Official Zoom Bait Company Site

Part 2 of our Q & A session with Mike to get inside tips on some of Zoom’s most effective products.

Photo by: Rob Russow, Bassmaster.com

Zoom:  You mentioned you love to throw the football head jig.  Talk about the Zoom trailers that you use or how you fish that bait this time of year.

Not to say that plastics have not played a dominant or major role in what a lot of guys have done earlier this year, but typically when you get into the post spawn period, this is where plastics really start jumping out.  There is going to be the opportunity to Carolina rig anything from Zoom Brush Hogs to the Centipede.  The array of baits that starts getting used this time of year just opens up.

That’s what is so awesome about being tied in with a company like Zoom.  You have anything and everything you could potentially need as far as plastics.  This time of the year when you get one of those days with slick blue bird conditions,  you can pick up a Finesse or a Shakey Head worm or possibly even a Magnum Finesse worm.  I look forward to this, not only because of Carolina rigging and Texas rigging, but football jig fishing is when those fish start feeding out.  They get more aggressive and you can really start bulking the bait up.  I like to take that 3/8 to 5/8 ounce football jig and beef it up either with a super speed craw, super chunk, or the full size super chunk. When it comes to really bulking that bait up, a Zoom Brush Hog is one of my favorite baits.

Zoom:  What are the colors you focus on?

For me, the colors depend a little bit on the region that we are fishing.  Typically this time of year, I like to stay in the natural realm.  Anything green, pumpkin, watermelon, but I like the different colors added.  Zoom has done a phenomenal job of making bait that looks so naturalistic now.

I am not one of these guys that is going to have 15 bags of green pumpkin Brush Hogs or Finesse worms in my boat.  I like all of the variations.  You have green pumpkin green and green pumpkin blue, etc. I like to mix and match those colors with my jig to whatever the predominant colored foliage is in the particular lake.  There are times, maybe more in the Southeast, where you get into the tan and clear water. That’s when I feel like the Zoom june bug, red bugs and the darker colored hues really come into favor.

Fishing lakes in the Midwest and the South, you just can’t go wrong with green pumpkin or a watermelon.  Use the variations of different colors.  The “magic” colors that Zoom came out with over the past couple of years have just been phenomenal with the added metal flaking in the blue.

Zoom:  Talk just a little bit more about how you fish the football jig for someone who is just learning that technique. Do you alternate that football jig with something else?  What else do you have tied on at that same time?

Yeah, this time of year when it comes to throwing Zoom plastics, there are several things I am going to be doing to utilize them.

I will be using a jewel football jig with a Zoom plastics with a lot of different variations or a Carolina rig.  To me, this is the time of year where you have to cover a lot of water in trying to establish a pattern. Once you establish a pattern, that’s when I start alternating between the two baits to try to figure out which one is going to be predominant throughout a day or possibly only a few hours.

There are a lot of situations where I pick up a football jig when fishing these offshore, main lake points, main lake channel ledges and things of that nature. This time of year whether it is a Carolina rig or a football jig with a Brush Hog, a Super Hog, or a variation of different plastics,  you want to keep that bait in contact with the bottom as much as you possibly can until you catch a fish or two and get a school of fish activated.

This is so exciting to me since typically you are not fishing for one fish here or there. These fish are coming out of the spawning areas. They are grouping back up and you are finding schools of bass that could be wolf packs of eight or ten fish or up to schools of maybe 50 to 100.

You can sit there and alternate between a Carolina rig and a jig giving those fish a different look and getting them fired up.  Once the school of fish gets fired up, I can start hopping the jig a lot more and get a lot more aggressive bites.   In the beginning when I am looking for fish, the Carolina jig presentation is more of a slow presentation keeping it in contact with the bottom. Once those fish are fired up, I start hopping or stroking that football jig with a bulky trailer like a Brush Hog or a Baby Brush Hog or possibly the Zoom Super Speed Craw.

I want something that creates a lot of commotion and a lot of action in the water. If I can’t get them to bite the jig hopping it, a lot of times I will throw the Carolina rig on a bigger jewel Carolina rig weight, which is called the Rock.  I may go from a half ounce up to a ¾ or a 1 ounce. Basically, I keep that Carolina rig moving all the time rather than throwing it out there, dragging it and stopping it.  Essentially, I will throw it  and just almost wind it like you were digging or dredging a crank bait on the bottom.  I am slowly rolling that Carolina rig by just keeping it coming through the rocks and the gravel. Once you get those schools of fish fired up, you can definitely put the hurt on them that way.

When it comes to the tougher days, then you have to employ the spinning tackle.  You pick up the Zoom Finesse worm or a Magnum Finesse worm and, either shaking it or, if the fish get out deeper than 14-18 feet of water,  you can employ a drop shot rig on them as well.  You have to utilize the day that you are given to employ whatever tactic it is to catch these fish in the post spawn period.  When you get those bright, slick, bluebird days without a breath of wind blowing and you are fishing clear water, you better get the spinning rod out and figure out a way to finesse the biting.

The boys from Stanley Jigs were right next door to us at the Big Rock East Dealer Show last weekend.  We took notice of their new frog hook they have on the market and it looks pretty sporty with a Zoom Horny Toad.

The Double Take hook comes in a 5/0 and 6/0 size hook.  In February, they will have a 4/0 hitting the market.  There are three versions, weightless, front weight and keel weight.   It features a wide gap hook for extra bite on those difficult hook ups and a spring lock on the front to keep it secure.  You can find out more information about this hook here.

