by Bruce Middleton, August 31, 2009

If you like explosive top water action, this lure is for you.

Buzz baits, as we know them today, were first introduced in the mid 1970’s. The familiar shape and bent blade look hasn’t changed much since then except for minor blade modifications, skirt material and the addition of some colors. They are an easy and enjoyable lure to use and even a beginner can use one effectively. When using a buzz bait and the bass are not responding most fishermen think that the bass just aren’t responding to them that day. This is a misconception. When bass are not hitting a buzz bait you should try several different types instead of your favorite one or two. With buzz baits it’s not the color that matters so much as it is the noise pattern they produce that matters. Try changing the blade size and shape, try one with holes in the blade for more water noise, one with two blades or add a clacker. You have to fine-tune some times to find the right combination of size, noise and action. You also have to remember that a bass will often hear a noise that drones on and on and will dismiss it as back ground noise. So if the bass aren’t attracted to any buzz bait, try and speed up then slow down the retrieve so as to break up the noise pattern. This will serve you very well. It will also catch some bass that wouldn’t strike your buzz bait.

Big buzz bait blades allow you to retrieve the bait slower while a smaller blade needs to be retrieved faster. A four-winged blade and a double wing set of blades are the slowest retrieving buzz bait blade there is because of its design. A double wing buzz bait is almost as slow but not quite. Remember you retrieve a buzz bait just fast enough to keep it on the surface and no faster. The blade size and shape controls this variable. It is a known fact that the slower you pull a buzz bait the more attractive it is to a bass, most of the time. There are now buzz baits with two blades, which are retrieved at a slow rate also. Conical blades are also available too, which gives the buzz bait an entirely new sound and action. Remember too that a bass has a large tail that can propel it up to 30 miles an hour in a short sprint so they have more than enough speed to catch the fastest lure.

Buzz baits are made to work on the surface of the water. Retrieving one too fast will cause them to skip across the water. Retrieving them too slow will cause them to sink below the surface or just to bulge the surface. A buzz bait is built to create a lot of noise, bubbles and commotion and works best in low light conditions. Although this is not to say that they can’t be used at any time of day, as they can, especially on cloudy days. In fact my person biggest bass ever caught to date was at 2:00 pm on a lake with lots of water skiers on it with a buzz bait with a black skirt. The bass weighed in at 8 pounds. Now that may not sound like a huge bass to some but up here in my state the record large mouth black bass weighed in at 11 pounds and 2 ounces. This is like fishing in the south where the record bass is over twenty pounds and you catch a 16-pound bass.

If bass are boiling up just behind the buzz bait but aren’t striking it solidly, don’t slow down the retrieve. Instead add a trailer hook and speed up the retrieve. A trailer hook should always be used with a buzz bait. Bass often misjudge a buzz bait by a small margin but the trailer hook will get them 90% of the time. I think its fair to say that you would miss over half the strikes you get on buzz bait if you don’t have trailer hook attached. Also too the trailer hook should be connected so the tip points up. This way there is less chance of it becoming snagged on weeds.

The distortion you get when you look down into the water is just the same as when you’re in the water and looking up. It looks like things are right here but in fact they are actually a short distance away and at an angle. This is caused by the refraction of the water and our eyes inability to correct for the change in water and air density. A bass is no different. But adding a trailer hook will cause smashing hits because it is just a little bit behind the skirt making up for this difference. What you are doing is taking the guesswork out of the equation for the bass. The bass can see the bait and waits and watches and decides if he wants it. By speeding up the retrieve he has to make an instinctive strike or let it go. Most bass are opportunistic feeders and will strike it. A trailer hook makes the buzz bait larger and adds more action to the lure especially if you use a red hook. If they still are short striking you, try a color change. Go more silver or for more black. If it’s cloudy or rainy always go black. If the short striking still continues, then try a buzz bait with different blades that can be retrieved slower. This will allow the bass more time to correct for the surface effect and make an accurate strike.

