Been Buying A Ton Of Wake Baits & Have A Question On How To Fish The Bbz

[primetime]

I asked for suggestions for wake baits about a month ago and I received a ton of suggestions, and I want to thank everyone for helping out. The BPS Egg for $4 is a winner and thanks for suggesting that model, I like both sizes so far & the Offshore Angler BPS version is a good option with better hooks and different colors as well that is worth checking out. I still want to get a Slammer but waiting to find a deal on one, and my question is in regards to the Spro BBZ swimbaits.

 

A local shop had a batch of the 4" BBZ swimbaits on clearance a few months ago and naturally I went overboard and purchased way too many, so I am stocked on the wakes, Slow sink, and Fast sink, but for some reason I am not doing well with the Floater and I figured that would be my favorite. I have always used a Fast or slow sink model & have had success on occasions but I have never done well with the floaters & not sure why.

 

Here is my question...Do you guys prefer throwing a true floater or Wake, or a slow/Fast sink, and do you work them steady like you would a typical wake bait and keep the V wake or bulge, or is it better to have the option to let the bait sink so you can wake them and then kill them every so often.

 

Any help would be appreciated and I know the larger 4" size is not going to generate as many strikes as the smaller wakes, but for some reason I am not getting much action when throwing the true floater and losing confidence in it, I have a habit of reeling to quickly at times and I am thinking that may be the case but wondering if it is a bait that people like to kill and let sit like a topwater or floating Jerkbait etc.

 

Thanks in advance, I am thinking of selling some of the floaters and sticking with the sinking models because I grabbed a healthy amount of the 4" wakes since the Spro BBZ looks so realistic & the bait Monkey was in beast mode that day.

[matuka]

Don't give up on the floater! As the designer himself said about all baits, "they all work.....at some time". I have had decent success with these by chucking them into dark spots in cover, tules mostly. Let it sit there, maybe a bit of a twitch, and let them stare at it a bit. Then slowly reel it in and expect the hit then or as it passes cover. There are vids on the BBZ website as well. As wakers go, most would not consider the 4 incher even a large bait. Siemantel designed it to be more like a big crankbait

[HookdUP]

I've knly caught on the bbZ floaters but I've never thrown smaller than 6in... What I noticed was though that I caught more fish on it throwing it on 20lb big game mono than anything else ...

[Dogmatic]

When I use the BBZ shad floater by itself, I usually almost dead stick it, like ya said, sit, give some cranks, repeat. However, I usually use it for specific situations, when I know the fish are keying in on the surface and they're after bait fish. Contact me when you decide to unload any of them. Depending on pattern, I'll take 'em.

[primetime]

Thanks for the advice, I think the steady retrieve makes them look like a healthy baitfish since they look awesome, I think I need to slow down and think of them more like a topwater lure than  a wake bait, For some reason I rarely if ever let the floaters sit still or just twitch it, I just go auto pilot and wake them steady with a few hitches in the reel to cause some type of change but I will not give up on them yet....I like the 4" size, I get plenty of fish that strike the large 6-7' red fins and 125mm Magic Swimmers, so I will keep trying them but I may be looking to unload a few and if I do I have a few of each color that was available, all were top patterns, one is the shiner pattern (Dirty something) I can't remember, than a herring and a shad....We have a shop with a bunch of them in wake, SS, FS, all 4" models. If you are interested PM me I can pick some up for you and the price is silly good right now....

[SirSnookalot]

I don't do much in the way of steady retrieves, I buy very few of those types of lures.  With few exceptions fish of most species IMO go after the easiest target, I like to pause my lures and let the fish have a good look at it.  One of my favorites is a Mirrorlure catch 2000 or jr, I use the same ones inshore fishing as well as bass and peacocks.

[primetime]

I am a big fan of the Mirrolure line of lures, they come with great hardware and awesome color patterns as well as shapes that bass rarely see although that is changing. I love their topwaters for fresh and salt, plus the 17MR is a great lure and casts a mile for it's size...Yea, if it floats it needs to look injured, I think wake and automatically think V wake or bulge and I plan on working it like a floating ripbait or prop bait with a pull and pause deal....Thanks.

[A KGB Operative]

You are located where? I always want to try it but I doubt your near northern illinois lol

[smalljaw67]

The same thing you're seeing is my experience and while I never got into the swim bait style wake baits I have tried using Bomber Long As and a Cordell Red Fin but I had more of less mixed results. I say mixed because I drew a fair number of strikes but they were more or less swiping at it and one out of 4 would actually get it. When I started using the Lucky Craft Wake baits things changed for the better and it got really good with the Mann's Waker Elite. Now, the Lucky Craft is a ptrettier bait hands down but something about the Manns Waker Elite that drives fish mad, they hit it really hard. I think maybe you should try more of the round crankbait style and mix it up and then see when each wake is most effective.