Zoom enjoys a legendary status among fishing tackle manufacturers thanks to amazing quality control, good prices and literally doing everything their own way from building injection molding machines to formulating their own plastic.
But they are always looking to improve. They recently underwent a new project for them in hand pouring tri-laminate plastics. The first offering from their new Z3 Hand Poured line is the Z3 Hand Poured Swamp Crawler.
What’s unique
The one thing anglers probably take for granted from Zoom is their plastics are always the same. The color never varies. The cut and edges never have rough or bad pours. That’s because they have refined their plastic, processes and recipes over decades and volume. Their quality control is amazing.
With hand pours, you take on enormous layers of complexity. You’re basically shooting three colors with precise timing, making sure they don’t “bleed” into each other and you’re trying to get as natural looking as possible while still maintaining a reputation for quality control and exactness in color.
It was nice to see these new Z3 Hand Poured Swamp Crawlers had the same softness as other Zoom plastics while also having new terrific looking colors, flat edges for better undulating action in the water rigged on a drop shot.
They did a great job with the color combinations as well. Some of my favorites were Pro Blue Neon, Z3 Edge and Bold Bluegill.
Application
I’ve mostly fished these on a drop shot so far. I took several packs with me to Table Rock in July and caught a bunch of bass fishing them both vertically for suspended fish as well as casting them to docks and letting them pendulum through the fish as well as just casting and dragging on points. Table Rock has very clear water, so it’s a great place to test not only the action of a plastic but also the appeal of naturalistic colors.
I was able to hook spotted bass, largemouth bass and smallmouth bass that bit, especially vertically fishing the worm on fish I saw suspended on my depth finder from 15 to 30 feet of water.
I found that the worm had a beautiful action in the water with the slightest lift or shake of the rod tip. The worm pulsed, quivered and undulated very seductively in the water with very slight movements by me.
Zoom did a great job with their testing and implementation of hand pour operations and their new Z3 Hand Poured Swamp Crawlers will be a hit with finesse anglers and bass fishermen I predict thanks to the same great plastic with great new tri-laminate colors on these drop shot and finesse worms.
Check out the 10 colors at TackleWarehouse.com or at zoombait.com.