When fishing a buzz bait, have a back up or second chance rig ready to go on a rod with a worm, tube or jig and pig. If a bass short strikes the buzz bait and will not come back to it, immediately throw the worm or jig just past place where the strike happened. If nothing happens right away, lift the rod tip up so the bait comes off the bottom then falls slowly back down. Repeat as necessary. This method will land you about 55% of the missed bass. Also too, recast the worm, plastic or jig back to the same area as often times more than one bass are present there. You have gotten an active feeder but a lot of the time an inactive bass or two may be under this bass and well worth going after. Bass also swim in age group schools so it is highly possible that more than one bass may be present in any given area.

A good buzz bait lead head, where the skirt is attached, has a flat head on it so that the lure rides up on the surface of the water more easily with out getting hung-up on weeds and lily pads. A long shank hook is better than a trailer hook because it sticks far enough behind the skirt to hook any bass that bite it without getting hung up itself. A cabled hook is better that a solid hook because it will swivel around as the bass fights but not give him any leverage to throw the hook. Trailer hooks work well but they do have a habit of getting caught in weeds a lot. A live rubber skirt is better than a vinyl skirt as it has more action and looks alive in the water, which catches more bass. A silicone skirt makes the lure look smaller for the same weight buzz bait. Also keep the skirt colors simple, use white or transparent colors on sunny days and black on cloudy days. Skirts with sparkles in them are better than plain colored ones as they look like fish scales.

Early in the morning, late in the evening and mid after noon, are the best times to use a buzz bait in the lily pads, over cow lily weeds and grass beds. Rainy days are great any time of day because the buzz bait can be heard over the noise of the raindrops hitting the surface of the water. The same can be said for top water lures with propellers on them.

On big lakes on week ends when the ski boats are out and making a lot of racket and the bass just don’t seem to be responding to anything you are throwing in the water, try a buzz bait. The noise and commotion of the buzz bait can be noticed over the ski boat noise and it will give you some very exciting results. It also works well in these types of lakes because the ski boats have chopped up the vegetation into tiny pieces and treble hooks are always fouling up in this little loose chopped up tiny floating vegetation debris.

Surprisingly, active bass still feed near the surface and the chop on the water created by the ski boats is an added help to bass fishermen. Yes it’s a pain in the you know what to be bounced around but a ripple on the water is perfect buzz bait conditions. It also allows the bass to come out of cover. When a lake is mirror smooth the bass will hold tight to cover every time. But a ripple on the water protects them from predators from above like Eagles and Herons. This is an important fact to remember. The condition of the surface of the water can tell you how you’re going to fish that day. If the lake is mirror smooth, get out the crank baits, spinner baits, plastics and jigs. If the water has a good ripple on it, get out the search baits like lipless cranks, spinners, buzz baits and top waters. The sky too can tell how to fish if you just look. If it’s cloudy it’s a perfect day for spinners and buzz baits, if it’s a sunny day, try cranks and plastics. Looking at the sky and the lake and your fish finder for the temp right at the boat ramp can tell you exactly what, where, why, how, and when to fish for bass if you just look and know where the bass are as far as their seasonal movements go. These three things can tell you more about fishing than you imagine, all you have to do is just look. It will tell what lures to use, what colors to use, where to fish, what depth, how fast or how slow, just about everything except how big the bass are. Look around you and see what the sky and the lake and the temperature of the water are telling you.

The question is when to use buzz baits? Prime time is from spawn to late fall with some people down south using them in winter in the warmer climes. The best days seem to be those terrible slow drizzly days that you really hate to go out in, but those days are some of the best fishing days of the year if you know how to go about it. This is not to say they can’t be used on sunny days, they can. But a good chop on the water helps. Buzz baits are the ultimate reaction strike baits. The overhead delta buzz bait blade(s) churn up the water, drawing the bass to the pulsing skirt and baitfish like head.

To help keep a buzz bait from tumbling and tangling up in the line when you cast them, leave about 18 inches of line from the rod tip to the buzz bait. This will cause the buzz bait to sail without rolling over and over wrapping itself up in the line. Heavy lines keep a buzz bait high in the water and light lines don’t. Add slit shot to the hook or just above the eye of light buzz baits for casting distance when using lightweight baits. If you see a storm coming get out a buzz bait or spinner bait. Some of the best times to use these are the four-hour window before the rain hits and then all the time it’s rains.

