X-Zone Lures Explodes Onto the Tackle Scene

Q: What Makes the Slammer One of the Best Baits for Catching Bass?

The Slammer is a versatile plastic bait that can be fished in a dropshot or finesse ned rig technique. Its wide head, flat bottom, and tapered body with a spade tail provide great action and natural movement. It is a super soft, yet durable bait that is designed with a quality pour process that gives it optimal neutral buoyancy, making it perfect for dropshot rigging.

Q: What's the difference between the Slammer and the Swammer?

The Slammer is designed specifically for dropshot rigging, with its thin profile, spade tail, and wide nose. The Swammer, on the other hand, is a more versatile bait, with a flat top and rounded belly that imitates a wide range of baitfish. It can be used as a soft body swimbait and trailer, and is best fished with a swimbait jig or as a trailer on a bladed jig.

Published: Jan 11, 2023

Summary

X-Zone Lures is a growing lure company in North America, which is promoted by top angler Brandon Palaniuk, and was started by professional angler Mark Kulik who wanted to create baits that looked like both native fish and crawfish forage.
X-Zone Lures has a popular product called the X-Zone Slammer, which is a versatile and soft bait that can be used in dropshot and ned rig techniques, The Swammer is another product that has a flat top and rounded belly to imitate a wide range of bait fish and is used as a swimbait or trailer.
Both the Slammer and Swammer are good options for largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass.

Consider adding the versatile baits from X-Zone Lures as part of your strategy for catching bass this year

X-Zone Lures is one of the fastest-growing lure companies in North America and is promoted by the top Elite Series Angler Brandon Palaniuk. Located in Smithville, Ontario in the Great White North, the vision for the business started by professional angler Mark Kulik who wanted a better dropshot profile and action in his baits. His goal was to create this action so it would look like both a native goby or sculpin baitfish and the common crawfish forage base. The Canadian not only nailed this goal with his unique X-Zone Slammer, one of X-Zone’s most popular soft baits, but the dropshot lure also successfully imitates minnows, shad, perch and leeches. As a result, the Slammer covers the widest number of forage bases which vary from lake to lake and can produce results anywhere when rigged in a dropshot technique. After the success of the Slammer, the fishing market was taken by storm with a rapidly expanded product line that includes the Swammer, tubes, craws, worms, and others.

We’ll discuss what makes the X-Zone Slammer a great and versatile bait and the differences between the Slammer and the Swammer. X-Zone continues to release new baits in the soft plastics line including the Shot Shot Minnow, the Adrenaline Craw Jr, the X-Tube, the Whiplash shad and the Deception Worm. X-Zone has also recently released a line of tube jigs and drop shot weights.

What Makes the Slammer One of the Best Baits for Catching Bass?

The original 4" and Finesse X-Zone Slammer in 3 ¼ inch length were specifically designed as dropshot baits. However, these versatile plastics can be fished in super-finesse situations like a ned rig technique. Its wide head for nose hooking (critical for a good dropshot rig), flat bottom and a thin, tapered body with a spade tail provide great action and very natural movement.

The Slammer is a super soft, yet durable bait created with a quality pour process that delivers the optimal neutral buoyancy with its mix of salt impregnated plastic. This results in the right consistency for a naturally buoyant bait that remains perfectly flat in the section of the water where you’ve rigged your dropshot. In addition, the soft flexibility of the plastic makes the neg rig perform like a charm. It won’t float like the Z-man TRD but it will remain standing like a defensive craw when fished as a ned rig, a smallmouth killer.

What’s the Difference Between the Slammer and the Swammer?

With its thin profile, spade tail, and wide nose, the Slammer really is the perfect dropshot bait. But the X-Zone Swammer just might be the most versatile bait in the X-Zone arsenal. Unlike the Slammer, The Swammer has a flat top and rounded belly to imitate a wide range of bait fish. The boot or paddle tail completes the baitfish profile to make the X-Zone Swammer the perfect soft body swimbait and trailer.

The Swammer comes in both a 4 inch and 3.5 inch style. Both have a segmented body look but the 3.5 inch length has a few less segments. The softness of the X-Zone plastic makes both perfect brilliantly in the water with maximum swimming flexibility and action.

As previously mentioned, the top techniques for Slammer are dropshots and ned rigs. The top techniques for the rounded profile of the Swammer swimbait include a swimbait attached to a swimbait jig or as a trailer on a bladed jig (like the Slobberknocker), grass jig (Outkast Tackle Grass Jig), or a spinnerbait (Bassman). When rigged as a swimbait the Swammer has a number of jig options that include the Damiki Underspin, Megabass Okashira Screwhead or the Damiki Rig.

Both the Slammer and the Swammer make great options for largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass across a number of techniques to address the changing patterns of fish through the year. We recommend the Slammer on a dropshot or neg rig when you are stationary and the Swammer when covering a lot of water with a swimbait/searchbait or a trailer when you’re changing locations or you find that bass are in a chasing mood.

X-Zone has made quite an impression in the bass market in a short period of time. Try a couple and let us know what you think by filing a fishing report when one of these great lures puts fish in the boat!