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If you don’t have a Zoom Super Fluke tied on this month, you are missing out on some of the best action of the year. In much of the country the bass are either moving to beds, on bed, or are moving from beds. The Zoom Super Fluke is one of the best options for coaxing strikes from these fish. Even for those anglers in parts of the Northeast and Midwest, where the seasons are just opening, the Super Fluke is still a dynamite option, one that rivals even live bait on many occasions.

The Right Lure At The Right Time

For those of you who need convincing that the Super Fluke is the perfect option this month, here are four options, at least one of which should suit your situation.

The cold-water killer.

In parts of the country, the bass season is just opening and hordes of eager anglers are making their way to the lakes and rivers, most of which are still quite cold. Since bass, being cold-blooded, are likely to be quite sluggish this month in those areas… placing a Zoom Super Fluke on a dropshot and slowly working it along flats adjacent deepwater and secondary points leading into spawning flats should be deadly. There really is no wrong way to fish the lure in this manner, though making a long cast and slowly, methodically twitching it back to the boat, is often the most effective means of searching for sluggish fish.

The Texas-rigged tantalizer.

When professional anglers are looking for a bite under tough conditions, they often tie on their favorite lure and work known haunts for finicky eaters. Well, bass that are moving up to spawn definitely qualify as finicky, since eating is not their primary concern. A very successful technique employed by professional anglers is to rig a Super Fluke Texas-style, with a small bullet-weight pegged at the nose, and fan-cast areas that pre-spawn bass are likely moving into, to spawn. Use the lure to target cover such as stumps, debris, laydowns and anything else that could shield shy, skittish fish from other predators.

The bomb-in-a-bed.

If you’re lucky enough to have bed-fishing opportunities this month in your area, we have the technique for you. You’ll need a bag of Super Flukes in either the White Pearl, White Ice or Albino colors, some dropshot hooks and a pack of nail weights. Place one of the nail weights into the nose of one of the lures, ensuring everything but the head of the weight is inside the body of the Super Fluke. Then drive the point of the hook through the back of the lure, just before the tail, and allow it to exit, creating an exposed hook. Now, when you cast the lure into a bed, you can twitch the lure in place, for the nose stays down like that of feeding bluegill, which bass hate. When fished this way, the Super Fluke drives bass wild.

The weightless dynamo.

The Super Fluke really shines when fished weightless, allowing it to dart, bob and spiral on a twitch-twitch-pause retrieve. There are few better post-spawn options available, primarily because this technique can be used to find bass wherever they are and no matter what they are foraging for. Earlier in the month, set your boat off the tip of main-lake points adjacent spawning flats to intercept bass moving back to their summertime haunts. Make casts to either side of the point and work the lure back, just under the surface. Later in the month, when the shad are spawning near riprap banks, cast a weightless Super Fluke right up the cover, then aggressively twitch the lure back to the boat. It likely won’t make it back to the boat without being attacked.

No matter where you live, the Zoom Super Fluke has a place on the end of your line this month. Try at least one of the options listed above and let us know what you think.

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Update 5-10-13: The Mother Load giveaway has ended!  Thank you for all of our entries.  Click here for our latest promotion

There’s only a couple days left to enter our current contest, THE MOTHER LOAD Giveaway, in which we are giving away the biggest prize pack to date! Enter as many times as you can before NOON on Friday to increase your odds at winning THE MOTHER LOAD!

You have another chance to win a wicked ZOOM Bait prize pack! Wired2Fish is hosting a ZOOM Into Spring Giveaway, in which FIVE WINNERS will be selected to win an awesome ZOOM Bait package! Each winner will receive 12 bags of Zoom plastics and a sticker. Included in this package (pictured below) are:

And if that isn’t enough ZOOM goodies for ya, we will be announcing a NEW ZOOM Bait giveaway contest soon after the MOTHER LOAD contest ends, so stay tuned!

