By: Corey Campbell

One big misconception in fishing is that buzzbaits only produce during the summer in the early morning hours. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as I’ve caught many good fish on buzzbaits year around. While you probably will catch more fish on those early summer mornings when throwing a buzzbait that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t throw it during other key times as well. Right now is one of those key times as bass are looking to bulk up with bait fish being their key food source. The way I’ve been fishing my Helix Ninja buzzbait is I’ve removed the skirt and replaced it with a small paddle tail swimbait. Size and color are the 2 main factors here as you want to make sure you use a small swimbait so that you don’t weigh the buzzbait down, and definitely don’t use a 5″. While choosing the swimbait, try to match the size and color of the natural baitfish in the water in which you will be fishing. Once you have the lure tied on, I have found it best to work the buzzbait and try to bounce it off structure rather than just pull it back in a straight line, boat docks and tree branches have been awesome lately. Follow schools of baitfish and when you find them pull it right over the top of them. Think of it this way: the fish are already looking to feed on bait fish that resemble your swimbait; now you have added some disturbance with the buzzbait which really makes your presentation stand out from the rest of the baitfish in the pack. You get the benefit of both a feeding bite, as well as a reaction bite. Try this out and hopefully you will add a few extra fish each time out, plus there’s nothing like seeing that top water blow up!