Let’s take a closer look at a little piece of bass fishing tackle that has been growing in popularity over the last decade or so—the tail spinner.
The first time most of us ever saw something like this used was when Keith Poche made a run at the 2013 Bassmaster Classic on the Red River, using a similar product to the Z-Man TRD SpinZ Tail Spinners that we’ll be examining today.
The Z-Man TRD SpinZ Tail Spinners add great flash to your plastics
These Z-Man TRD SpinZ are intended primarily to be attached to the back of a weightless Texas-rigged soft-plastic worm or stick bait, though these little spinners can be used to dress up a wacky rig, drop shot or even the tail end of a soft-plastic jerkbait. It’s most common, though, to see these little blades hanging off the back of a weightless worm rigged weedless.
Adding a little spinner to the back of a worm like this totally changes up the presentation. While still maintaining a very finesse-like approach, you can also add a nice flash to help fish find and commit to the bait in stained water or otherwise low-visibility situations, like fishing through stalky water willow on a cloudy day. This little bit of flash is just enough to lure a bass in from several feet away and makes for a particularly awesome presentation during the immediate post spawn, when bass are eating their own fry.
What makes the TRD SpinZ different
Most tail spinners like this, if not all others, use a screw lock to connect the blade to the soft plastic. These screw locks have their advantages and disadvantages. They’re typically pretty secure, so they don’t get thrown out and lost easily when a bass jumps out of the water and shakes its head. But they can also be a pain to screw into the soft plastic correctly, and they’re all but impossible to use with Z-Man’s ElaZtech soft plastic.
This last point is no doubt why Z-Man set out to create a completely different anchoring mechanism to secure the TRD SpinZ to the bait. Their ElaZtech material is super stretchy, which means it holds up to lots of bites and abuse, but this characteristic also makes it very difficult to screw a tail spinner into one of their baits. So, Z-Man changed things up.
How the TRD SpinZ work
Z-Man chose to remove the screw-lock spring entirely and instead opted for a double-barbed, stiff metal wire than can easily be pushed up into the ElaZtech material, which then grabs ahold of the barbs better than any other soft plastic thanks to its elasticity. In the process of creating a tail spinner that would work with their particular breed of material, Z-Man came up with a nice little invention that makes it easier to fish a tail spinner on any type of soft plastic.
It’s a good bit easier to slip the keeper of the TRD SpinZ into any worm than it is to sit there and spin a screw lock up into the bait. Now we’re talking about a difference of maybe 5 to 10 seconds, but it is easier none the less. And that little bump in frustration can add up, considering you may be taking these little spinners out of a worm and putting them into another several times throughout the day.
How effective are they?
Outside of the new style of anchoring system, the TRD SpinZ are similar to other top tier tail spinners. Z-Man uses quality blades, swivels and split rings to complete the rest of the build each time they pump one of these little guys out. So the blades spin effortlessly in the water on the retrieve.
Again, the blade staying in the bait is a big deal, since you don’t want to be running through a ton of these by losing one every fourth or fifth cast or when fighting each fish to the boat. The double-barbed anchor of the TRD SpinZ has a secure hold and is comparable to what you’d see from similar products built using a screw lock.
You’ll inevitably lose one now and then and you’ll obviously lose them if you lose the soft plastic, but the collateral damage is bearable considering you’ll be catching fish if you’re suffering much loss of tackle.
The bottom line
The TRD SpinZ opens up the possibility to use a tail spinner with Z-Man’s whole lineup of ElaZtech baits, which others simply won’t work with. When pairing the TRD SpinZ with one of their baits, like the Z-Man FattyZ for instance, you have a setup that lasts a lot longer than any other combo of soft plastic and spinner.
They also offer a gold and a silver version using both size 2 willow leaf and size 1 Colorado blades, for four total choices. This gives you plenty of options to cover a wide variety of conditions. At $4.99 for a three pack, they’re reasonably priced compared to others, especially considering how easy they are to use and how long they last.
If you’re looking for a little something to dress up your stick bait game and really evolve the presentation entirely, the Z-Man TRD SpinZ Tail Spinners are worth a shot.
The Z-Man TRD SpinZ Tail Spinners are available at the following online retailers:
