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Articles
Buzzbaits by Don Dziedzina |
Here in Illinois we have a great number of lakes and rivers that have largemouth and smallmouth bass as well as striped bass. It doesn’t matter what kind of fishing you like to do, be it on a lake, river or pond, be it from the shore or from a boat, a fun bait to use is the buzzbait.
Buzzbaits offer some added excitement to fishing because it is so different from working a plastic bait, jigging a minnow, watching a bobber or trolling. With a buzzbait you fishing experience is in contact with three of your human senses. You have the sound of the buzzbait gurgling across the water for the sense of hearing. You can see the bait buzzing across the surface and the fish attacking it from below for the sense of sight. And when you feel your rod load up with a heavy fish, the sense of touch tells you that buzzbait fishing is an awful lot of fun.
Buzzbaits are all metal baits that look like nothing that swims. However they do make quite a commotion with a sound that fish to react and attack with vengeance.
Personally, I don’t really think that color on a buzzbait is a big concern. The reason being is that the buzzbait runs on the top of the water and at a relatively fast speed. After all, you have to crank it in fast enough to keep the bait on the surface and make the blade spin.
With the buzzbait being seen from below it’s exactly like taking a photo of a person with the sun behind them. Regardless of the color, the bait is back lit and all you see is a silhouette of the bait and bubbles kicked up by the blade making even more difficult to identify the color.
Color may make a difference in baits that move slowly through the water because fish can get a good look at them and will have time to analyze them. But buzzbaits just zip on by overhead and there’s no time to figure out what’s causing all the commotion. It’s just there and the fish has to strike now while it’s in range.
Well since I mentioned commotion, that’s what buzzbaits are all about; making noise and kicking up water.
The blades of a buzzbait can be tuned for different effects. Tuning means bending the wire ever so slightly so that the blade either hits the weight as it spins and makes the clack-clack-clack sound or it doesn’t hit the weight for a quieter presentation.
Push the top wire down slightly so that the blade just ticks the weight. Bending it too far down and the blade won’t spin at all. Open the gap and there will be no clacking sound, just a gurgling clatter of the metal blade. Sometimes you must experiment to see what it takes to get the strike.
Short strikes become a very disappointing occurrence when fishing buzzbaits. It happens so often where you’ll be watching the bait come back to your boat. You’ll see a swirl at the bait and it will sink in the water. When you lean back on the rod to set the hook, you feel only a short tug then the bait comes flying out of the water.
One way to eliminate the short strike is by shortening the skirt on the buzzbait. Cut the skirt so that the very end does not extend beyond the edge of the hook. This usually works well enough to fix the short strike problem.
However another way to conquer this problem is by adding a trailer hook. These hooks are special made to have a large eyelet so that it goes over the barb of the buzzbait hook. To keep the trailer hook on, use a short quarter inch piece of rubber tubing put it on the buzzbait hook after the trailer hook is added. This keeps the hook on and will allow it to float freely.
You can also put the small piece of rubber tubing over the trailer hook eyelet. Now put the buzzbait hook through one side of the tubing, through the enlarged trailer hook eyelet, the through the other end of the tubing. In this fashion, the hook will stay in place and not wobble.
One thing I must say about trailer hooks is that if all your fish caught on a buzzbait are hooked by the main hook; take off the trailer because you don’t need it. Use a trailer hook only when you keep missing fish.
A little ripple on the water is a good thing for buzzbaits. Water that is too rough will make it too hard to make the bait work properly and for the fish to see or hear. Start cranking as soon as the bait hits the water. You don’t want it to sink. You want it to start working as soon as it hits the water.
Buzzbaits are great for working over structure where you know fish are hanging out. They can also be brought along the edge of a drop off near shorelines. Work the bait parallel to the shore and breaklines and you will catch fish. Early mornings seem to be best for buzzing.
Don’t get discouraged with this kind of fishing. Sometimes it will take many casts. Once you get the fish on though, you’ll fall in love with this presentation and the anticipation of the next strike will be your inspiration to keep trying. Working buzzbaits is fun because you see the bait work, you hear it and you see the explosion on the water when you get a bite. Give buzzbaits a try.
