Z-Man Fishing Products' Slim SwimZ

Z-Man Fishing Products' Slim SwimZ has caught the eyes of a number of Midwest finesse anglers in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma who like to chase temperate bass on wind-blown points and shorelines in the fall or in current eddies in rivers and streams during the spring's spawning runs.

Across the years, there have been numerous outings when two or three of these anglers have shared a boat together and tangled with more than 200 white bass in five to six hours of fishing, and those feisty fish have ripped asunder countless conventional soft-plastic baits that are manufactured out of a plastisol resin. Therefore, these anglers are incessantly searching for a small soft-plastic bait that can withstand the pummeling that unending numbers of white bass and wipers can render. Of course, they want that bait to be as alluring to the temperate bass as the conventional soft-plastic baits are. And to these anglers delight, Z-Man's Slim SwimZ seems to fit that need.

It is 2 1/2-inches long.  Its torso is shaped like a small baitfish, such as a common shiner or a brook silverside. The tip of its tail is endowed with a paddle, which causes the rest of its ElaZtech tail and the portion of its body that is not impaled with the shank of the hook to undulate alluringly. Besides being  exceptionally durable, ElaZtech bodies are extremely soft and flexible, which seems to allow them to quiver and move more than the bodies of baits that are made of plastisol or other soft plastics. It is also extremely buoyant, which allows its tail to rise at a nearly 90-degree angle when an angler employs a deadstick presentation with a Slim SwimZ rigged on a mushroom-style jig. The buoyancy factor also allows a Slim SwimZ rigged on a mushroom-style jig to glide extremely slowly when an angler utilizes a swim-glide-and-shale retrieve. (For more information about Midwest finesse retrieves, such as the swim-glide-and-shake presentation, please read the article at this link: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/six-midwest-finesse-retrieves/.)

Because it is extremely buoyant, Drew Reeves of Rantoul, Kansas, who has used it at waterways in northeastern Kansas and southwestern Ontario, Canada, prefers to wield it on a 1/10-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig rather than the 1/15-ounce Finesse ShroomZ. He says Z-Man's 1/10-ounce jig allows the Slim SwimZ to be fished slowly in shallow water if the angler keeps his rod near the one o'clock position during the retrieve. At the same, the 1/10-ounce jig is heavy enough that it will let the Slim SwimZ drop into 12 to 20 feet of water at a quick pace. Reese has also observed that a 1/10-ounce, and even the 1/6-ounce Finesse ShroomZ jig, causes the tail work better than the 1/15-ounce Finesse  ShroomZ does.

It is available in 12 colors: Bad Mood, Blood Worm, Blue Steel, Gold Flake, Greasy Pearl, Pearl, Motor Oil, Pearl Blue Glimmer, Pink Glow, Smoke Hologram, Suicidal Rooster, and Watermelon Red.

A package of eight can be purchased from Z-Man's online store for $5.49. (https://zmanfishing.com/store/categories/elaztech/slim_swimz) and $3.89 at one online retailer.

Endnotes:

(1) Across the past five years, Midwest finesse anglers have gradually discovered that largemouth bass and smallmouth bass are more attracted to soft-plastic baits that are made out of ElaZtech than they are attracted to soft-plastic baits that are made out of plastisol or other soft-plastic materials. Likewise, a few of the temperate bass anglers who have customized some of Z-Man's ElaZtech baits say that those baits seem to allure more white bass than the conventional and traditional soft-plastic baits that they have used for years on end. Even when these anglers employ all of the best Socratic and scientific thought that they can muster, they are unable to determine why black bass and temperate bass find ElaZtech lures more alluring than conventional plastic ones. Therefore, a few of these Midwest finesse  anglers are on the verge of concluding that some of  their ElaZtech's baits are almost magic baits.

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(2) Here is a link to a YouTube video that Donald Baldridge, who is a Finesse News Network contributor from Springfield, Missouri, made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39lcKhKwjqM.

(3) In essence, the Slim SwimZ is a panfish lure, and the black-bass and temperate-bass anglers, who have discovered the alluring qualities of other ElaZtech baits, are eager to see if panfish, such as crappie, find the ElaZtech Slim SwimZ more alluring than similar style baits that are made with plastisol or other soft-plastic substances. Please post your observations and insights about this phenomenon in the comment section below.