If you’re lucky, this is the month when the big females start moving shallow to spawn in your neck of the woods. It’s the time of year you cannot get to the lake soon enough nor fish long enough. And, who could blame you? With hordes of green torpedoes, their bellies bloated with eggs, cruising the shoreline… controlling your emotions isn’t a top priority. With that in mind, we singled out three Zoom go-to lures for bedding bass to increase your chances of success this month.

To be sure, just about any of Zoom’s lures will work this month, but these are three of our pro staff’s favorites for bed fishing.

1. Finesse Worm
   Yes, you read that right. While you might scoff at the notion of using a dainty worm in lieu of a big creature bait to get a spawner’s attention, consider this: A smaller lure means less plastic to get in the way during hook sets. Besides, it’s often not the size of the lure that arouses interest from a female or buck; it’s the movement and overall placement of the lure that makes the difference. Placing the worm on a Texas rig with a small weight pinched above the hook works just fine, but a better option…one we “borrowed” from several of our Elite Series pros, is to use a shaky head. Here’s why: With a Texas rig, you make a cast past the bed, drag the lure to the spot, and then attempt to twitch the lure by shaking the rod, forcing the tip to move. With the shaky head, you cast past the bed, pull the rig to the spot, and you can more easily twitch the lure in place without it moving. Try it. All you need is a 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jighead and whatever color of Finesse Worm that you desire.
2. Salty Super Tube
   We created these tubes after years of hearing “Zoom needs a good, all-around tube.” We listened; creating a versatile tube that’ll stand up to any conditions. The heavy salt in the Salty Super Tube ensures when you flip it into a bed, it won’t glide or dart too far from the intended target. It also means the aggressive buck or annoyed female won’t spit it out too soon. For whatever reason, bedding bass are especially annoyed by tubes, but many anglers find they miss more fish when using tubes. Not anymore. The problem, as we learned from an Elite Series pro who isn’t sponsored by us but who uses our soft baits, is color: Most bed fishermen like using white tubes, which they can see better in the water, but they often swing too early when they see the fish “flash” on the lure. A simple fix, he says, is to use a Green Pumpkin tube, which is much tougher to see, thus forcing the angler to go less on sight than feel. The result? You don’t miss near as many fish. Try it.
3. Z-Hog Jr
   No bed-fishing arsenal would be complete without including the Z-Hog Jr., the diminutive little brother of the Z-Hog and an easy target for bedding bass. Many of you will have one of these tied on a flipping stick with a light flipping weight ahead of the lure, ready for presentation to a bed. The lure’s profile and gliding nature in the water makes it deadly when fished in this manner. Another benefit of the Z-Hog Jr. is, when you spot an empty bed, you have already tied on the perfect lure for flipping and pitching to nearby targets such as stumps, laydowns, rocks, submerged tires where skittish spawners often go to for protection. So if you come upon an empty bed, all you have to do is start pitching to nearby targets with the Z-Hog Jr.

No matter what Zoom lure you ultimately choose this month, make it a point to enjoy some time on the water. You deserve it.

And if you land a giant using one of our products, we’d like to hear about it in the comments below.

ENTER TO WIN!

Now announcing… the new Go Big or Go MAGNUM – Magnum Swamp Crawler Giveaway!

Enter anytime between now and April 15th for a chance to win the following Magnum Swamp Crawler prize pack:

7-Packs of Magnum Swamp Crawlers

Colors Included: Pumpkin, Junebug, Watermelon Seed, Red Bug, Green Pumpkin, Watermelon Red & Watermelon Candy

Register today to win here on the ZOOM Bait site, or on our Facebook Page. Good Luck!

Click here to learn more about our New Magnum Swamp Crawlers.

Also, congratulations to the winner of our Easter/April Fool’s Trick Worm giveaway, Jeremy Jennette! We hope you enjoy your Trick Worm prize pack!

ZOOM Pro Kevin Short provides a few tips and tricks to simplifying your hook selection in the video below, part of the Bass Pro Video Tips series of videos that can be found at MichianaOutdoorNews.com!

Michiana Outdoor News is a website managed by famed bass writer, Louie Stout that is full of outdoors recreational news and tips, covering everything from local news, gear reviews, angler updates, tips, tricks.

