The past few weeks have been tough here in Illinois. Algae is thick. Stinky. It’s disgusting. Fishing has been up and down, but we’ve managed to smack a few largemouth bass on a Z-Man Pop Frog.
Yet… there’s a problem…
His pants keep falling down.
It’s weird, but imagine your topwater frog has pants.
Every time you pop him over the top of the thick algae, they start to sag.
Stick with me.
I have not been drinking.
This is an unacceptable fashion faux pas, but more importantly, it makes your topwater far less effective. As the rear end of the frog slides down the hook after every *POP*, you’ll find yourself spending more time resituating the bait than fishing it.
The Fix: Modify your Z-Man Pop FrogZ
Grab ya some dental floss.
Now grab some super glue.
We’re going to fix this problem right now.
I SAID I HAVE NOT BEEN DRINKING!
Take your floss, tie a granny knot, and wrap it around the shank 15 – 20 times, right below where the plastic will sit on your hook. (I’m using a 4/0 Eagle Claw Trokar Magworm Hook with this plastic, and a heavy duty – short – leader made from 30lb J-Fluoro. Fluoro sinks, so only use a bit.)
Hit the floss with some super glue, and leave it sit until it dries. If you don’t like the white color on the hook, go over it with a Sharpie.
ElaZtech is super stretchy.
It will pass over the “bump” we’ve added with relative ease, however, just this slightly raised rough patch on the hook will prevent the plastic from sliding down the smooth hook shank after every single twitch.
Hooksets, you ask?
Not a problem.
I only rest my hook in the slot on the top of the bait, I do not bury the point back into the plastic (what some call rigging it “Texposed“.) The plastic stays in place with the floss underneath the bait, which lets the hook slot do it’s job and keep the bait weedless even without “Texposing” the plastic, allowing me to make good, clean, solid hooksets!
Here are a few more quick pics to show you how mine looks:
I learned this method from the great Richard Gene the Fishing Machine. The legend uses floss and super glue on smaller jigs to lock plastics into place, and prevent them from sliding down the shank.
Same concept, slightly different use.
It’s made life easier for me so I had to share. Let me know if you can put it to work in the field!
Camera Gear:
Captured with: Sony A7s
Lighting Kit: Neewer Studio Essentials
Additional fishing photography can be seen here.
Tight Lines & Godspeed, Patriots!
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1 Response
[…] Because of the initial success, I went about making several modifications to my creation, hoping that I could use it in more areas – including heavy muck. Modifications are fun, and the mods we made to our Z-Man Pop FrogZ to fish them in heavy cover worked so well. […]