Buzzbait question?

[PressuredFishing]

Hello friends, so I ordered some buzzbaits and wanted some advice on when and where to use them. My thought process was they could be a better choice than a prop bait In snaggy areas like lay downs, wood, reeds, docks, and submergent grass where they get fouled. Maybe people have other advice for them trailer or no trailer, skirt, good trailer for skipping, etc. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mobasser]

You can throw them most anytime. Experiment with skirts, trailers etc. Or, no skirt with a plastic shad body or similar. Some good fish have been caught on buzzbaits in the middle of the day.

[casts_by_fly]

I love buzzbaits.  Yes to a trailer and trailer hook. I basically only fish black. 
 

throw them anywhere except matted grass. Great to fish through downed trees, pads with openings through them, down along docks, and over grass that is just under the surface. Fish them fast or slow and let the fish tell you what they want. 

[gim]

I usually do ok with a buzzer when it’s cloudy out and relatively flat/calm water. Years ago I got into a really good buzzbait bite in the fall, but that hasn’t happened again since.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

Buzzbaits are great.  They will come thru sparse grass as long as its not that fibrous stuff that jams the blade up.  I really dont like clackers because it doesnt take much grass to foul the clacker and once that happens the cast is wasted.  A trailer helps the bait plane at slower speeds, you just dont want something too big it will cut distance.  I keep it fairly simple, double tail grubs for open water and a GL hammer craw for skipping.  Black skirt and black blade is where its at.  

[Columbia Craw]

For me it’s when the water temp hits 60 or so.  I also run a toad over a skirt.  Have a follow up bait at arms reach.  

[TnRiver46]

Definitely throw them anywhere! I’ve seen them get smashed by big LM in open water nowhere near anything 

[scaleface]

Throw them anywhere you would throw a spinnerbait . You can throw them over logs.

[Chris Catignani]

I always have one tied on. No trailer, no trailer hook. 

Great way to fish a big mud flat with lots of lay down...especially in the summer.

[KCFinesse]

I throw buzz baits a lot on braid into the nastiest stuff I can find. I like a buzz to have a solid bead in front of the blade to help deflect material and prevent the blade from fouling. I also fish these without a trailer hook, but I do look for baits where the hook sits back.

 

I also love throwing them in open water when there is a little chop, but I'll use a trailer hook then...

 

-Jared

[Bankc]

I tend to fish them in the early morning hours from mid spring until late fall.  I just use a trailer hook.  I tend to fish them in shallow to mid depth water, say 3-15 feet.  The most important thing, for me, is to tune the arm so the blade just nicks the jig head on the retrieve.  That, and having one that's properly worn out and squeaky.  

 

It seems like there are years when they work really well, and years when they don't.  But the water needs to be kind of warm for the bass to want to chase them, in my opinion.  

[WRB]

Don’t think you can skip a buzzer, not a easy lure to cast accurately do to it’s blade aerodynamics. You want to keep the cast under 90’.

Shad spawn is a good time before 9A when the Shad are still in the brush. 

Single buzzer with gold blade and chartreuse/white skirt Shad profile 3” trailer.

Double Buzzer with Chrome blades pearl white skirt no trailer.

Tom

[scaleface]

I use a 1/2 oz buzzbait if fishing with a skirt a 3/8oz if fishing with a swimbait . I place them accurately  in tight places with a side arm cast . The swim bait weighs more than a skirt  so it causes me to lose accuracy,  thats why I down-size to a 3/8th oz.

[gulfcaptain]

Black, white, chartreuse/white.  Double for slower presentation. Over grass flats, brush, rocky banks, flats. Anywhere. Use them prespawn and until last fall. Spring 59 degree water, fall 55. Slow in spring,  faster in fall. Wanna get a big girl throw a buzz in the prespawn periods. I stick with a 3/8 to 1/2, no trailer hook, but trailer with trimmed skirt or no skirt.

[GRiver]

21 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

I love buzzbaits.  Yes to a trailer and trailer hook. I basically only fish black. 

I’ve only caught anything on the darker colors of buzz baits, and I be got a ton of them. They are only a dollar at Walmart, so I’ve got 2 or more of all their colors. Ya might have to tweak them here or there, I’m not afraid to throw them where I might lose them ether at a dollar each. 
I like to use them when it’s dark too, or real early morning or late evening.
I’m not a buzz bait expert by any means but they are fun to fish. I’ve never used a trailer hook, but I switch to different trailers a lot. 

[PressuredFishing]

Wow such excellent info guys!

 

[Kyle S]

Buzz baits are fantastic lures! I think what features you end up liking in a buzz bait come from what you personally are able to find success on.

For me, I've found that my favorite buzz bait is a Booyah 1/4 oz, all black Buzzbait, black blade, with a clacker. I prefer to thin the shirt out by removing a few strands.

The trailers I prefer are a zoom z-craw jr. in California 420 with the tails dipped in chartreuse Spike it, or a Strike King Rage menage grub in good old green pumpkin also with the tails dyed.

The rod and reel setup I like to use is a 7' MH Lew's hank parker special and a 8.1 Gear ratio Shimano SLX.