Click the picture below to view the video.

Source: www.michianaoutdoorsnews.com; February 27, 2013.

The Zoom Magnum Swamp Crawler is the latest addition in the company’s Magnum lineup. It’s a very significant addition when you consider how near and dear the original Swamp Crawler is to anglers at all levels, especially the pros.

Ask a group of Zoom pros to name their five favorite soft baits and names like Super Fluke, Trick Worm, Horny Toad, Finesse Worm and Brush Hog will be at the top of their lists.

But, pull those same anglers aside one by one and ask the same question. The answers are likely to vary, with at least a few of the pros discreetly adding the Zoom Swamp Crawler to their list… saying, but only if you promise not to share that information with the other pros.

“I wouldn’t call it a secret bait, per se,” says one prominent Zoom pro. “It’s the lure I find myself going to most often when bites are tough and nothing else seems to work. And in that situation, the Zoom Swamp Crawler is a fish-catching machine.”

The Magnum Swamp Crawler, at 6 1/2 inches, is a full inch longer than the original Swamp Crawler. But like the original lure, it really shines when fished on Texas and Carolina rigs, in addition to a shaky head, weightless or wacky style.

Really, there is no wrong way to fish the Zoom Magnum Swamp Crawler. The lures come 15 per pack and are now available in 7 different colors.

“Don’t even waste your time bringing that rod. As cold as the water is this month, you have a better chance of catching fish on a cigarette butt than you do a spinnerbait, especially today, when the water temps won’t get above 47 degrees.”

Those were the words of a young Zoom pro to a media member entering his boat for a day of fishing in the month of February. The weather in the region was nasty, with snow flurries on some parts of the lake, and the sun wasn’t expected to peak out until after noon. But what that young pro didn’t know was the spinnerbait he so easily dismissed wasn’t just any spinnerbait. Thanks to a specially made trailer, an idea shared with the media member by a grizzled Zoom pro years in advance, the lure was a cold-water killer.

Just what was the trailer? A 4-inch section of Zoom Trick Worm in the Limetreuse color. Everyone knows the Trick Worm is a bass-catcher under just about any conditions, but it’s popularity as a spinnerbait trailer, particularly in less than ideal conditions, is largely untapped.

And it works. It will also work for you as well.

The first time the writer had a look at the spinnerbait/Trick Worm combo was a stay-at-home cold day in February, several years ago. The water temperature was in the low 40s, and the only lures bass would hit consistently were jigging spoons and Rapala No. 5 Shap Raps. But whenever the elder Zoom pro found bright sun shining onto cover, such as riprap or wood, he’d throw the spinnerbait parallel to the cover, and Wham! The bass, usually nice fish, would eat it up.

“I’ve had people say, ‘It’s a fluke getting bass in coldwater to hit a spinnerbait,’” the Zoom pro says. “I’m not saying it works all the time, but when the weather is cold and I can find some sun on wood or rocks, this little trick has never failed me.”

Here’s how to make the Zoom Trick Worm-as-a-spinnerbait trailer work for you this month.

1. Keep it simple. Don’t over-think it when it comes to colors for the Trick Worm. On a white spinnerbait, go with a Limetruese or similar color worm, and on a chartreuse or chartreuse/white spinnerbait, use the White color.
2. Look for light. When the temps are low, any light is a welcome addition for cold-blooded bass. Often they’ll stage near rocks, stumps, laydowns or other such cover, appearing to warm themselves, often in plain sight of anglers on cold days. The Zoom pro was capitalizing on this occurrence by using a reaction bait to coax strikes from bass that weren’t in an eating mood. On numerous occasions, he’d throw jigs, creature baits, spinnerbaits without trailers and sundry other lures into the exact same sunny spots without a bite. Then he’d present the spinnerbait with the Trick Worm trailer and get nailed.
3. Ignore what you “know” as true. In cold-weather conditions the fish are going to be sluggish, typically not actively feeding, and they are most often found in deeper water—Not necessarily. Legendary angler Denny Brauer has made a great living finding shallow-water bass year-round. You’d do well to follow his advice: “Shallow to deep in 30 feet…” If there is deep water within 30 feet of a prime shallow water target, bass can be near the bank anytime of the year, he says. With that in mind, instead of getting out the jigging spoons or flipping deep-water docks all day, look for any spots along that bank that have suitable cover and sunlight shining onto them. If you have both, the a spinnerbait with a Trick Worm trailer could be the ticket.

