SK Elaztech Fluke help

[Simp]

Ok so I'm new to fluke fishing and finally was able to pick up some of the Elaztech Flukes.  PitchnKid had some at KY when I fished with him and I was impressed by the action of the bait. I love walk the dog baits and was he able to walk it most of the time. I went out for a couple hours and threw it some on spinning and then bait casting gear and I'm able to walk it some but my problem seems to be ZERO sink with the lure. Should I consider using a slightly weighted keel hook? Any tips on the bait would be great and please don't just link to the fishing articles section LOL! Believe me I will be reading any and all I can find on the topic.

[Fishing Rhino]

All ElaZtech (3X) baits are floaters.  

You can use a keel weighted hook, or a jig head, to sink the fluke style baits.

A jig head will make it nose dive, while the keel weighted hook will make it tend to glide.

I have two types of Strike King fluke type baits, the Elaztech version, and the Perfect Plastic Caffein Shad.

The Perfect Plastic Caffein Shad will sink slowly on an unweighted hook.

The Caffein Shad can be made to dive, or dart to the surface, when jerked, depending on how you rig it.

Rig it with the back straight, and it will dart toward the surface when jerked.

Rig it with the back humped up, and it will dive.  Give it a sharp tug, then slack line immediately.  It will initially rise, but as soon as there is slack in the line it will do a 180 toward the bottom.  

In thick weeds, like coontail, I rig it weedless on an Owner 4/0 or 5/0 unweighted Twistlock hook.  You can make it dive into the stuff and come up clean ninety percent of the time.

When you do catch a strand of the stuff, it's usually the tag end of the knot that grabs it.  Eliminate that by using a tiny drop of Super or Crazy Glue to bond the tag end of the knot to your line, or trim the tag end close, and use a drop of the glue to make sure the knot doesn't pull loose.

[kikstand454]

if youre fishing the zulu or zulutoo then you need to match your hook to what you want it to do. itll float a 3/0 all day. but a 4/0 may give it the weight you want and a 5/0 will give a sexy fall.

i catch trout and redfish on them constantly and i use either a 3/0 or 4/0 gammy skip gap hook over grass or a 5/0 in 6 to 8 ft water.

same for bass.

[D4u2s0t]

I rig my flukes with a 1/8 oz. keel mustad twistlock hook.  Helps it get under the water, and stops it from spinning on faster retreives.

[RoLo]

Strike King's highest floating minnow is the "Zulu" made of 3x plastic, AKA: Cyberflexxx & ElazTech.

To each his own of course, but I never fish the Zulu like a fluke.

Instead, I rig the Zulu on a short-shank hook and fish it "unweighted" like a floating rapala.

It can be hooked in the usual manner or sideways through the flanks (bury the hook-point).

The Zulu makes a terrific weedless twitchbait, and can be tossed into the salad where the rapala dare not go.

Roger

[umahunter]

be careful with those stretchy suckers in heat if ya leave em stored where it gets to hot they will melt together into a stretchy lil bouncy ball ;D

[JacobK]

be careful with those stretchy suckers in heat if ya leave em stored where it gets to hot they will melt together into a stretchy lil bouncy ball ;D

the dont mix well with other plastics either

[bmadd]

What everyone else has said. If you want to effectively fish the zulu's deeper, either use a keel weighted hook or insert a nail weight into the bait.

I prefer the zulu's for fishing on the surface on calm days in and around weeds  8-)

[Simp]

Thanks for all the responses guys! Weeds are just about everywhere and I had  planned to fish it there on calm days. We also have a crap ton of shad schools around here that the bass are just busting like crazy. I had planned to use the Fluke to slowly fall threw the school and hopefully get nailed but I noticed it just floated or became suspending.

[CWB]

Zulu's Float.

Z-Too's are supposed to sink slowly due to salt content.

Zero's sink slowly like a Tiki Stick but not as fast as a Senko.

After some use they all tend to float, probably due to salt leaching out.

I prefer the Z-Too and have had great success with it as a topwater.

A 1/16 keel weighted hook should help you out and add casting distance as well.