All Shadzilla swim baits are hollow and they can be rigged with a few different keel weighted hooks. Before inserting the keel weight into the body cavity, its easier to lay the keel over the top of the bait so you can see where the proper position of line tie eye and hook hanger eyes will be. Use a pen or poke a small hole in each position to ease rigging.
To rig a Shadzilla, simply open the top fin by squeezing the bait and you’ll see that the bait is hollow. To help insert a keel weight, start by lubricating the nose of the keel with water, a light weight oil or oil based fish scent. Adding a small amount of lubrication helps the lead keel to slide in and makes rigging easier.
Once the keel weight is in, push it forward and carefully poke the line tie eye through the front of the bait. Then push the remaining hook hanger eyes out through the bottom of the bait. Using a good quality set of split ring pliers such as the Xuron 496, carefully open the split ring just enough to slide it on to the hooks and line tie eyes. Opening the split rings too much will actually stretch the metal and cause the ring to stay slightly open.
Maintaining a soft plastic lure is easy and important to ensure the bait runs true. Like hard bodied lures, soft plastic lures with a wire frame will need tuning from time to time. The wire frame in the Shadzilla can be bent to adjust the swimming direction of the lure. Depending on the style of the weighted keel, you can tune the front and or back wires.
With Shallow rigged Shadzillas, there is enough wire at the front of the bait to adjust the swimming action. Like a hard bodied crank bait, you can use needle nose pliers to bend the line tie wire loop to the left or right in small increments. Using your hands, you can also bend the wire frame in the body as well. Its best to make small wire bends followed by water testing to see if the modification produced the desired swimming action.
Since Shadzilla’s have a clear plastic top coat, they can be repaired with a small butane torch or bbq lighter. Make sure your lure is dry before attempting any repairs as hot plastic will not set properly when it is wet. To mend slices in the lure body, open up the slice slightly and heat the area just enough to gel the plastic. Then hold the slice closed for 30 seconds or so until the plastic cools and sets. You can then use the torch to smooth over the top coat surround the slice. Remember to let the lure sit for a few minutes so the plastic can cool and set. Please use caution heating plastic as too much heat will cause the plastic to run and burn. Hot plastic on your skin can cause bad burns.