Anglers, by their very nature, are a skeptical bunch. And to be fair, seeing a guy throw a spinnerbait when flurries are wafting about is a little weird. It get a whole lot less weird when you see that spinnerbait/Trick Worm combo pull fish from laydowns, standing timber, riprap and docks, all within an hour. Remember, the fish don’t know they aren’t supposed to eat spinnerbaits this month.

We pride ourselves on giving discerning bass anglers the lures that help them put bass in the boat, so when some of you said you loved the Z-Hog creature bait but wished it was a bit smaller, we listened.

The new Z-Hog Jr, a 3 1/2-inch version of its beefier big brother, gives you the same great bait and action but with a slimmer, smaller profile. Our pros have been testing it for months, and the only questions we’ve consistently gotten is “Why can’t I keep these a secret?”

That’s no surprise when you consider the original Z-Hog has become a favorite of anglers across the U.S.

The Z-Hog Jr. still has the rabbit-ear tail akin to the Zoom Super Chunk and the small flappers on either side of its body, in addition to the deep grooves on the front and back of the bait. Also, though the lure is smaller than the original, it will still hold a wide-gap flippin’ hook.

And maybe the best part of all is that you can fish this lure in the same gnarly, knotted debris that you did his big brother. Only this time even those finicky eaters likely won’t let you get Z-Hog Jr. back in the boat without a fight.

Now thru March 14th, you can enter to win a Z–Hog Jr Prize Pack!

Z-Hog Jr Package Includes: Ten packs of the new Z-HOG Jr (Black Red, Junebug, Watermelon Seed, Green Pumpkin, Watermelon Red, Black Sapphire, Watermelon Candy, California 420, Scuppernong Green and Scuppernong Candy), two large ZOOM decals, two small ZOOM decals and a Wired2Fish decal.

Register today to win here on the ZOOM Bait site, or on our Facebook Page. Good Luck!

It’s that time of year again… the Bassmaster Classic starts this week, with contenders already in Tulsa gearing up for the big event. ZOOM Pros Mike McClelland, Gerald Swindle, Marty Robinson, and our newest pro Edwin Evers will launch this Friday at the Grand Lake, and we can’t wait to see what they will contribute to the competition.  Good luck, from everyone here at ZOOM Bait, and catch some big ones this week!!

This just in! We now have new shirts, hats, and vanity plate, perfect for any fan of Zoom bait. Some of these items even appeared in the prize pack for our Valentine’s Day Giveaway!

What’s it called when two fish fall in love?
–– Guppy–love!

OKAY, okay. That was a little cheesy, but what ZOOM has set aside for the new giveaway sure isn’t! Running now thru Valentine’s Day, you can enter to win an awesome His and Hers Valentine’s Day package from ZOOM Bait!

Package Includes: 1 – Mens Hat (maroon), 1 – Mens T-Shirt (XL-Black), 1 Womens Hat (pink), 1 Womens Fitted T-Shirt (L-Pink), 2 License Plates, 2 Packs Trick Worms (Bubble Gum) and 2 Packs Super Flukes (Bubble Gum).

Register today to win here on the ZOOM Bait site, or on our Facebook Page. Good Luck!

Famed Bass Writer, Louie Stout has recently launched a new website and blog full of outdoors recreational news and tips at MichianaOutdoorNews.com. He covers everything from local news, gear reviews, angler updates, tips, tricks and there’s even a section to share your trophy photos!

Check out one of their recent videos with ZOOM Pro Kevin Short. In this video, part of the Bass Pro Video Tips, he reveals some of his best tips in using ZOOM Baits for drop shot fishing, including the NEW Zoom Z–Drop! Click the picture below to view the video.