The couple jig heads I've got are a pain to use with the mooch minnow plastic. I've tried the VMC swimbait with screwlock, strike king squadron, and some a guy made at home. I cant get the VMC screwlock to work with this bait, works great with freeloader. The other two the head and collar its a pain the get and keep this stretch bait up on them even with superglue. May try a couple of the new VMC styles when I made another purchase.

What size are you wanting to use?

Do you think something like this would work?

I have them and use them. You have two choices.

The VMC (or other) with the screw lock works great once you get good at putting them on. Get it on straight, deal with wrapping the tail around the hook wire as you wind it up the screw lock, and you’ll never need to replace that bait on that head. You can’t wear them out and it isn’t coming off.

‘Other’ more standard hook keeper style baits. You can make most any of the other keepers work. The single wire with a hook on the tip (ala VMC moon eye) are probably the best for elaztech because they slide in a lot easier and the little hook holds them in place. The dirty jigs guppy shown above works once you get it on, but a drop of superglue is your friend on them. With any of this style, getting them in place is the tricky part. You can’t push them up onto the keeper- you have to pull them. Thread them onto the hook like normal and when you get it close, pull the bait from the tip of the nose (bottom side of the bait, like you were gripping its lower jaw) stretching it well past the end of the ball head. That will pull enough of the internal plastic up past the keeper to get it locked in place. A drop of superglue and you’ll lose the lure before replacing the plastic.

I throw the mooch minnow a lot, being made of tpe means a screw lock is not worth the trouble. That material requires way too much effort to get the screw started. @Jig Man 's rec would work great and is my number two choice. I've mostly been using mustad's ultrapoint ballhead jig because of its value and multirole use for me, also a fan of the gammy horizon head and owner roller head. Basically, the cone collar and the bottom bent wire are my favorite keepers for this material. I rarely even use with a dab of glue, they stay put and catch multiple fish.

scott

When I used screw locks with pte baits I heated a small drill bit and melted a hole in the end. That made the screw lock easy to use.

I just tried the Big bite pendulum. The eye is on some type of swivel which keeps you from having to tie a loop knot if you are so inclined. These and the Queen are my favs.

Owner Range Roller.

On 3/1/2026 at 7:20 AM, buckmaster27012 said:

The couple jig heads I've got are a pain to use with the mooch minnow plastic. I've tried the VMC swimbait with screwlock, strike king squadron, and some a guy made at home. I cant get the VMC screwlock to work with this bait, works great with freeloader. The other two the head and collar its a pain the get and keep this stretch bait up on them even with superglue. May try a couple of the new VMC styles when I made another purchase.

queen tackle ls tungsten head. 2/0 fits them perfect.

Marvelous Action;

Should be fine with most non screwlock jigheads. Queen are nice. The key is to thread the bait onto the hook straight and when you get to the keeper, grab either the head or chin of the bait and pull it onto the keeper rather than push it on. I prefer a wire keeper for TPE minnows but you can put a drop of super glue on the other kind.

I’ve been using the VMC redline swimbait ball jig head with a lot of success. I also bought their shaker minnow that I’m excited to try out this year.

I pour my own with a Midwest Finesse mold and it works really well.

On a related note, had a fish pull a 4" mooch minnow in half Sunday. Those things are pretty indestructable, really surprised me. I usually just reel into fish fast on the minnow before sweeping on them to take all the slack out. I did that, felt a lot of weight, then it was gone. I'm guessing she must have just grabbed right behind the hook and none of the point. No toothy fish in the lake to cut it either.

thanks i use the 2.5 and 3.5 for the most part, stick with freeloader for anything bigger.

3/8 oz. Z dude Mini max bladed jig.😁