Some people use black or white shirts all the time while others like to change skirt colors to match the day or bait fish colors. As a general rule use light colored skirts on sunny days and dark colored skirts on cloudy days and at night. Colors like chartreuse mimic sunfish coloring and are always a good choice when these bait fish are found in the lake you are fishing.
Like any lure, always cast past your target and reel the lure to it. Buzz baits are made to fish fast through thick vegetation. The single hook lets it slide through weeds much easier than a lure with treble hooks. It works especially well in alleys between weeds and indentations in the weed line. This lure is so weedless that you can throw it into places you would shudder to throw any other lure other than a plastic frog.

I think it would be better some times if we could fish a buzz bait with a blindfold on. This way we would only feel the weight and then set the hook. It’s an exciting moment to see a bruiser bass jumping out of the water with you buzz bait in its mouth. And your first reaction is to set the hook. This, of course, can be wrong. Just remember with the buzz bait to wait for the weight.

It’s best to fish a buzz bait with the rod held high, somewhere in between the 10 to 11:00 range. This does two things. First it keeps the line to the buzz bait at the steepest possible angle aiding in keeping the bait on the surface at slowest speeds. Second and probably most importantly, you can hardly set the hook with the rod up in this position. When a bass strikes, you are forced to reel down on him and then sweeping the rod, set the hook. Now this only takes a second or two, but it is the difference between setting the hook and pulling the hook out of the bass’s mouth before he has fully bitten down on it. You have to remember one critical fact about top water lures. When a bass takes a top water lure he also takes in a lot of water and air. He then must expel all that water and air out through his gill slits before he can fully close his mouth. Setting the hook too soon and you might pull the lure right out of his mouth. But if you take the time to reel down on him he has had the time to close his mouth and therefore you have a much better chance of a good hook set. This is a key fact when using any top water lure and one that needs to be understood and taken into account. Now some disagree with me on this point and say to set the hook at the first sign of a strike and they say they do very well with this method. This is personal choice and I leave it up to you to choose which method works best for you. Excitement usually wins though and fast hook sets are hard to not wait on.

Any time the water is above 65 degrees is buzz bait time starting with pre spawn to late fall with the weeks after spawn being especially good. Great targets to buzz are brush piles, fallen trees, stumps, criss-crossed logs, weed beds, reed beds, cow lilies and lily pad flats.

Some angles don’t use a trailer hook at all and instead they use a pair of pliers to open up the hook of the buzz bait so it is more open. This works best on long shank hooks but I prefer a trailer hook and a red one at that. That added touch of red can make a real difference to the number of strikes you get during the day. I also make sure the hook is up oriented so the tip is pointed up and that way it doesn’t have a habit of catching any weeds as it passes over them. I also like skirts that have a set of strand that are longer than most of the other strands. This helps hide the trailer hook and makes the bait part of the buzz bait look longer.

Buzz baits are great search baits as they cover a huge amount of water is a very short time. They go where a lot of lures won’t, they are just about snag proof and they catch bass, big bass. But when using one as a search lure remember not to spread your casts too far apart. If you do you stand a real good chance of missing a lot of bass.

Colored blades are always a good idea with buzz baits. A white blade and skirt is a great summer and fall lure while a chartreuse blade and skirt is perfect for spring. Black is used in low light levels like early mornings and rainy or cloudy days. The bass can see the silhouette better against the sky and don’t miss it as often as do a white one. Some anglers prefer to match the color of the predominant baitfish colors to match the colors of the buzz bait blades and skirts.

