Prior to the introduction of the clicker-blade models, many buzzbait anglers tuned their spinnerbaits so that the main blades tapped against the wire shaft leading back to the hook, to get the same effect. You can do this to any of your buzzbaits by taking a pair of pliers and carefully bending the bait until the tip of the blades just brushes against the wire. If you go too far, the flex of the wire as the lure runs will halt the blade. But a couple of trial runs will generally get things right.

While you're tuning the shaft/blade clearance of your buzzbaits, grab a file and give the hook a couple of licks. Most buzzbaits use a tinned hook of 3/0 or 4/0 as a base, and these could always be sharper than the way they come from the box. Bass do tend to hit a buzzbait hard, but a sharp hook will do more to get solid hookups than all the wrist and forearm action you can muster.

In some situations you'll find that bass will strike short on a buzzbait. For this reason, many anglers add a trailer hook behind the fixed hook to make sure they get those short-striking fish. A large ring-eye hook can be slid on the buzzbait's hook, and held in position on the bend of the fixed hook with a bit of surgical tubing.

While neither Oakie Vaughan nor Manny Freire uses additional plastic trailers on his buzzbaits, it is a method for increasing the overall length and bulk of the bait. A big twin-legged trailer, either of plastic or pork, can make an already big lure look like a real mouthful for bass. There are times when it will provoke strikes from fish lurking under near solid overhead cover in lily pads or tules.

Crashing and bashing the lure through heavy cover is exactly what the doctor ordered for buzzbaits. There's something about a buzzbait bouncing off limbs, stumps and other topwater cover that just gets bass going. I don't know if they take it for something trying to get away, or if they just want to put a stop to all that noise. Whatever the reason is, their reaction is to kill it.

Buzzbaits are perhaps not the first lure most bass anglers reach for, but they have a definite place. Odd-looking and somewhat tiring to fish, buzzbaits used under the right conditions will provoke a lot of bass into making that one mistake that means more fish in your livewell.