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This is one of the bigger soft plastics that I carry and is only pipped for size by my 8" top pour soft plastics. Both these big lures generally get a swim any time I am fishing in low light or in dirty water.

This is the biggest of the DieZel Minnows that I use and I like it because the Z Man ElaZtech material is very soft and with the relatively big tail and thin profile in the fork of the tail it has plenty of tail action and a good shoulder roll both of which are appealing to barra. On top of that the very soft and durable ElaZtech material compress very well on the strike giving a better hook up rate, all other things being equal, than similar sized plastersol based soft plastics.

It is worth noting that that ElaZtech melts and deforms traditional plastisol based soft plastics and other TPE based lures and consequently Z Man soft plastics must be stored away from all plastisol soft plastics in a non-PVC based container or their original sealed packaging. I make min up at home and carry them in a non PVC lure box with only other Z Man softies.

I mount these 7" soft plastics on #8/0 TT Warhead hooks and as I do that I apply superglue to the lead weight along the shank of the hook and behind the lead head of the front of the hook which increases the overall durability of this soft plastic.

The only down side with this softy is that I have to increase the depth of the gutter manufactured into softy to allow the hook to sit higher than would otherwise be the case so as to increase my hook up rate.

You will also see from the top photo that I run a snelled 4/0 stinger hook connected to the eye of the lure using 50lb fluorocarbon just in front of the lure which also increased the hook up rate and also add a size #2 willow blade under the head of the lure to increase its low light and dirty water viability. The lure is connected to the leader with a loop knot conection to the eye of the snelled hook.

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