Silver Buddy Tips

[OnthePotomac]

 

One of our river guides (25 years on the river) sends out a weekly tips report and has no objection with me passing it on.  Granted, it is Potomac oriented, but there are good Silver Buddy tips:

"This week will  be 50's and sunny most of the week, with overnight lows 35-40. No rain in the forecast. But it will be windy most of the week. Water is falling quickly to 50 degrees.  It is Silver Buddy time.

 Savvy Potomac anglers discovered this bait decades ago and rely on it to find bass. Depth oriented bass can be located quickly. This bait triggers bass as no other deep bait can, a tight vibration and a tantalizing fall, similar to fluttering shad, slowly dropping into the strike zone.

 Tie to 10 pound test Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line with casting gear in one of the many protected bays with steep drops is a proven method. Cast to around 3 feet and with very short snaps, follow the bait to the bottom and repeat. Once the magic depth is found, cast parallel to the depth and work this bait to stay in the zone.

 A medium heavy fast action rod with a soft tip will provide enough backbone to use a slight snap set to set the hook on fish that take the bait on the fall. A tap or a tick signals the fish has taken the bait and a quick snap sets the hook. When water is colder, hooksets are different. Fish still take the bait on the fall but aren’t giving an indication until lifting the bait. Barely hooked, softer medium action graphite rods pin the fish enough to bring to the boat.

 Don’t over work this bait. Fish are on the bottom and it only takes a lift of about 12 inches to activate it to get fish to bite."

[Choporoz]

One of my favorite times of the year.  Description is spot on for here.   Timing is just a hair early.   They aren't jumping on it yet, since the weather has been so warm, but it won't be long.  

BTW, @A-Jayhas posted a great video...if i can find it,, I'll link it here

 

[roadwarrior]

[scaleface]

I like the Cordell Gay Blades used this way. I speculate the only reason they are not more popular is because of the name . 

[roadwarrior]

I fish both and can't tell the difference.

[Choporoz]

 

5 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I like the Cordell Gay Blades used this way. I speculate the only reason they are not more popular is because of the name . 

What?  Cordell?   I suppose because they're often cheap, people may avoid them....I'm sorta guilty...same with Super Spots...

[scaleface]

Just now, Choporoz said:

 

What?  Cordell?   I suppose because they're often cheap, people may avoid them....I'm sorta guilty...same with Super Spots...

I was referring to "Gay" Blade .

[georgeyew]

Any tips on fishing the Silver Buddy on a bottom that is not completely clean without hanging up?

[Choporoz]

3 minutes ago, georgeyew said:

Any tips on fishing the Silver Buddy on a bottom that is not completely clean without hanging up?

No.  Not really.   I fish them in the rez, George....which is one big brushpile in places...lol.   I lose plenty of them.  I just make the pops off the bottom a little gentler in places and hope for the best.  Fortunately,  if they aren't driven into the wood, the weight helps free them after you get behind it

[mrpao]

When i get hung up, i usually use a lure knocker to got it loose. I usually try the clip on weight type first. That will often knock it free. For more expensive lures I'll also try the lure hound type lure knockers with the string. I almost always get my lures back with this type lure retriever.

Bladed baits will get hung up sooner or later. Even on bare bottoms, there's always something there to snag your lures. But they are great fish catchers so i always have one tied on.

[BassNJake]

I have a few blade baits that I removed the stock hooks and just add a single hook on the rear hanger

Hang ups have been reduced

In warmer water I'll add a few pieces of skirt material to the front hook hole for xtra attraction

 

[Str8BraidPowa]

Crushed on these last Saturday! Spot on!

[MAN]

2 hours ago, scaleface said:

I was referring to "Gay" Blade .

I always took it as "happy" Blade

[Choporoz]

4 hours ago, scaleface said:

I was referring to "Gay" Blade .

I guess I needed one of those winking emogi thingies....

[WRB]

Silver Buddy blade lure is popular but not more effective for LMB then spoons in our lakes.

the largest bass I caught on blade lure is under 3 lbs. I have spent many hours fishing Silver Buddy and catch more and larger size bass with structure spoons and tail spins.

We have Threadfin Shad and Silversides for school baitfish.

Tom

[Choporoz]

Tom, I'm not sure if its a Potomac thing, but I wear 'em out on blade baits here, but cannot buy a bite on a tail spin.  Threadfin shad seem to be the predominant fall forage....but there's probably a hundred other species of bait in the river, too

[Logan S]

8 hours ago, georgeyew said:

Any tips on fishing the Silver Buddy on a bottom that is not completely clean without hanging up?