I LOVE using 15lb Berkley Trilene Big Game.

 

I don't like braid unless I'm fishing IN very dense vegetation (choked out grass and or lily pad fields.

I've found I like Big Game for fishing AROUND dense vegetation and and other sort of cover like stumps, dock pilings etc.

 

The rod can be switched out to a lighter or heavier power depending on what you find you like using the best.

 

The rod that you decide on is what I would use to formulate your hook set which is also very important as it is with just about every topwater bait

 

Many folks use lower gear ratio speed reels for buzz baits and have plenty of success.

Lots of soft plastic trailers can work, I would encourage you to experiment and see what you like the best.

Quite a few buzz baits are also great, i.e. Cavitron by mega strike, strike king makes a couple good ones, (don't forget the mini pro buzz by SK, War Eagle makes a nice one. 

Lots of good options to choose from.

I really like the Booyah one personally.

 

Trailer hooks are also optional. I've found them to be more trouble and aggravation than they are worth personally, however like I've said before many guys swear by them. 

 

The buzz bait isn't always the best lure but when they're on it, they're ON IT! haha

When the bite is on its an absolute blast and its a very effective way to catch numbers and big ones!

 

For me, the buzz bait is a late spring to early fall lure. I believe @Glenn has said that he's caught fish on a buzz bait in some seriously col water in like January or February? 40 or 50 degree water temps, maybe even lower.

 

I love a buzz bait if you can't tell and I hope you find that you do too!

 

 

 

[Kyle S]

One more thing...

if you happen to notice your Buzz bait 'rolling' to one side or the other or not running straight on your retrieve I've found it to usually be one or two things.

1. You need to learn how to tune a buzz bait. Essentially this all revolves around the wire of the bait. Typical advice is to always bend or make the wire perfectly straight in line with the shank and bark of the hook,  ( look down the bait from the line tie, sighting down towards the  hook )

While that typical advice holds true most of the time, its not always the solution to get the bait to run true. If your trailer isn't threaded on straight or is just heavier on one side that will throw it off when it runs and you need to bend the wire to account for that.

 

You can also intentionally bend the wire to one side or the other to make it come around objects similar to a vehicle coming around a curve. 

 

Personally I think the most important piece of the puzzle to have a successful buzz bait retrieve is this...

As soon as you cast the buzz bait, get your reel hand on the handle and be ready.

Right before the lure touches down on the waters surface, engage the handle and start the retrieve. This will ensure that that the blade(s) are engaged and spinning immediately as the lure makes contact with the water and you're effectively fishing it if you casted on top of a fish or landed directly in the 'strike zone.'

Just as important is whilst you're retrieving the bait, i've found that if you keep your rod tip high (something like a 10 or 11 o'clock position) at the beginning of the retrieve, and then gradually lower the rod tip as you retrieve the lure and it gets closer to your or the boat to where your almost pointing your rod tip at the lure when it's roughly 20'- 30' from you, this will almost always keep the buzz bait running true and stop it from rolling to one side or the other.

That was a run on sentence if their ever was one.

 

My apologies for the overload of info. I hope something stated in this thread is useful in your buzz bait fishing!

 

I lied, I just thought of something else...

I've also found that the more you fish and catch fish on the same Buzzbait, the more effective it seemingly becomes. 

One characteristic of a very used buzz bait is that the blade wire starts to thin down from it being spun so much and the blade starts to emit a higher pitch as it spins. 

That higher pitch is often referred to as a 'squeal.'

You want the squeal, lol

 

you can tape your buzzbaits to the side mirror of your car to wear it down faster or you can carefully take a file and gently file down the blade arm until you perfect the perfect noise?

[Catt]

Cavitron at night ?

[scaleface]

If looking for a squealer, crimp the rivet in place with wire cutters, side-cutters...  Then for some extra squeal take some pliers and squeeze the rivet and blades where they make contact, as hard as you can. This will create little noise making ridges. I pour   my own and do the later before assembly.

[Chris Catignani]

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

...I pour my own and do the later before assembly.

Lets see some of em...

[scaleface]

46 minutes ago, Chris Catignani said:

Lets see some of em...

Just a simple Do-It mold . I like to put the stair-step bend in them .

[the reel ess]

I've caught the most fish on them at the lowest light periods. I like a dark one for darker times and a white/silverish one for a little more light. On the dark one I like to use a buzztoad like the Rage Toad. Some buzzbaits are not really made for a trailer alone and won't work well with one. If you buy one with the toad of course it's balanced. I don't seem to catch big numbers on them, but usually better than average fish. I think my biggest buzzbait fish is 5 lbs.

[Team9nine]

Don’t overthink it. You either believe in the power of the buzzbait or you don’t 

[Zcoker]

I use the buzzbaits mainly at night in the everglades, especially during the summer months. A nice steady retrieve over the the calm night-time starlit water is a guaranteed BOOM! Although I've tried store-bought buzzbaits, I have resorted to just making my own custom black nickle plated baits. I get the parts and put them together related to a desired "tune", if you will. Seems like the sound or tune is what attracts the bigger fish. The buzzbait is very effective and can get the biggest fish around. I've caught many 8 pounders and up on this bait.