Strike King 3X Zero's

[Wayne Ek]

Got back home late Sunday night from fishing the Denny's Ice-Out series on Okiboji and Spirit lakes. The boat still has not dried out. Man did it rain and rain and rain... you get the picture. The more I fish the 3X Zero, the more impressed I become with it. On Saturday, my partner Mike D. and I must have caught over 40 bass during 8 hours of fishing and we only used 4 Zeros up. Actually 3 as I had to break one off on a dock. The things are indestructible. All the fish seemed to be relating to shallow (less than 3 feet) rock and wood/metal. If you had a dock with rock against the shore there was usually a couple of fish on it. If the dock had mud, sand or gravel, nothing.. not even sunfish. We had to let the Zero sit there for sometime and then crawl it forward a few feet and let it sit again. Painfully slow fishing, but it did produce fish. Has anyone else tried Zero's. I used them last year on C-rigs, they worked Ok, they work better on jig worm rigs and work great on dock rigs. For me it is a toss up between Zero's and Lake Fork Ring fry's for dock fishing. Oh ya, we cashed both days

[fisher98]

Agape-

I have used them a lot as well. I found them to be very durable baits. They last forever!!! I tend to wacky-rig them, but the only problem that I have found is that as the more I use them, the hole were the hook is placed tends to get bigger. To combat this, I just take the hook out and move the hook 1/8 of an inch to eihter side of the original hook hole. You can also use an O-ring and place your hook thru that.

Like you stated, you use less lures compared to the other brand names because these baits are so durable!!!

fisher98

[Slyster]

Senko's are the worst... pretty much broke in half with every bass I caught last summer.. but they sure caught fish... I hope Exude Comida's are as good as these 3x zeros... I sure stocked up on the last month. Must have bought 300+ with the site discount..!

[Mr. Pike1]

I would love to try these as well but over the years I have become addicted/dependant on the Senko and can not break away. Sly is right they can be a kind of fragile bait and I am sure the look alikes or this plastic you speak of all work. However, I am fully loaded for the upcoming season and have packs and packs of Senko's to toss at those 20" bass

[Bobb-o]

bought some today as i have use the 3X plastics in the past and love the durability of them, on of my favorite things aboot the original 3X lures is the fact that they float so that they rise off the bottom when i carolina rig. do these Zero's float like previous 3X plastics?

[Wayne Ek]

Not like the 3X floating worm. A 3/0 hook will sink a zero.

[Superduty]

I tried these baits a couple of years ago on Okoboji and had quite a few bites BUT I couldn't hook nearly as many of the biters that I would have with a senko or other plastisol bait. I was rigging texposed with the hook point pushed out of the bait and then nicked back into the zero. The gummy texture of the 3x wouldn't allow for hook penetration. Got any suggestions? Are you using the new hooks designed for 3x? Have the baits changed in the last couple years? Thanks in advance. These baits are awesome for wacky rigging-last forever compared to a senko.

[Bobb-o]

make sure you put the hook all the way through the bait, and then just barely tuck it back into the worm, this allows for much better hooksets with the 3X baits.

[delmuts]

i have better luck not pushing the tip into the worm. the hooks i used have a flat area behind the pt. that lays very tight to the body, so i have very little trouble with it snaggng till i get into the really nasty stuff. then, as was said. just BARELY hook the tip into the body.

[Wayne Ek]

SuperDuty: I have a higher hook-up ratio with 3X zeros than any other stick bait I fish. One of the only down sides of zeros is that you have to make sure you skin hook the zero and it has a little plastic covering the point. Zeros are so soft that you will get snagged up if you do not skin hook them deep enough.

[delmuts]

i need some insight/tips on wacky rigging these. this is a new way of fishing these for me, and still haven't caught anything when using them this way. i'm using a lift and fall approach on slack line, around weed edges and brush. nothing, but if i rig it texposed, i can catch fish in the same spots. any help ?

[Bobb-o]

are you hooking them right in the middle? sometimes i will hook them off to the side a little bit, it also helps to give short small twitches along the bottom and keep your line somewhat tight as you may be getting bites and not realizing it, i think i read somewhere that bass can eat something and spit it back out in 1/14 of a second.

[grab the net]

Agape, looked up your finishes on CB,great job! Looks like you guys were on fire. Big fish on 'boji, 5-8, nice piggy to anchor the bag. Looks like you could have had first place both days very easily with just a few ounces difference. Were the 1st place guys locals? Saw you east bound on 94 the other day, down around Freeport. Hope the rest of your T's continue to be as sucessful.

[Wayne Ek]

Grab the Net: Thank you that was very nice. I fish against the first place team a couple of times each year. They are very good hooks. I'm not sure where they call home. On Okiboji we did not drop any fish and would have had to cull a 16.5 up to a 18 to beat the 1st place team. On Spirit both of our teams 1st and 2nd only had 4 fish to weight. We should have had alot more weight as yours truly dropped 6 fish that day, and two of the six where good fish, big enough to give us a win... my partner Mike D. sure gave me a hard time about it. Said I was getting old and my hook-sets sucked... he probably is right is the scary thing.

[Wayne Ek]

Delmuts, try dropping down to a size 2 hook, not 2/0 but a regular short-shank size two hook. Zeros are a little shorter than other stick baits and some times the larger 3/0 and bigger hooks over-power them for wacky rigging.