Make repeated casts into alleys, lanes and to points in lily pads and cow lilies. It may take the bass some time to move into position to strike the bait once he has located it. One way you can give the bass more time to get into position is to slow down the buzz bait. On a flat winged model this is done by bending or cupping the blade tips more open. This allows you to retrieve it more slowly but still keep it on top of the water. This allows the bass time to move underneath the buzz bait and come from underneath it to strike. This is a great early morning tactic. Later in the day as the sun gets high you will want more of a reaction strike so you bend or cup the blade tip back in so the buzz bait has to be pulled faster in order to keep it on the surface. This forces the bass to attack it from the side in a reaction strike. Now if you don’t like the thought of bending the blades you can go to a buzz bait with larger and smaller blades to slow down or speed up the retrieve like I said before.

You can use a spinning reel or a bait casting reel to fish with a buzz bait but I prefer a bait casting reel because it has a better drag system and most buzz baits are heavy enough for this purpose. It will also cast this lure just about as far as a spinning reel. I also like a 6 to 6 1//2 foot medium heavy rod because this has the characteristics conducive to fighting big bass.
Because of the type of structure a buzz bait is thrown into and the shocking hard strikes it draws, 12 to 20-pound line is not uncommon. Braided line is also commonly used. Since a buzz bait is fast moving and the angle of the line keeps most of it off the water, bass seldom see the line at all. You need to pull big fish out of bad places and light line is just not an option. Fiberglass rods are a bit better than graphite rods for this type of fishing. Fiberglass rods have a softer and more forgiving tip which bends a lot and when you have a big bass hung up in lily pads. You need to keep the pressure up on him while you move in to get him. Remember too that a lot of the times, steady pressure and a fighting bass will work himself loose of many tangles.

One last thought about casting and retrieving a buzz bait is getting the bait up on top of the water as soon as possible. In order to do this correctly, it’s best to stop the line coming off the reel just short before it hits the water and begin to reel. This straightens out the line and doesn’t let the buzz bait sink to any depth at all. Instead it stays right on the surface and you don’t have to reel like crazy to get it up to the surface then readjust the speed to just keep it at the surface. A lot of the time it is easiest to actually be pulling the buzz bait with the reel before it strikes the water. This may sound strange but if you make shorter casts and think about this you will see that in fact it works very well indeed and you make a small splash to boot. Remember the correct speed is just fast enough to keep the buzz bait on the surface and no faster. A lot of the time it is simpler to make shorter casts in order to stop the reel in time to keep the buzz bait on the surface. Longer casts are much harder to control and they are prone to larger splashes. A shorter cast with a stop action and fast reel to keep it on the surface lessens the initial splash and sets up the retrieve speed with greater ease. This means using a side arm cast verses an overhead cast. Time on the water using this lure will give you a real feel for how to cast and retrieve it and how to do it correctly.

A lot of buzz bait enthusiasts like to add a plastic trailer on the back of a buzz bait, this is a common practice. Eel pork rinds or plastics are two of the most common. Others choose plastics worm segments that have metal flakes in them for added flash. Anyway you cut it this trailer adds length, changes the appearance of the bait and can draw more strikes in the right situation. I like the tail end of a black/blue worm with a C tail or short thin white grub, myself. The added action combined with a muddler skirt (a short black/silver skirt) make the bait look bigger and adds that little something extra that on some days can really haul them in. I also add the trailer to the trailer hook so the pork or plastic trailer is far back behind the buzz bait blades. This makes the buzz bait longer and the bass miss it much less often.

Lastly is a long armed buzz bait where the blades are ahead of the skirt by 8 to 12 inches. With these baits the blades make all the commotion to attach the bass but the skirt is behind the blades and just under the surface. This is for when the bass are active enough to chase the bait but they don’t want to break the surface and take in a lot of air when they strike. These may look like an ungamely lure but in reality they are easy to cast and a dream to fish with. With the time between totally top water baits only to under water baits only these baits cover this time and give you another way to take bass early or late in the day. They are well worth looking into as they really do catch bass.

If exciting top water action and picture book snap shots of jumping bass and monster strikes are for you, master the art of buzz bait fishing and achieve new heights in fishing this explosive lure. You can’t go wrong with a buzz bait and they will go where most baits wouldn’t dream of going, the tough stuff.


Bruce Middleton

bpmiddleton@peoplepc.com