Z-Man's Elaztech is the most durable plastic around, with a world record 255 fish being caught on one Elaztech bait. With Elaztech being a unique type of plastic, there are several different ways to use and store these soft plastics that will make you more successful. 

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Video transcript:

Paul:
What's going on everyone? Welcome back to the Monster Bass channel. You've got Paul from Burly Fishing and, unless you've been living under a rock, you know that this month, the month of February, is the Z-Man takeover bag month, box bag month. Whatever. It's all full of Z-Man.

Paul:
Now, if you are not familiar with Z-Man, you're going to get some plastics and if you're not familiar with Z-Man you know that these are going to be made of ElaZtech. If you're new to ElaZtech or you haven't used it before or whether you're a pro and you want some like hacks on how to make the most of this ElaZtech material, whether it's catch more fish or being more efficient, I've got some awesome tips for you. But, before we get to that, I want to say thank you so much for checking out this video. Please, subscribe to the channel, smash the like button, ring that notification bell so that you can see when we post the next video. Now, let's get this opened up and let's talk tactics. So right off the bat, the one thing that I want to call out about ElaZtech is it's got a few properties that make it super unique.

Paul:
It is not your average plastic. I'll get one right now. Now your typical plastic, I've got a Ned bait here. It's got a little bit of stretch to it and it's got some durability that's going to be difficult for a fish to bite off here. But an average bait, you pull it apart, it's going to break. Like that's just what it's going to do. You're going to get three pieces and they're going to break down in the water. That is just what happens with plastics. Now what makes Z-Man so unique and what makes ElaZtech so unbelievable is that it is incredibly stretchy. It is incredibly durable. Even the slimmest little tiny pieces can stretch forever. This is like one of the smaller baits in the bag and I can legitimately almost stretch it my entire arms width almost. That is crazy.

Paul:
They're also super durable. They just don't break and it takes a long time for these to get water logged and really start breaking down. Another thing about ElaZtech is it's extremely buoyant. It floats like crazy. Now what does that mean for you like as an angler? How does that help you? Well, obviously if you have a super stretchy bait, one that is very durable, you're not going to get bitten off nearly as much. You're not going to lose those baits nearly as often, which means you can catch more fish with less plastics. That means your jam packed bag full of ElaZtech Z-Man baits is now worth double because you can do way more fish catching with less plastics. Now it also means that you're going to have to learn how to really take advantage of these and how to rig them properly.

Paul:
Rigging an ElaZtech plastic is not the same as rigging the rest of your standard plastics. They just react differently. And I've got five tips for you to make sure that you make the most out of this amazing bag that is jampacked with Z-Man baits. Tip number one, do not store ElaZtech baits with a standard plastic plastisol bait. They are going to fuse together and then they will both be ruined for eternity. The best way to store Z-Man plastics is to just keep them in the original bag that you get them and do not put anything else in there. That is the easiest, most simple advice that I can possibly give you. Period. Just leave them in the original bag. They'll be safe sound. You will not have a problem. They withstand heat very well. They withstand colder temperatures very well.

Paul:
I've never had a problem with them, but the only time you're going to see an issue is if you try and store these, and let's say you had a regular plastic worm and you threw like a handful of them here and you try to keep like seven baits, some plastic, some ElaZtech in here, they're just going to fuse together into a giant ball and none of them will be usable. So that is my first tip for you is make sure when we're storing these baits, just keeping them in the original bag. That way, you can take advantage of them later. Now my number two tip for you is really around rigging. This is the minnowZ. The color is the deal. It's an amazing paddle tail. Crack it open for you. If you haven't seen all these in action, you haven't seen all the baits that are in the February bag, there's a couple videos before on them.

Paul:
I think actually Jeff from Burly Fishing did one as well. So go check out some of their videos and as always, Rick does an amazing unboxing. You can go watch his video too to see every single bait that is in this bag. But here is one of those baits. Again, this is the minnows, the minnowZ. The color is the deal and it's that ElaZtech material. That's all you're going to get here. That amazing ElaZtech material. Another thing you're getting in the bag is the swimbait eye jig. It's an amazing jig. This one happens to be in a quarter ounce. And what I love about this is this is a absolutely killer combo as you can see here. Now, the tip I have for you when you're choosing a jig for an ElaZtech material, what you really want to see is two barbs, just like this one.

