in Montana, Rock bass in WI, Rainbow trout in northern MN, Brookies in Colorado, millions of Smallies on the St. Croix, Pike in Ely, as many LMB as I can handle, large crappies, and even one accidental muskie all on a green pumpkin TRD. (I’ve never caught a walleye on a TRD, but I’ve never really tried.)

I’m just sayin’ — it looks like the stupidest worm ever but I will fish it anywhere anytime (never tried it through the ice but I bet it would work.)

This weekend, I was on a metro lake that shall-not-be-named.

The water clarity and emergent weed growth around the sailboat buoys provided an extremely rare opportunity where I could kayak directly over each individual buoy, and see the hard rock/sand bottom and the concrete blocks or tires below each boat (each surrounded by healthy, new green milfoil.)

I’m not exaggerating when I say there was a single 17-20″ bass sitting directly under almost every single one of those buoys, usually within inches of the rope or the concrete block. Often, the bass in charge had a smaller group of soldiers patrolling the area.

They were completely undisturbed by my presence, so I could back up a few feet, count to 30, and drop a green pumpkin directly in front of their faces.

I could then sit and watch as they left their post to investigate; it was 80 degrees and high sun so they were not active. They would stare at that dumb little worm, sometimes for as long as 15 seconds. Then I’d give it a little pop or wiggle, and 9 times out of ten, the second it started to move away I had an 18″ bass on my line.

It was honestly one of the cooler fishing experiences of my life, sort of like an in-person version of the underwater Youtubes everybody is putting out these days.

I’m not saying other lures/presentations would not have worked, but I saw with my own eyes how the TRD worked and how irresistible it proved.

mahtofire14 wrote:

If you have a hook or ned rig with a hook keeper plan on using scissors to get the plastic off if you want to switch colors.

Pro tip: If you only use green pumpkin, you don’t need to ever change colors, and it can save a lot of money and thinking time.

p.s. to add some value to my joke I’ll also say I don’t find that to be true at all; I primarily use the og ned heads from Gopher Tackle with the old-school keepers, and then the z-man micro finesse jigs with the wire-style keep and in both cases have no problem removing my worms. In almost all cases, I end up bending out the hook long before my worm is ready to die so I frequently pop them on to new rigs. Eventually, I reverse them, giving them another new lease on life.

Actually, I take that back. I forgot about Curly, which is the name I gave to the LarvaZ pictured below after catching almost every single crappie and other panfish I caught this spring. (I even caught an accidental, out-of-season 19″ lmb on him, and a small but healthy Northern. I didn’t keep count, but I bet it was over 100 fish all told.)

Due to some combination of physics and plastic science, it seems to be permanently attached to this 1/32 oz (formerly chartreuse) jig head. The jig head itself has become detached from the hook shank, and is somehow permanently embedded into the head of the bug.

The only reason I’m not still fishing curly is that the the eyelet is so dented I can no longer get a piece of 6 lb flouro through it so he has been retired and I now keep him as a pet.

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WOW!

The TRD is an effective ultra finesse presentation but if you are fishing in thicker weeds, it gets hung up a lot. Its a better open water presentation that lacks thick weed growth. And the jig heads with the flimsy metal weedless wire is useless.

They make a larger version of the TRD and also a Giant TRD. I switch to the larger one around June and it tends to produce a little bigger fish than the standard smaller one. I have never tried the giant version.

Here is a question for you Zman users. How do you get a Nail weight inserted into the end of one of those Baits. And if you get the nail weight in, how do you keep it there. I tried everything I could to get a nail weight into one last weekend. When I did get it in, it came out on the 1st cast.

fishthumper wrote:

Here is a question for you Zman users. How do you get a Nail weight inserted into the end of one of those Baits. And if you get the nail weight in, how do you keep it there. I tried everything I could to get a nail weight into one last weekend. When I did get it in, it came out on the 1st cast.

Lol that elaztech is really tough stuff. I’ve tried that too, and didn’t work very well. I just use a weighted wacky jig instead, or texas rig them now if I’m not using them on a mushroom head jig.

fishthumper wrote:

Here is a question for you Zman users. How do you get a Nail weight inserted into the end of one of those Baits. And if you get the nail weight in, how do you keep it there. I tried everything I could to get a nail weight into one last weekend. When I did get it in, it came out on the 1st cast.

Old cut off Ned head with hook keeper works great

Aside from the durability of the Zman stuff, isn’t a big factor in their effectiveness due to them being buoyant? Specific to ned rig I think that’s the primary factor in why they work so well, the tail end floats off the bottom. So trying to weight them seems to defeat they key component in their effectiveness.

blank wrote:

isn’t a big factor in their effectiveness due to them being buoyant?

Yes, that is in fact true. Their elaztech products are buoyant. You bring up a good point and attempting to reverse that is kind of ironic lol

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>blank wrote:</div>
isn’t a big factor in their effectiveness due to them being buoyant?

Yes, that is in fact true. Their elaztech products are buoyant. You bring up a good point and attempting to reverse that is kind of ironic lol

Not really when your trying to run it as a neko, it works perfect.

blank wrote:

Aside from the durability of the Zman stuff, isn’t a big factor in their effectiveness due to them being buoyant? Specific to ned rig I think that’s the primary factor in why they work so well, the tail end floats off the bottom. So trying to weight them seems to defeat they key component in their effectiveness.

When Neko rig fishing I need the weight to fish it in deeper water. Just try and fish a Zman bait weightless in 16-20 Ft of water and see how long it takes to fall into the fish zone. I have a lot of patience but not that Much. I like the idea of the none weighted end being buoyant and up off the bottom but I’d like to still weight the other end.

It looks like Zman does have a neko weight. Looks like a shroom head jig without a line tie and hook.

blank wrote:

It looks like Zman does have a neko weight. Looks like a shroom head jig without a line tie and hook.

Ned head but no hook or line eye. I just use my old worn out Ned’s

broeker wrote:

Pro tip: If you only use green pumpkin, you don’t need to ever change colors, and it can save a lot of money and thinking time.

If you’re not using coppertreuse you’re missing out.

I’m a black with red flake, otherwise, green pumpkin, then green watermelon or what ever the red flake green ones are

I used the coppertreuse this weekend your not kidding hammered them. My wife tried a Neko could not get the nail in lit it with a cigarette lighter for 5 seconds worked perfect. Only bought a few packs to try the medium Turd worm with the tentacles on top was good even in shallow fishing a very light jig head.