New season, new gear

This little plastic slays!

This month, I thought I would share a fishing adventure, and the story of how an American dropshot plastic became an instant favourite for me when targeting choice Australian species, using some of our common plastics fishing techniques.

Fish on!

As we roll into a new season, we also see a flood of new gear arriving in tackle stores, following the Australian Fishing Tackle Association Trade Show held on the Gold Coast in Queensland, along with the build-up to the summer holidays and the Christmas shopping period.

I’ve been lucky enough to work in the fishing industry for over 30 years and it’s an exciting time.

A time when all the to-and-fro product design, development and field testing comes together to form a selection of products that appear on tackle store shelves, that then find their way into our arsenal of fishing equipment.

Tackle Tactics launched a stack of new gear at AFTA this year under the TT, Z-Man and Okuma brands, and I managed to get my hands on some lures to fish prior to their launch.

 

A lot of the new lure releases have been designed specifically for Australian species, environments and techniques.

However, it was a late addition to the Z-Man range that caught my attention and, as I found out, it didn’t take long to attract the attention of fish.

This plastic was designed for American waterways, species and tactics, yet the first time I held it in my hand, I knew it was going to be a dynamite finesse presentation for Aussie anglers.

The plastic

The plastic is the Z-Man Drop KickerZ.

Its name is based on its design as a dropshot plastic – a popular technique in the US whereby the angler has a weight on the end of the line and the plastic suspended further up the line, much like a paternoster rig when bait fishing.

This method allows you to anchor the plastic with the weight on the retrieve, while keeping the plastic up in the face of the fish and allowing small subtle movements.

 

Dropshot fishing has never really taken off in Australia, however the features that make this plastic ideal for dropshot fishing also make it ideal for finesse fishing Australian species.

Let’s take a closer look at the plastic and then get on with the fishing.

Now that it’s hit the shelves, the Drop KickerZ is available in 2.75” and 3.5” sizes, though in the early stages it was the 2.75” size that I managed to get my hands on, in three colours, Shiner, Bad Shad and Gussy’s Glimmer Blue.

At the head end of the plastic there’s enough bulk to jig head rig well, with a ribbed belly to hold scent and create micro vibrations.

While the back section has cutaway angled sides that I believe increase the hook clearance and in turn hook up rate.

Moving to the business end of the plastic, the tail.

This is where I believe the key secret to success is – the long worm-like tail shaft, finished with a bulbous wedge-shaped tail.

The fishing

Straight out of the packet, I thought ‘this is going to catch’ and, when I put it in the water, I was excited to see that the wedge-shaped tail gives it a tight swimming action that resembles those small baitfish that predators hunt on the flats.

At rest on the bottom, that worm-like tail moved with the water, and I had the best of both worlds – a plastic that would swim like a baitfish on a variety of retrieve speeds and then, when at rest on the bottom, it appeared worm-like.

I was convinced that this little plastic was going to attract fish and trigger strikes throughout the entire retrieve, making it ideal for anglers who want to give soft plastics a go and deadly in the hands of experienced anglers.

Conditions were poor, with wind and showers, yet I had this new plastic in my hands and I wanted to give it a swim.

I launched the kayak and started a drift across a large flat with the wind, drifting with a dropping tide in about 1m of water, while fishing over the weed, along weed edges and into the sand pockets in the weed.

First cast, slow rolling the plastic over the top of the weed and the rod loaded, I had a Cheshire Cat grin on my face and a 45cm tailor found its way into the net.

 

My first cast with a plastic designed for bass fishing on the other side of the world and I had a fish in the net!

After releasing the tailor, two casts later I had a flathead, followed quickly by another – this time hopping and shaking the plastic in the sand patches among the weed beds.

Ten minutes of fishing and I had spent more time fighting fish than I had casting for them.

I continued drifting the flat and picked up another flathead and a tailor, casting into the shallow sand patches and hopping and shaking the plastic out.

I was fishing the Shiner, which is a favourite natural baitfish colour with a ultraviolet-reactive back, rigged on a 1/4oz 1/0 TT Fishing HeadlockZ Finesse jig head.

I didn’t need the 1/4oz for water depth, however the added weight was beneficial in terms of punching controlled casts in the wind, controlling the plastic on the retrieve and making long casts away from the kayak in the shallow water.