Ever since Zoom introduced the Horny Toad – a soft-plastic weedless buzzing frog that tickles the water’s surface with its unique paddle feet – bass have not been able to resist it.

Reeling a Horny Toad across the surface produces a soft sputtering sound that raises the ire of even the most lackadaisical lunker. And the best part is this Toad ventures into vegetation much too dense for a buzzbait.

One of the first places pros employed the lure with great success was in the weedy waters of Lake Okeechobee. From there the Horny Toad’s popularity exploded as thousands of anglers began using the topwater buzzer on lakes and ponds across the country.

Anglers soon discovered the Horny Toad’s allure was not just limited to vegetation; it also caught bass around flooded timber, docks, seawalls, bare banks and even over open water.

But as more and more anglers began using the Horny Toad, a common situation came to light: The surface blow-ups on a Horny Toad were thrilling to watch, but actually hooking the fish was tough.

After all, the pure physics of a bass sucking in a fast-moving hunk of plastic off the surface stacks the odds against the angler. Add to that the challenge of driving a hook through the plastic and into the fish’s jaw.

In an effort to get an expert opinion on Horny Toad rigging, Zoom pro Chris Baumgardner was consulted for advice.

Baumgardner has won more tournament money on a Horny Toad than anyone else on the FLW Tour. No matter where the Tour takes him, Baumgardner always has a Toad rigged and ready to go.

After hundreds of hours of reeling a Toad across the waters of America in competition, Baumgardner has come up with what he feels is the best way to rig a Zoom Horny Toad for optimum hook up percentages.

“First of all, it’s important to understand that you’re not going to hook every fish that bites a Toad,” Baumgardner advised. “But at the same time the Toad is a one-of-a-kind lure – it gets bites that no other lure can get because of its unique action and noise. So it’s a trade off: you get bites that others don’t, but you’re not going to get all of them in the boat.”

The second thing Baumgardner makes clear is that the Horny Toad is a power technique. This is not a lure for a 6-foot medium action rod with 12-pound test line. You’ve got to have tackle that produces power.

For that reason, Baumgardner relies on a 7-1/2-foot heavy-action rod teamed with a 7.1:1 high-speed reel. His rod of choice is an American Rodsmiths Magnum Casting Rod and his reel is a Revo STX high-speed.

As for line, Baumgardner is not a big fan of braided line and instead opts for 17- and 20-pound test Trilene 100% fluorocarbon.

“Braided line is fine for a Toad,” he noted, “I know a lot of guys who use like a 30- to 50-pound braid on a Toad and it works fine. I’ve just always liked fluorocarbon. The important part is the rod and reel; you’ve got to have a long rod that can take up a lot of line on a hook set and then have the power to drive the hook home. A high-speed reel helps keep the toad up and buzzing without wearing yourself out on the reel handle.”

From there, Baumgardner swears by a big heavy-gauge straight shank hook. His personal choice is a Bass Pro Shops 5/0 XPS hook. But the trick behind his rig is a unique item called a Screwed-up Bullet. The Screwed-up Bullet is essentially a screw-in bullet weight, minus the weight. It’s a clear plastic screw-in device that simultaneously serves as both a nose cone and a keeper for the Toad.

Baumgardner first threads the big hook through the Toad’s nose (like a standard Texas rig) coming out about where the plastic begins to split on the belly of the Toad. Then he screws in the plastic bullet into the nose. Finally, he buries the hook in the back of the Toad, creating a slight arch in the Toad to help it run right-side up. The hook point comes to rest, exposed, on the back of the Toad.

A couple of other tips Baumgardner offers for better hook ups on the Toad is to keep reeling until the fish gets it.

“The hardest part of Toad fishing is not to snatch it away when the fish blow-up on it,” Baumgardner said. “Sometimes they’ll blow-up on it two or three times before they actually eat it. It takes nerves of steel, but you have to keep reeling the Toad until you actually feel the fish grab it.”

Also Baumgardner says he keeps a Texas-rigged worm or a jig at the ready to follow-up on missed strikes. Sometimes pitching right back to the hole where a short strike occurred on a Toad gets rewarded with a bite.

Hi everyone!

Zoom Pro Marty Stone describes how he rigs the Zoom Ol Monster and Mag II. He gives a real neat tip on how to eliminate line twist when texas rigging these worms.

Hi everyone!

We have received a lot of questions here at zoombait.com about how to rig a fluke.  Well, there are tons of creative uses for the fluke, but here a few of the more popular rigging techniques.

One cool way is to add a swivel to the line about 6-8 inches in front of the Super Fluke. Use a No. 4 to No. 10 size brass swivel, or a Sampo X5R or X6R swivel. Because the weight of the swivel and the hook slowly takes the Super Fluke down when you stop twitching it, vary the size for a slower or faster drop. The swivel also prevents twisting.

Another great technique is combing a Super Fluke with a jighead. One of the most simple options is the round ball jighead, rigged as an open hook or Texas-rigged like a shakey worm. Thread the Super Fluke on the hook and secure it on the lure keeper or with a dap of Super Glue.

Because of its streamlined design, the Super Fluke works great around vegetation and wood cover. It can be twitched around the edges or, if the cover isn’t too thick, cast into the thick stuff and worked out to look like a zipping, darting minnow. With five sizes to choose from you easily can match the forage.

Cast and let it fall to the bottom. Twitch it, nudge it, pop it and let it fall. Give it subtle action so the head stays on the bottom, as if it were feeding, the Super Fluke tail sticks up and a bass thumps it.

Click here to see the comparison of the five different sizes of flukes from Zoom.  Below are all of the stock colors for the Zoom Super Fluke.