Z-MAN - POP SHADZ POPPER SOFT LURE SOFT BAIT TOP WATER

Z-Man Pop ShadZ Popper Soft Lure Soft Bait Top Water

The Pop ShadZ is a surface popper built as a soft plastic rather than a hard body. Its cupped face pops, spits and chugs on the retrieve, but because the lure is moulded in high-floating 10X Tough ElaZtech it can be rigged weedless on a wide gap hook and worked through pads, grass, stumps and laydowns where a treble-hooked popper fouls on the first cast. The material is buoyant enough to float a heavy-gauge hook, so the bait keeps its nose-up surface posture even with a 5/0 or 6/0 fitted. In open water it can also be rigged line-through with a single large treble for a higher hook-up rate. Because the body is soft, a fish that commits holds on to something that feels like real forage.

Key Features

• Soft plastic surface popper with a cupped, chugging face
• High-floating 10X Tough ElaZtech construction
• Buoyant enough to float a heavy-gauge weedless hook
• Rigs weedless through pads, grass, stumps and laydowns
• Can be rigged line-through with a single treble for open water
• Soft baitfish profile that collapses on the strike for better hook penetration
• 5" length, 3 baits per pack

How To Fish It

• Walk and pop over cover — Rigged weedless, use short downward rod strokes on slack line so the face spits, then pause two to three seconds. Most bites come in the pause.
• Steady chug on open flats — Wind slowly with a pop every metre, holding a straight line so following fish can commit.
• Line-through treble rig — In open water, run the line through the body to a single large treble. Fish it the same way — the trailing hook holds fish that slash rather than engulf.
• First and last light — Work mangrove edges, weed lines and pad margins at dawn and dusk, and through overcast or rippled conditions by day.

Target Species By Region

• Southeast Asia — Giant snakehead (toman) and hampala barb (sebarau) over reservoir weed mats and flooded timber, barramundi (siakap) and mangrove jack along mangrove edges, queenfish over shallow reef flats.
• North America — Largemouth bass through lily pads, hydrilla and laydowns, plus redfish, speckled trout and snook worked over shallow grass flats and marsh drains at low light.
• Japan & East Asia — Black bass in weedy Japanese reservoirs and canals, and seabass (suzuki) worked on the surface around river mouths and harbour lights.
• Australia, Middle East & Europe — Barramundi and Australian bass around snags; pike over European weed beds; queenfish and small trevally on Gulf flats.

Specifications

Colours and SKUs: Redbone (39916515266), Houdini (39916515267), Mud Minnow (39916515281), Breaking Bream (39916515311), Smoky Shad (3991651557).

Supplied unrigged; hooks not included. Store ElaZtech away from ordinary PVC plastics — the two materials react in contact.

Recommended Pairing

• Weedless: 5/0–6/0 heavy-gauge wide gap hook, medium-heavy to heavy 7' rod, 40–65 lb braid
• Open water: line-through rig with a single large treble on 20–40 lb braid
• Leader: 30–50 lb fluorocarbon; use 60–80 lb or a short wire trace around mangrove jack, toman and toothy pelagics