March 24, 2019
By Ned Kehde
A small spinner blade has played a role in the repertoire of Midwest finesse anglers since our founding father, the late Chuck Woods, created the Beetle Spin in the late 1950s.
And on March 7, 2013, at one of northeastern Kansas’ community reservoirs, Drew Reese of Rantoul, Kansas, who was one of Woods’ disciples back in the 1960s and early 1970s, introduced another spinner-blade tactic to our repertoire.
Rather than a jig spinner that Woods attached to the Beetle, which was the world’s first Senko- or stick-style bait, Reese attached a spinner to the tip of the posterior section of a slightly customized Z-Man’s Fishing Products’ Hula StickZ. And the anterior section of the Hula StickZ was affixed to a green-pumpkin 1/15-ounce mushroom-style jig. The Hula StickZ is a 3 3/4-inch stick-style bait, which has four short tentacles adorning the tip of its posterior section. It needs to be said that Reese is also the creator of the Hula StickZ.
On Jan. 24, 2014, after we had worked with several variations of Reese's spinner, we published a Midwest Finesse column entitled “The ZinkerZ spin and its precursors.” In this column, we included an abbreviated history of this spinner rig, and we also explained how Midwest finesse anglers affixed it to a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man’s ZinkerZ. We also noted that it took some doing to keep the spinner affixed to the ElaZtech torso of the ZinkerZ and Hula StickZ.
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Now Z-Man has created what they call the TRD SpinZ, which they began introducing to the angling world several weeks before the Bassmaster Classic at Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 15-17.
The TRD SpinZ is much easier to attach to a ZinkerZ and Hula StickZ than the spinners that we used to use. Since those Hula StickZ and ZinkerZ days, Z-Man has created the Finesse TRD, which works well with the TRD SpinZ, and it is likely that most Midwest finesse anglers will employ the TRD Spin with a Finesse TRD.
The TRD SpinZ features a stainless-steel centering pin or wire that is 1 1/8 inches long. It is adorned with two molded plastic prongs that are situated about a quarter of an inch from the pointed end of the pin or wire, and the element that contains these two prongs is five-sixteenths of an inch long. These prongs securely lock the pin inside the torso of a ZinkerZ, Hula StickZ, or Finesse TRD. As we noted in the fourth paragraph, securing the spinner to the torso of a ZinkerZ and a Hula StickZ used to be a difficult task, but the TRD SpinZ has solved that problem. The top of the pin or wire has an eye to which a small split ring is attached. The head or top of a ball-bearing swivel is attached to that split ring. Another split ring is attached to the bottom or tail of the ball-bearing swivel, and a spinner blade is attached to that split ring.
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There are four styles of TRD SpinZs. One is embellished with a silver number-two willow-leaf spinner blade. There is one that has a gold number-two willow-leaf spinner blade. Another one has a silver number-one Colorado spinner blade. And the fourth one has a gold number-one Colorado spinner blade.
A package of three TRD SpinZ costs S4.99.
One of Z-Man’s press releases about the TRD Spin notes that power anglers can affix it to a five-inch Texas-rigged ZinkerZ. It can also be easily affixed to the ventral portions of Z-Man’s ElaZtech swimbaits, and this rigging will create an underspin-style rig.
Endnotes
(1) Here is a link to Z-Man’s website: https://zmanfishing.com/cms/products/trd-spinz .
(2) Here is a link to a Midwest Finesse column about our old-fashioned TRD SpinZ, which we at times called the ZinkerZ spin: http://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/zinkerz-spin-precursors-3/153951 .
(3) Here is a link to our March 2013 monthly guide to Midwest finesse fishing that contains the March 7, 2013, log that features Drew Reese’s inaugural work with his precursor to the TRD SpinZ: http://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-march-2013-2/155449 . It is important to note that when Reese began working on his precursor to the TRD SpinZ, he wanted us to call it “a Hula StickZ concoction” or something of that sort in our monthly guides to Midwest finesse fishing.
(4) This photograph reveals the way Midwest finesse anglers in northeastern Kansas will rig the TRD SpinZ.
At the top is a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin ZinkerZ affixed to a red 1/15-0unce Z-Man’s Finesse ShroomZ jig and a silver number-one Colorado Z-Man’s TRD SpinZ. The second from the top is 2 1/2-inch Z-Man’s coppertreuse ZinkerZ affixed to a red 1/20-ounce Z-Man’s Finesse ShroomZ jig and a gold number-one Colorado Z-Man’s TRD SpinZ. The third one from the top is a Z-Man’s Junebug Finesse TRD affixed to a chartreuse 1/20-ounce Z-Man’s Finesse ShroomZ jig and a gold number-two willow-leaf Z-Man’s TRD SpinZ. The bottom rig is a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man’s pearl ZinkerZ affixed to a chartreuse 1/15-ounce Z-Man’s Finesse ShroomZ jig and a silver number-two willow-leaf Z-Man’s TRD SpinZ. (5) Midwest finesse anglers will primarily employ the a TRD SpinZ rig with either a swim-glide-and-shake presentation or a straight swimming presentation. Here is a link to a Midwest Finesse column that explains how we execute those retrieves: http://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/six-midwest-finesse-retrieves/153946 .
