How to hook Baits made with ElazTech?

Strike King (and maybe others?) makes several baits made with ElazTech. Several years ago, someone made soft plastic baits with a similar material that was somewhat difficult to use since Trigging the bait didn't work well - the hook wouldn't easily penetrate the extremely soft and pliable material. Are these Strike King baits, like the Dream Shot, Ocho or Z Too, made with the same or similar material? My question is, what is the best method to rig these baits when fishing around grass or wood? I remember that eventually the only way I could really fish baits made with this material was Texposing the hook which caused many hangups, but I know times have changed....

The strike king baits that are elaztec have 3X on the packaging

Heating the hook some with a lighter before you rig the plastic works

Superglue also helps

There are multiple DIY bait keeper methods you could try

Try the Mustad KVD Grip Pin hooks.

trying to thread a zman bait or one of the other elaztech baits on a shaky head screw lock is QUITE frustrating!!! I like how the bait stretches but dang!

Screw locks are nearly impossible with the 3x finesse bait. You need a shaky head or hook with a barb keeper of some sort.

I believe he is talking about how to texpose the hook point itself. If so, that is the reason I stopped using them also, I felt like it wasn't going to give me a good hook set through the plastic. I now only use them on ned rigs and drop shots with the hook point exposed.

Z-Man makes some good baits out of this material. I hook it the same, you just have to mess with it until it goes.

Getting the hook wet first normally helps.

I can't tell you how many times I've stuck my finger trying to rig the Z Man baits.

I thought one of the advantages of those types of plastic is they are very buoyant??

Is there other plastics just as buoyant??

I don't know if it's all of their plastics or not, but don't try to dip'n die them, they will dissolve!

The only way I rig an ElaZtec or Z-Man bait is on a shaky head with a weed guard or jig with a weed guard. This lets you thread the hook into the bait and pull it out to expose the hook, which is then protected by the weed guard. Lost too many fish imbedding it in the plastic.

The original poster means, I think, the great difficulty of routing a hook through the plastic itself. Same thing, though, with trying to twist a centering pin into it or skin hooking it.

I hate the stuff but I occasionally use it and I pre-rig the plastics and just take my time to get them on carefully. I use a tiny drop of super glue, the only plastic I use this on. Out on the water? Not as easy so I make up a few "for the road."

One thing is for certain: once you get it on, especially if glued, fish can't easily tear a tail off or beat it up much. They last a long time.

The question about do other plastics float? Yes, Xcite plastics have no salt and tend to float. Others, too, I am sure.

Brad

From my pouring experience salt = sinking and no salt = floating all with the same plastic

They say these are 10X stronger plastics than traditional

I like Z-man products and am testing a few of their baits in some very common techniques. I bought the Palmetto bugz for flipping and the Boar Hogz for c-rigs and t-rigs to give them feesh a little different look. I like the idea of the bait being buoyant in order to garner bites that I may not have gotten otherwise from more pressured fish. Time will tell! I hook them the same way I would any other soft plastic you just need to be a little more careful because of their elasticity.

That is correct: it is the elasticity that makes the plastic push away from even a pointed object . . . like a hook.

Bobby, yes, they are super strong in "fishing terms" and you can grab a 3" worm and stretch it about 18", give or take, without it snapping. Fish won't likely break it by stretching it nor will they be able to easily bite through it. The same properties that repel a sharp hook, repel sharp tiny bass teeth.

Heck, I'm not sure a barracuda could bite through ElazTech plastic.

I was so frustrated with my paddle tail shad-like Yamamoto baits getting their paddles bitten off that I tried the ElazTech version. I don't think they get the same number of bites, but they hold together.

Brad

I use 5 to 7 ewg hooks on the large baits and 3 to 4 on smaller it overcomes bouyancy and is easier to attach hook

There is some good info in this thread on rigging with our ElaZtech plastics. There are lots of rigging tip videos on our YouTube channel that provide a lot more info.

Because the ElaZtech material is so tough, there is a little bit of a learning curve in learning to rig it easily. A good analogy is braided line - when superbraids first came out, anglers were frustrated because they had to use different knots, adjust drag settings in some cases to account for lack of stretch, etc. But like with braid, the advantages of the material (namely buoyancy, softness, and durability) certainly make the extra effort worthwhile.

For Texas rigging, check out the Mustad Grip Pin line of hooks. The keepers on these hooks do a great job of preventing the baits from sliding down the hook shank. As far as the hook not going through the plastic when embedded in the bait goes, we have found this to be a non-issue and really a misconception about the material. In fact, several of our Elite Series pros have told us that hooks actually penetrate more easily through ElaZtech because it is so soft.

When rigging on a jighead, try stretching and pulling the end of the bait over the keeper rather than trying to push it over the keeper. Jigheads with sharp keepers or wire keepers tend to hold our material a lot better than other styles of jigheads. If your jigheads don't have these styles of keepers, a drop of superglue will hold the bait on the jig as long as you want it to be on there. We recommend LocTite and Gorilla Glue super glue gels because they aren't as runny and are compatible with our material.

As noted above, screw locks are difficult to use with ElaZtech. This is because our material is so tear-resistant. However, you definitely can still use screw locks if you heat up the screw lock a little bit first or it you squeeze the nose of the bait tightly when inserting the screw lock.

Regarding buoyancy, this is really one of the most significant advantages of the ElaZtech material. Most other plastics do not float, even if they are not salt-impregnated. This really makes the baits come alive underwater, especially when dragged along the bottom, and really offers a completely different look that fish aren't used to seeing.

Let us know if you have any questions on rigging our baits, and thanks for the interest!