When you're getting your tackle ready for early spring, will you have buzzbaits at the ready? You should, says Dustin Wilks, who is a diehard buzzbait guy. Following are his tips about one of the most-thrown yet least-understood baits in bass fishing.
Early and Late
"I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is not getting buzzbaits out early enough in the year or sticking with them late enough," he says.
"Most people think of a buzzbait as a post-spawn, cover-water type of deal. But there is a pre-spawn buzzbait bite, and it's awesome. You can catch lot of big ones on it.
"It happens at different times all across the country. In North Carolina (where he's from), usually it's one of the first couple of weeks in March, and our fish spawn in mid-March or mid-April." He notes that the bite is "really strong for a week or two," usually when water hits about 50, but "a lot of times it's a low bite per day thing, maybe 8-9 bites per day. But they will be bigger than anyone else has.
"It's hard to do in competition because it's such a gamble," he adds.
"It helps to have a buzzbait that rides really low in the water because the fish may be a little more sluggish then. That's the advantage of the Glamour Shad (buzzbait he uses). It runs really low so the bass can just suck it in. You don't want an in-line buzzer because the fish have to break the surface of the water to get it."
In the fall, he says buzzbaits will work when other topwaters work – "all the way up until the water is in the high 40s, and as long as the shad are near the surface. A lot of time it's best in the backs of creeks, but sometimes if you get a warming trend in fall or winter, the day before you start to get some rain or a front come in, the shad will come up higher in the water column. At those times you can (fish a buzzbait) anywhere. The fish that are getting ready to set down in the main channel (for winter) will follow the shad up shallow. It's also a good time for swimming a white jig."
Skirt Colors
"Most buzzbait (skirts) are in solid colors," Wilks says. "You see white and chartreuse, black or just plain chartreuse, but you don't see many colors with clear skirts, like you do with spinnerbaits."
Baitfish-mimicking skirts are essential for clear water, and often help when there's a lot of fishing pressure. "There's a lot of fishing pressure with buzzbaits, so why not use more natural-looking skirts?" he says. "It's odd that people don't throw more of them."
He changes skirts during the day. "First thing in the morning, when the light is real low, I'll use bright white. Mid-morning I'll change to a more natural- looking skirt, like clear with blue or green flake."
Trailer Hook
"One thing you always want to do when the water is cold is use a trailer hook," he says. "You get a lot of slappers. I've heard some guys – like at Lake of the Ozarks and other places where they fish in real cold water – add more than one trailer hook. I've never done it, but it makes sense because you often hook them on the last little bit of trailer hook."
He prefers a 1/0 Strike King trailer hook. "I like a little bit of bite to it," he notes. "A lot of trailer hooks don't have but a 1/4 or 1/2 extra inch. I like it with a little bit extra length. The one Strike King makes is about the best."
It's also important to ensure the trailer hook is free-swinging. "Put the hook on first and then put on the keeper," he says. "That keeps the hook riding behind the bait and not off to one side. If you put the keeper over the eyelet of the hook and then put on the hook, you can get it wedged sideways. The hook will be perpendicular to the bait and will get snagged on everything."
Blade Tricks
> "A lot of people bend in buzzbait blades (the part that hooks the water and make the blade turn)," he notes. "If you bend it in close on both sides, you can reel it a whole lot slower but that will tend make it roll at faster speeds. If you want to cover a lot of water when the water is warmer, bend the blade out a little. That way you can reel it really fast and get reaction bites. That's a good thing to do when there's a lot of fishing pressure."
> "A lot of guys want to make that blade squeak. I don't know if that actually works or it's a mental thing. It's a mental thing with me – I like to have it squeak. One thing you can do to make it squeak is to crimp the keeper tube with pliers so it won't spin. That will make the blade squeak, but eventually you'll wear a hole in the back of your blade. That's the only downfall."
Line
Type of line is critical for a buzzbait, Wilks says. "A lot of guys throw mono or braid, but I like fluorocarbon because it's so strong and doesn't get wrapped around things or stuck in bark like braid does."
Fluorocarbon also is "high-impact. A lot of times when you're close to heavy cover and get a really big bite, you want to set hook hard right off the bat to get the fish out of that stuff. So you want high-shock line."
He prefers Seaguar fluorocarbon, which he says has "a really high shock strength. Even when I'm flipping, I never break one off on the hookset."
Gear
> Wilks likes a 3/8-ounce Glamour Shad buzzbait. "I usually start with shad colors. In darker water I like black, but in clearer water I like blue herring or baby bass – clear with blue or green flake." (Click here to see a review of Glamour Shad baits.)
> He fishes it with a 7-foot Daiwa medium-heavy spinnerbait rod, 6.3:1 Team Daiwa X reel, and 15- or 20-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon.
