Well, I finally got my order of the new Z-Man SlingBladez 3/8ths oz spinnerbaits. I have only thrown them for about an hour this morning in my heavily pressured golf course lure testing pond so I’ll take any advice or tips but here is what I found.
Pros: blades look great, thin piano wire that is a dull finish, nice trailer keeper, decent hook, copper wire tied skirt, throws very well!!, catches fish.
Cons: Skirt is lacking! When they tied the skirt they cut the inner half off so the strand count is low. Skirt doesn’t pulse in the water, it’s just kinda there. The willow leaf blade isn’t to my liking for this time of year so I put a Strike King #6 Indiana blade on and it worked great.
Bait doesn’t run incredibly straight with a trailer. I go with just the skirt 60-70% of the time but I won’t with these. The skirts lack bulk and movement so my zoom craw went on and it did well. I caught two (kinda, you’ll see) this morning and the skirt is already beat up. The pulling point of this bait deforms the wire so after each fish you will be bending them back into position.
Overall I like the spinnerbait, just wish it had more blade options and I hope I can get a Strike King skirt on it. It fishes smaller than a 3/8ths spinnerbait but it throws very well! It handles the fish really well, both were hooked solid. My spinnerbait rod is a 7’ Medium/Fast BPS Carbonlite 2.0 with a Daiwa Tatula-R 100HS in 6.3-1. If you reel the bait too fast it does twist with a trailer on it but without it tracks straight.
I will keep these in my box, and I think they will hold up, but it’s not a game changer. It’s a good spinnerbait, I’m not nocking it at all, I just need to throw some 1/2oz now and see how they stack up!