Paul:
And you want to see them be really sharp and you want to see them facing this direction. You don't want to see just a little bump. You don't want to see like a rounded barb here. You want to see two sharp barbs. I'll show you why right now. And now I'm going to start rigging this the same way as I would any other jig, I'm going to go ahead and lay my bait across my hook, kind of mark with my finger, and remember where I want the hook to come out and then I'm just going to start threading it on. So we go right into the middle here, just like normal. This is a pretty standard jig.

Paul:
Now, here's where things get interesting and this is where tip number two comes in. Tip number two, don't try to push the Z-Man ElaZtech over these two barbs. It's not going to work. I'll show you. You can push and push and push and push and push. And because of that stretch, you're going to have problems. If you are super persistent, eventually you'll get it. But I have a tip for you. So trick number two, go ahead and just, you can be really aggressive with this, pull forward past the barb, pull that plastic as far forward as you can. You cannot ruin these. I promise you, you're going to have a real tough time doing it, but as you go ahead and pull the plastic past the barb, that's when you're going to see the best result. Just like that. Bang. There you go. Easy peasy. What that's doing is, as you're stretching that out, it's actually creating space around those barbs for the plastic to move around.

Paul:
And once that plastic gets past that barb, it is really, really tough to get it off. Now, it may be a little bit different method of you trying to actually get it rigged and rigged properly, but that actually means that you're going to be losing a lot less plastics. This is actually going to be very difficult for a fish to pull off because it's that ElaZtech material. It's incredible, right? Easy fix, bang, and you've got tons of fish that you can catch with one rig. Now if that wasn't awesome enough, I have two methods for making this last even longer. The first one is to grab yourself some super glue. I have here some Loctite professional glue. All I'm going to do is I'm going to take my cap off, after I've already got my bait on. I'm going to pull this ElaZtech back and just expose this little section right here, right above the jig head. And then I'm just going to take a little dab of super glue and put it around the collar there. And then I'm just going to pull it forward back into place. And then probably get some on my fingers.

Paul:
Boom. Now that is going to secure that so much better. So if you thought you had an invincible bait before, well now it is super invincible. You are building yourself a little battleship right here. Now I've got another tip for you too. Go ahead and grab another hook. Now let's say, for arguments sake, you don't have some super glue laying around. If you don't I think you should start, but let's say you don't, I have another tip for you here. Grab another hook and go ahead and just catch yourself a little bit of that plastic right at the front. It's amazing how durable this is. And go ahead and just pull it over the eyelet like so. And bang. You have got yourself another method for maintaining that bait in its proper position. No matter what happens to that fish, no matter what kind of cover you run into, that is going to help you out right there.

Paul:
And you can do the super glue and you can do the little pullover the eyelet trick and you have got yourself an invincible bait. Now if you haven't already checked out Burly Fishing, please do so. We also have a YouTube channel. We have a live podcast, we've got TikTok and Instagram and everything in between. Please go check out Burly Fishing as well. And if you do, you're going to find out that we are a couple of Ned rig nerds. Now one of my all time favorite Ned rigs is actually the Finesse TRD from Z-Man. I love this bait and this happens to be my favorite color, which is coppertreuse. Now this is where my next tip, tip number three, comes in. Now one thing we at the Burly Fishing channel get all the time, fishing a Ned rig as much as we do, is we hear a lot of people complain about getting snagged when they're Ned rigging all the time.

Paul:
If you're not familiar with the Ned rig, it traditionally would look just like this. You would basically just have a standard jig. You would have a standard Ned jig and it would be rigged like so. Now you can tell, that's an open hook. Now they do make a weedless version of this that has like a weed guard that comes up and that's fine and it works. I prefer this in open, Rocky areas. It's better when there's not a lot of grass. It means you're going to get a better hookup ratio. It does have its place and I use it all of the time. However, it's a valid gripe. You're just throwing an open hook out there and you're running it like contacting it with the bottom quite a bit. So yeah. You're going to get snagged.

