July 11, 2012
By Ned Kehde
To the dismay of several dozen Midwest finesse anglers, Z-Man Fishing Products recently announced the death of the 3 1/2-inch Rain MinnowZ.
Even though finesse anglers, such as Bob Gum of Kansas City, caught untold numbers of largemouth bass by employing the Rain MinnowZ on a 1/32-ounce and 1/16-ounce Gopher Mushroom Head Jig, including some lunkers that weighed eight pounds, we didn't buy enough of them to merit Z-Man to manufacture them. Therefore, they have stopped making them.
There are, however, two substitutes that finesse anglers can employ.
One is the new Hula StickZ that has a half to three-quarters of an inch trimmed off its head. For more information about and a photograph of the Hula StickZ, please see this blog: http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/07/10/finesse-news-networks-gear-guide-hula-stickz/
The other is the seven-inch Finesse WormZ, which is actually a little more than six inches long. Anglers can merely lop off three inches from the head of this worm and affix it to jig. We use the head portion as a Rain MinnowZ substitute, and the tail section becomes a short finesse worm.
To the human eye, these substitutes don't exhibit the same slim and subtle quivering action that the Rain MinnowZ exhibited, but both allure the dickens out of largemouth and smallmouth bass.