As I drifted off the edge of the flat with the run-out tide, I noted the current line that was created as the water pushed across some sand undulations in the bottom before flowing into deeper water.

 

These current lines created on the edge of flats are always worth a few casts because they create ambush points for predators, disorientate baitfish and often replenish with fish and bait as the flat drains, and different species are forced off the flat at different stages of the dropping tide.

The pedal element of the Hobie Outback kayak allowed me to hold position slightly off the edge of the drop-off, make casts up onto the edge of the flat and bring the Drop KickerZ down the drop from 0.5m of water to around 2.5m.

I was confident that, if I systematically cast my way along the 30 or so metres of the current line, I would likely catch a couple of bream, flathead or tailor.

What I wasn’t aware of was how aggressively and actively the fish would eat this little 2.75” hybrid soft plastic.

I made a cast up past the sand undulations on the flat and hopped and shook the plastic back with the flow, connecting to a small bream.

I then allowed the plastic to fall to the bottom and wash over the edge, where it was met at the bottom of the drop by aggressive bites and then a screaming run.

I soon had a tank of a bream in the net and was stoked at how the fish had tapped the worm-like tail before inhaling the whole plastic.

 

I was having a ball, fishing this plastic finesse on a TT Red Belly 7’, 1-3kg spin rod and Okuma Ceymar HD 1000 spin reel, loaded with 6-8lb Platypus Pulse X8 braid.

Because there had been a few tailor around, I had geared up with 15lb Platypus Hard Armour Leader, but the flathead and bream didn’t seem to mind.

A couple more cracker bream soon followed and it was evident that the design features of the plastic – meant for a completely different species and technique – would also lend themselves perfectly to our species and finesse plastics tactics.

With the tide dropping out further, the big bream had moved on.

I landed a couple of smaller fish before opting for a colour change.

I switched out the Shiner colour for Gussy’s Glimmer Blue, a colour designed by Z-Man pro Jeff ‘Gussy’ Gustafson.

It’s a beautiful clear pearl baitfish colour with a subtle sparkle and glow, and won him the biggest fishing tournament in the world, the Bassmaster Classic.

What would our species think of this iconic colour?

 

I moved back onto the edge and with the tide dropping out further, it wouldn’t be long before the water on the flats gave way to the weed, sand and mud that I had drifted across earlier.

This fired me up – the last remaining fish on the flat and a favourite of mine, flathead would now be forced to vacate the flat and head for deeper water.

It didn’t take long and I was on to a nice table-sized high 40cm flathead, quickly followed by a couple more in the high 40 to mid-50cm range, picking the Drop KickerZ up as it bounced along the bottom, that worm-like tail again attracting the bites.

I had caught a lot of fish in a couple of hours on this new plastic.

It had looked the part out of the packet and proven itself in the water.

Another shower of rain saw me wet and cold, so it was time to head for home to cook myself a hot breakfast.

Yep, all those bites and still home in time for a late brekky.

The verdict

I have been fishing soft plastics for over 30 years and seen a stack of developments in this category, including Z-Man’s 10X Tough ElaZtech material, the fine tuning of pre-rigged soft plastics and the innovation across the range of TT jig heads, yet the basic curl tails, paddle tails and jerkbait profiles remain fairly similar in appearance.

Years ago, the Z-Man 2.5” Slim SwimZ blew me away in terms of the underhooked tail design and the action, effectiveness and versatility that you could get out of a small paddle tail.

That little paddle tail is still a staple in my kit and one of the most effective presentations you can throw in the fresh or salt for a wide range of species.

Swimming the Z-Man 2.75” Drop KickerZ gave me a similar feeling to when I first used the Slim SwimZ.

I’m excited that this plastic is ideal for beginners and is going to catch a lot of anglers their first fish on a plastic.

I also feel that the versatility of this plastic – with its ability to catch on the slow roll, hopping, shaking and dead sticking – is also going to make it a tournament winner, unlock some tough bites and catch plenty of personal bests.

This was only one of the new releases from Tackle Tactics at AFTA 2024.

There were dozens more, which you can check out in the AFTA Product Showcase video on Tackle Tactics TV on YouTube.

After over 30 years in the trade, I’m excited that the innovation continues in the sport of fishing and pumped to see what you catch on this deadly little Drop KickerZ paddle worm – a plastic that has rapidly found its way into my collection of favourites.

See you on the water.