Kyle S

@Glenn Thats interesting considering were scheduled to have our warmest day of the 'winter' so far today with a high of 81 degrees! Fiance and I are greatly looking forward to it and have a nice evening planned involving the outdoors. The sad part is Saturday its going back down in the 20's, with snow sleet and rain.

I purchased 3 rods and they came in a nice tube all together. I like shopping at Midway. I haven't shopped their in quite some time though. You're post got me searching around on their site, which has led to me seeing all kinds of great deals. Too many to list if I'm being honest. I'll certainly be checking out Midway more often. Thanks! I hope you guys enjoy those Tatula Elite rods! That was one heck of a deal. Wasn't easy to pass up lol

Nice! I'm aware of the BPS sale but now i'll most certainly be on the lookout for academy's! thanks!

What is this spring classic sale you speak of? I'm new to academy sports shopping as we just had one built in the last couple months locally. Do they have a set date that they usually have a spring sale?

I haven't tried them but now that I know they exist I'm going to have to! The swim baits appeal to me. The other plastic styles seem to look good but the price of the swim baits is very attractive. Thanks for making me aware!

Yes sir, i've certainly seen them quite a bit. An underlying goal of my original post was to see if some folks preferred a certain brand over the other.

what happened to things being built to last? Shame really. hope your daughter is safe.

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?

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!

@MunkinNo sir. The Pamunkey River is a tributary of the York River here in central Va. Is their a PoMonkey River on the lower Potomac? Also in Va, their is no limit to the amount of hooks you are allowed to have. thankfully. While I've got ya, I'm a big fan of the lures that i've seen you make on the Show off your work thread! Great looking stuff!

now a red eye shad is certainly coming along. A smaller paddle tail swim bait certainly could be a contender. both of those are getting added! Thanks! While I don't have any Gay blades, I do have a few different silver buddy and XPS laser blades. I can't recall as to whether I've ever caught anything on a blade bait but to be fair i've never given them fair chance. I reckon a blade bait could make the cut? Thanks for the suggestion

I'll tie one on! Thanks!

While I don't have any of the suggested I've got a bunch of Booyah and KVD squarebills in craw and red patterns. You think they'd be worth giving a shot? Stumps/downed trees would be the only cover I could deflect them off of as the grass won't come in until around May-ish

That looks like a great lineup! Typically for the Virginia river that I’m going to fish, the water is teetering around the upper 40 degree mark by late February. The last couple of years I haven’t started fishing until around mid March but I want to get a head start as I think some fish will already be moving around and more active. It’s usually somewhat windy and overcast this time of year. Moving baits are typically what gets the most attention. Jigs can certainly play a role however.

Thanks! I’ll look into those. Admittedly I’m not much of a crank bait fisherman nowadays even though I own a million of them. have you or anyone else tried any of the academy branded H20 express hard swimbaits?? They’ve always peaked my curiosity and seem to be pretty reasonably priced?

I don’t have much in the way of big swimbaits but I definitely have a couple red eye Shad’s. That LV500 is beautiful!

Extremely excited for the first trip of the year! The next weekend or the following, I’ll be headed to the pamunkey river in search of a prespawn fat girl. What else would you have tied on to entice her? I'm thinking of adding a Zoom dead ringer on a 1/8 oz ball head jig…. suggestions please!!!

I've never caught one @Sam but i'd love to! VADGIF email yesterday showcased that fish in yesterday article which is pretty cool! I do believe i've heard someone else on here talk about skin pigmentations in bass, sadly I can't remember who. Very cool fish indeed.

3/16 OZ Boss finesse flip jighead weed guard cut down and thinned out No skirt ZOOM Z-Craw Jr. threaded straight on the hook California 420 color Tails dipped in chartreuse spike it about 1/4"-3/8" Or.... a black buzz bait ? one never knows

Black Spro frog.

Go big or go home! I like your style!

Thanks everyone!

@KP Duty recently posted a topic talking about face mask/buff/ shields and what not which was a good read. Many mentioned that they wear all types of sun protective clothing. Specifically, what articles of sun protective clothing do you wear? I'm looking to purchase some and would appreciate recommendations on what to buy and avoid. The UV hooded sweatshirts that few people mentioned sounded interesting...

200 days a year is admirable to say the least. I'm certainly envious. I go seemingly every Saturday From March until November with a few exceptions when I absolutely have to do something. I would assume you live nearby a body or bodies of water? I for one don't, but if I did I would fish wayyyyyyyy more often! 200 days a year just blows my mind. Thats awesome

Thanks for all of the replies and reccomemdations fellas! Just researched Walmarts Prices on Lucas grease, they seem to be the lowest i've seen yet. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll have to swing by wally world one day soon to pick up a few tubes and visit the fishing section?