Story by Hunter Baughman
A few days in the deer woods have been a nice reset for me! Now it’s time to focus on fishing again.
Much of the south has had cooler temperatures the last few days. That should drop the water temperature down enough to fire the fish up. The topwater bite will be firing off at any time.
Through the warmer months we think of a topwater bite happening early and late in the day. This time of year is different. It’s an all-day affair. They will eat it early when they are in a feeding mood. Then on up in the day they will pull up shallow in the sun because it will be slightly warmer. Wind-blown rocky points are among the best places to look for that midday bite.
While there are tons of options for a topwater — and they are all equally fun — in the fall I prefer a buzzbait. You can cover more water and move quickly to find feeding fish. We saw Nick Brown — winner of the Chompers/NPFL Stop #5 on Lake of the Ozarks presented by Bait-Wrx — weigh in the majority of his fish on a buzzbait. Though the quantity was not there for him, there was plenty of quality. That quantity versus quality ratio is typical with any topwater. As I’ve said in the past, it’s still fall fishing and it’s tough. The more ground you cover, the more active fish will see your bait.
Everyone has their favorite buzzbait. My confidence is in the Brazalo Custom Lures Bushwhacker and its baby brother, the Wee-Whacker. Just like we discussed last week, confidence catches fish. That’s why I stick with these two baits.
The Bushwhacker has a bead that the blade connects with as it turns. The allows for an extremely loud clacking sound that attracts active fish and sometimes even triggers a reaction bite from non-aggressive fish as well.
While the Bushwhacker is your typical size buzzbait, the new Wee-Whacker is not. It is only 3/16-ounce and 4 inches long. Designed after its big brother, it has the same bead setup. It’s not as loud as a Bushwhacker, but it’s still quite loud and has a unique sound. I have quickly adopted it as my go-to buzzer.
Both of these baits come without a skirt. Instead of a skirt, a soft plastic bait of your choice is threaded onto the hook. For me, most of the time it will be a craw or swimbait. Everyone has their opinion and can use whatever they prefer. This goes right back to the confidence theory.
Skirts versus soft plastics on buzzbaits is a debate among fishermen. There are three reasons I prefer a soft plastic on my buzzbaits.
First, with a soft plastic bait, you can skip it under docks, cables and limbs.
Second, the soft plastic makes more disturbance in the water.
Third, I believe the hookups are better with the soft plastic because the fish are trying to kill the soft plastic instead of nipping at the end of a skirt.
Now for the rest of my buzzbait setup:
I prefer a fast reel. This makes it easier and quicker to jump the bait up on top of the water. It also allows me to cover more water. Personally, I use an 8:1 gear ratio. For every turn of my reel handle, the spool turns eight times. That’s picking up a lot of line very quickly!
Speaking of line, I always use braid. If you’re around cover, braid gives you the brute force to bring the fish to the boat quickly. The faster a fish makes it to the boat, the better the chances are of landing that fish. I only use 40-pound braid. That’s a little smaller than some prefer. I think it helps tremendously with castability, especially on the Wee-Whacker. Plus, let’s face it, it takes a ton of stress to break 40-pound braid.
Finally, there’s my rod setup. I prefer a Stik5 Switchblade SS, which is a 7-foot-2 medium-heavy spinnerbait rod. There are a couple of reasons I use that rod. First, it’s light enough for long, accurate casts. Second, braid has no stretch at all, so the soft rod tip absorbs the extreme shock that occurs when the hook is set. That helps to prevent ripping the hook out of the fish’s mouth.
It’s a solid combo that’s put a lot of buzzbait bass in the boat for me! I hope you use these tips to increase the number of buzzbait fish you catch.
I’m looking forward to catching up again next week!
Hunter Baughman – Angler Profile