For the Silver Buddy specifically, replace the hooks with better trebles but don't add split rings (Buddy's don't come with them anyway) - Clip the hook eye and bend it out a bit near the base, slide on the blade and bend back.  Do it in a way the at 1 prong of the treble faces down and the other two face up, then clip the downward facing prong off.  If you do this to both trebles it's surprisingly snagless.  Hookup ratio is not as good so I keep some with normal trebles and some with clipped trebles on hand, if I'm snagging too much I swap on one of the clipped ones.  EWG trebles do a little better than round bends also, but further decrease hookups. 

 

Like this...Clip the ones I crossed out.

 

But honestly even with this, you need a plug knocker and large supply of blade baits if you're going to fish them a lot .  

 

4 hours ago, Choporoz said:

Tom, I'm not sure if its a Potomac thing, but I wear 'em out on blade baits here, but cannot buy a bite on a tail spin.  Threadfin shad seem to be the predominant fall forage....but there's probably a hundred other species of bait in the river, too

If they won't eat the blade, try a tail spinner fished in exactly the same way and in the same places you fish the blade on the River...Sometimes it works .  

[papajoe222]

One of my most productive 'retrieves' in cold water (under 40), is a slow,short hop of a few inches followed by a long pause.  Inactive bass will be drawn to the flash and vibration and will actually strike the blade as it sits motionless on the bottom. This works on fish suspended below the ice in the winter. A slow short hop and let the blade suspend motionless. The bass will let you know how long you need to let it sit.

[Festivus]

I heard a lot of good things about the Silver Buddy blade bait in particular. Had to try one out. Found one and was surprised as it looked like an unfinished lure, very bare and the blade wasn't even that shiny. Was even more surprised at the price, very pricey for something so generic and bare. I was hoping the thin metal blade may produce more vibration or something as that has to be the reason why these lures are so popular and why they are so much more expensive than other blade baits. When I took it out on the water I looked at it wrong and the blade bent. Couldn't believe how easy it was to bend the blade. Didn't catch anything on it and blade was ruined. Was pretty annoyed, paid full price for it. And I thought the Reef Runner Cicadas were overpriced, not compared to these now. 

 

Bought a few Cotton Cordell Gay Blades, or I think they are calling them just the Blade now, and haven't looked back. Very effective and moderately priced. My first choice now. If I can't find those I will choose literally any other blade bait before the Silver Buddy, it seems that many other companies either use or import the same blade blank as the SB and jazz it up and are able to sell them cheaper. IDK but I'll use Johnson Thinfisher, Cordell Blades, BPS Lazer Blade, etc. etc. literally anything before I buy another one. Just my 2 cents. 

[Bluebasser86]

I'm still lost in the dark with these things. A jigging spoon I can catch fish with. When I catch one on a blade it feels like a total accident. I keep trying and maybe one day I'll figure them out.

 

BTW, he said cast it to around 3', did he mean into 3' of water? I'd have never guessed to fish one that shallow.

[Choporoz]

5 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

BTW, he said cast it to around 3', did he mean into 3' of water? I'd have never guessed to fish one that shallow.

May need to consider the source.  You can spend a lifetime fishing the Potomac and nearly always have 3 FOW within casting distance (if you have a 1/2 oz tied on, anyway:))

[Bluebasser86]

22 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

May need to consider the source.  You can spend a lifetime fishing the Potomac and nearly always have 3 FOW within casting distance (if you have a 1/2 oz tied on, anyway:))

Same can be said for our lakes where 10' is deep water. Of the 2,250 bass I've caught so far this year, no more than 50 of them were from water deeper than 10' I promise.

[Mr. Aquarium]

My favorite winter bait.  I did well last weekend on it, water temps in the 50s. Slow hops. Lift Pause, lift pause repeat, I don’t rip it up, I lift it.  As said above, they’ll eat it off the bottom. Also good in healthy grass. Rip it off the grass to get a reaction bite. Good winter bite find healthy green grass.   That’s where the bugs bait and oxygen is 

[OnthePotomac]

I believe he is talking about 3' of depth to start, then burp it down to deeper water.

[WRB]

My 1st blade lure was Heddon Sonar early 60’s popular at Rosevelt lake AZ.   

The presentation was simple lower to the bottom lift and reel back up and repeat. Worked ok until discovering Bill Lewis Rattle Trap smoky joe jigged off the bottom.

Read a Bassmaster article in early 70’s about the Silver Buddy for Smallmouth bass and bought several to take to Canada. Caught lake trout on them, few bass! Caught more channel cats on Silver Buddy then LMB over 2 lbs. 

Structure spoons out fish blade baits for me. Just not a fan.

Tom