So I was sorting thru my tackle box and I keep a clear tackle tray full of various soft plastics mainly different zoom products but I stuffed a couple of zman jerk shadz in the tray a few days ago. well I discoverd this morning that when I opened my tray my Zman shads were almost melted they even damaged a man's jelly worm. this is not the first time it has happened once I did the same with a z man nedrig grub and it happened then too. I just thought maybe those baits was a Lil sensitive to heat cause I did leave my box in the hot car all day but obviously this is not the case .any suggestions on what could be causing these things to melt? I am assuming there is something chemical wise that just don't mix well with other baits but I've never had this issue with other baits either.

The Zman are made of Elaztech.   They do not play nice with any other plastics.   You are best to leave them in their original package.   They will even react to and warp a tackle box tray if left in there long enough.  

elaztech has a tendency to react with some other plastics.

they are one bait I always leave in the original package.

27 minutes ago, Fishin Dad said:

The Zman are made of Elaztech.   They do not play nice with any other plastics.   You are best to leave them in their original package.   They will even react to and warp a tackle box tray if left in there long enough.  

not copying you. we posted at the same time

Edited February 24, 20197 yr by Russ E
redundant post

It says on the packaging not to mix their Zman baits with other plastics too. 

Elaztech and PVC are not friends.  I learned the hard way.

I keep all of my plastics in their original bags regardless of what brand they are.  It's easier to find what I want and keeps them all fresh.

Keep all Elastech baits separate from regular plastics. That's going to be the result everytime if you don't. 

 

(Copied from other poster)

 

also strike king 3x plastic are the same Elaztech stuff.

7 hours ago, Russ E said:

not copying you. we posted at the same time

No worries.   Glad we were on the same page!

Always leave elaztech in its original packaging. 

So . even storing Z-Man soft plastics alone in a Plano hard plastic tackle box is a problem ?

12 minutes ago, ChrisD46 said:

So . even storing Z-Man soft plastics alone in a Plano hard plastic tackle box is a problem ?

I don't. Some guys do with no issues but I don't take the chance. If you do, you have to make sure nothing else has been in it because even plastic residue can be enough to cause issues. 

1 hour ago, ChrisD46 said:

So . even storing Z-Man soft plastics alone in a Plano hard plastic tackle box is a problem ?

It will warp the boxes over time.  I keep some in a 3500 plano knockoff and it’s very warped but still closes tightly.  

 

I keep pre-rigged Ned’s in a fly box.  The owns I have are made of a harder plastic then plano boxes and so far it seems like they are unaffected.  Friend of mine keeps his in a little multicompartment Tupperware container he bought at the grocery store and it seems to not be reacting. It seems like a crapshoot though on whether or not a given plastic will react.

1 hour ago, ChrisD46 said:

So . even storing Z-Man soft plastics alone in a Plano hard plastic tackle box is a problem ?

I got tired of finding out the hard way what soft plastics do or don't react with, and annoyed at trying to cram the original bags into a Plano 3640, so finally just hollowed out a Plano (removed the permanent dividers) and now there's plenty room for a bunch of bags (I know there are other boxes but I already standardized on the 3640).

 

I read somewhere about boxes that are not petroleum based.   I went online and purchased a couple.   They are hard and clear plastic.   I do use them with my rigged and pre used Elaztech and they work well.  Can’t remember what they are called.  It seems they might break easily, but so far so good.  

I also take any Elaztech trailers off my jigs before storing... used to throw them in with other jigs and ended up melting some other non-Elaztech trailers/skirts in the process...

31 minutes ago, Fishin Dad said:

I read somewhere about boxes that are not petroleum based.   I went online and purchased a couple.   They are hard and clear plastic.   I do use them with my rigged and pre used Elaztech and they work well.  Can’t remember what they are called.  It seems they might break easily, but so far so good.  

The ones I have are made by Flambeau and not made of PVC.

I store Elaztech baits in Plano utility boxes without issues. But, you have to use a box that has never held other plastic worms or soft baits before.  

I may de-bag my worms, including Z-Man's...but then I put them in Ziploc Snack-size with the cut out label in with the worms. This lets me store them in a Plano 3606..2 snack-bags per slot. Keeps them separate from each other and doesn't give the worms a chance to mess with the PVC.

3 hours ago, Catch Co. (Ross G.) said:

One more tip: Don't dip your z-man plastics in any kind of bait dye (JJ's, etc.) It will also melt them...

Just heard a tip today that if you put them in the freezer for 30 minutes you can then dip them in bait dye and it will work without melting them.

Here's another tip. Always take your elaztech baits off and store them after you're done. Some, especially Zinkerz are so porous from their salt that they stay wet for a very long time.  Makes for big rust problems.

45 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

Here's another tip. Always take your elaztech baits off and store them after you're done. Some, especially Zinkerz are so porous from their salt that they stay wet for a very long time.  Makes for big rust problems.

I can’t remove mine off the hooks because I superglue them on. I haven’t had any rust issues even on baits that I glued last spring. 

4 hours ago, Hawkeye21 said:

Just heard a tip today that if you put them in the freezer for 30 minutes you can then dip them in bait dye and it will work without melting them.

 

OK, you try it first and let us know how it works...

Thanks everyone for all the input I guess I should have read the packaging I just didn't think to do that first lol 

On ‎2‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 1:19 PM, Jhodge4719 said:

So I was sorting thru my tackle box and I keep a clear tackle tray full of various soft plastics mainly different zoom products but I stuffed a couple of zman jerk shadz in the tray a few days ago. well I discoverd this morning that when I opened my tray my Zman shads were almost melted they even damaged a man's jelly worm. this is not the first time it has happened once I did the same with a z man nedrig grub and it happened then too. I just thought maybe those baits was a Lil sensitive to heat cause I did leave my box in the hot car all day but obviously this is not the case .any suggestions on what could be causing these things to melt? I am assuming there is something chemical wise that just don't mix well with other baits but I've never had this issue with other baits either.

* Leave them in the original package then place in a box - problem solved !