Z-Man Fishing Products' Four-inch Finesse WormZ

Since Jan. 23, 2012, we have published more than 4,000 words about the manifold virtues of Z-Man Fishing Products' four-inch Finesse WormZ.  And it is time to publish a few more words about it that includes Internet links to those previous words.

The impetus for publishing these additional words arose when several newcomers to Midwest finesse fishing told us that they used only Z-Man's Finesse T.R.D., declaring that this Senko-style bait was the only soft-plastic bait that they needed to affix to their mushroom-style jigs.

We heard this on June 2 about three hours after Dave Petro of Lecompton, Kansas, and I caught 57 largemouth bass in three hours and five minutes, and 48 of them were caught on a slightly shortened Z-Man's Finesse WormZ affixed to a 1/16-ounce Gopher Tackle's Gopher jig for three hours and five minutes. What's more, Rick Allen of Dallas, Texas, and I used  a slightly shortened Z-Man's Finesse WormZ affixed onto a 1/16-ounce Gopher jig to catch a goodly number of the 38 largemouth bass and 29 smallmouth bass that we caught in three hours and 21 minutes on June 1. (The Finesse WormZ is 4 3/4 inches long, and we trim about three-quarters of an inch off of its head before we affix it to the jig.)

We do not assert that the Finesse WormZ should be the primary Midwest finesse bait.   During many of our outings, we will have five or six spinning rods that sport different soft-plastic baits affixed to a small mushroom-style jig at the ready, and we experiment with  an array of different soft-plastic baits, such as a Z-Man's Finesse ShadZ, Z-Man's Hula StickZ, Z-Man's 2 1/2-inch ZinkerZ, Z-Man's 2 1/2-inch FattyZ, Z-Man's BatwingZ, Z-Man's T.R.D. TubeZ, an Z-Man's Finesse T.R.D., Z-Man 3.5-inch GrubZ, Z-Man's Slim SwimZ, Z-Man's Scented Leech, and Z-Man's Finesse WormZ. But often there will be only one of them (or perhaps two) that is the most effective.  There are times when one of them will be our dominant bait for several days in a row and even several weeks in a row.

And throughout a calendar year, we have discovered that there will be spells when the Finesse WormZ will be the dominate soft-plastic bait, out producing our other options by a wide margin.

For instance, a slightly shortened Z-Man's Fishing Products' Junebug Finesse WormZ affixed to a blue 1/16-ounce Gopher Tackle's Mushroom Head jig caught 102 largemouth bass, seven crappie, and one bluegill. This occurred on Mar. 26 and 27, 2012, and it took five hours to accomplish that deed. This Finesse WormZ rig also tangled with about two dozen bass that did not make it into the boat. Besides exhibiting the alluring nature of the Finesse WormZ to these largemouth bass, this feat also exhibited its incredible durability -- it was accomplished with the same worm, and the more tattered and torn it became, the more alluring it became to the largemouth bass.

Then across five outings on April 26, 28, 29, 30, and May 1, 2012, and 14 hours and 10 minutes of fishing, I used the same four-inch Z-Man's Junebug Finesse WormZ affixed to a blue 1/16-ounce Gopher jig to tangle with 179 largemouth bass and a sundry of other species.

On Oct. 9, 2015, Rick Hebenstreit of Shawnee, Kansas, and I caught 121 largemouth bass in four hours. The majority of them were caught on a slightly shortened four-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse WormZ that was affixed to a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Gopher jig.

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After that Oct. 9 outing, I began an extended test of the durability and  bass-catching virtues of a slightly shortened four-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse WormZ that was affixed to a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Gopher jig. These tests were conducted at three flatland reservoirs in northeastern Kansas, and all three of these small reservoirs are afflicted with heavy predation from anglers.

When the test ended, our fish counter indicated that this Finesse WormZ and Gopher jig had caught 238 largemouth bass, six crappie, one bluegill, and one warmouth. This feat was accomplished in 14 1/2 hours of fishing: four hours on Oct. 21, 3 1/2 hours on Oct. 23, three hours on Nov. 4, and four hours on Nov. 5. It caught an average of 16.4 largemouth bass an hour.

In short, our results with the four-inch Finesse WormZ have been an unqualified success, which is why it has been an essential tool in our Midwest finesse repertoire for years on end.

Endnotes

Here are the links to other Midwest finesse columns about the Finesse WormZ:

(1) http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/04/04/the-super-finesse-worm/.

(2) http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/the-super-finesse-worm-another-update.

(3) http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/z-man-fishing-products-two-new-finesse-wormz-colors.

(4) Anglers can read about how and where we employed the slightly shortened four-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse WormZ that was affixed to a 1/16-ounce Gopher jig by reading the logs for Oct. 9, 21, and 23, 2015, in our column entitled "Midwest Finesse Fishing: October 2015." Here is the link to that column: http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/midwest-finesse-fishing-october-2015/. Anglers can read about our Nov. 4 and 5 outings with a  slightly shortened four-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse WormZ that was affixed to a 1/16-ounce Gopher jig in our column entitled "Midwest Finesse Fishing: November 2015." Here is the link to that column: http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/midwest-finesse-fishing-november-2015/.

(5) Here is a link to a column that features the Finesse WormZ and some of the other soft-plastic baits that we used in 2011: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/midwest-finesse-lures.  Our repoertoire, however,  has changed slightly since then, but the Finesse WormZ is still one our most potent tools.

(6) The four-inch Finesse WormZ is available in the following colors: Black Blue Flake, Coppertreuse, EZ Money, Green Pumpkin Junebug, PB&J, Pumpkin, Watermelon, and Watermelon Red. Anglers can purchase a package of  10 for $3.89, and a package of  possesses the wherewithal to tangle with about 2,000 black bass.