Paul:
Now, this is where tip number four comes in. Z-Man has solved that problem with my favorite jig for Ned rig fishing. This is the NedlockZ, the NedlockZ, however you say it, from Z-Man. As you can see, it's an EWG hook, but it's got a short shank. Made for that finesse TRD plastic. And right here, this little collar right here, that is the game changer for me. That's what makes this such a special jig. The way you're going to rig it is just like you would any other EWG bait. I'm going to go ahead and just nick the bottom of this bait here, right through the bottom, thread it all the way across. I got to get past that collar, but again, it's a really durable, stretchy material, not too hard. And then you've got yourself an unbelievably weedless presentation that is darn near invincible. And that collar right there, that special collar, that's what keeps this bait in place.

Paul:
And actually, that is what makes this so easy to rig. A lot of other EWG style baits, yes, they have the bend in the hook there, but without this forward facing little piece of lead right there, it's just not going to be as effective. This is an invincible bait. I still actually think I have this same like my first or second bag of Z-Man plastics and this is exactly why, because of this rig right here. I don't get snagged nearly as much, my hookup ratio is just fine, and I can fish this darn near anywhere. And it doesn't hurt that it comes in a ton of awesome colors, including chartreuse, which when you pair that with coppertreuse, that is darn near deadly. Now tip number five, my last tip, take advantage of that buoyancy of the Z-Man ElaZtech. You would not believe how buoyant it is.

Paul:
It's not just neutral. It is a floating bait. It is going to rise and rise fairly quickly. But take advantage of that. My favorite way to take advantage of that buoyancy is actually with a Carolina rig. Now a great example of that is the goat. The goat is going to be one of the baits that comes in your February bag and it is a fantastic bait for Carolina Rig. It's a great trailer bait. It does a lot of things really well, but this bad boy right here can be a killer Carolina rig bait. Now why does it matter so much and why do I recommend that ElaZtech material as a good Carolina trailer and what makes it unique? Now with that bait floating behind you in a Carolina rig, this is a totally different rig. Now normally with a Carolina rig, you've got your swivel with a weight ahead of it and you got this long trailer or a longer trailer with your bait back here.

Paul:
And what happens is, as you drag or as you lift and drop that bait, your bait is actually sinking. So when you lift it and when you reel in a little bit and retrieve it, it's coming up and then it's going down, it's coming up and it's going down. This is going to be almost the exact opposite. As you drag that Carolina rig, it's actually going to come down a little bit and then it's going to rise, but that is going to be a unique look and it's going to give you an edge that only ElaZtech can provide for you. So those are my five tips for making the most out of your February bag that is full of ElaZtech Z-Man product. First and foremost, please store these in the original bag. Make sure you don't mix them with any other normal plastics.

Paul:
They will meld together and they will all be useless. Please do not do that. Number two, when you're rigging to a jig, make sure you get some good pointed bait holders there on your jig. And then instead of pushing down, pull them over those bait keepers. That's going to make it way more successful and hopefully make things easier for you as you're rigging these, especially if it's your first time. Number three, if you really want to make an invincible jig set up, put a dab of super glue on the collar of your jig and then put the bait over it. Or if you don't have that, use another hook to go ahead and pull some of that ElaZtech material over the eyelet. That is going to make this thing a battleship. Number four, if you are a Ned rig fisherman and you are using that finesse TRD, go check out the NedlockZ jig.

Paul:
It is a phenomenal jig and will take your Ned rig fishing to the next level. Number five, last, but certainly not least, consider using ElaZtech baits for your Carolina rigs. It's going to give you a really unique presentation because of that buoyancy of the plastic. It's actually going to rise, which is going to be something totally different then fish seen. Now I certainly hope that this was helpful for you. Thank you so much for checking out this video. Thank you for hitting the subscribe button, smashing the like, and ringing that notification bell for us so you can see when we post the next video. And while you're at it, please go check out Burly Fishing. We have tips, tricks, unboxings, and fishing videos on YouTube as well. We also have our live podcast every single week. Please come check us out and we will catch you on the next video.