Entry 167-5

Shaw Grigsby on Late Spring and Early Summer Fishing

Part 5: Buzzbaits

Editor's Note: If you want to know how to catch bass on any day, you’ll always get the best information from the anglers who fish the most. Anglers who fish the most are professional anglers and guides. The second way that you learn the best information on how to catch bass on any day you go fishing is to obtain information from the anglers who make the most money. Strike King Pro, Shaw Grigsby, fits both of these criteria. He’s made over $1 million in tournament fishing and earns a good income from his TV show. This 48-year-old fisherman from Gainesville, Florida, fishes as much, if not more, than any angler I know. When he’s not fishing tournaments, he’s fishing for his TV show. We’ve asked him what the best tactics are to catch the most bass in June, and this week you’ll see his answers.

Question: What’s the fifth bait that you’re always going to fish at this time of year?

Grigsby: Right now, you can fish the buzzbait all day long. As the weather warms up, the buzzbait will be an early-morning and late-afternoon bait. However, while those bass are still in the transition stage and moving out to deeper water, you can bet on the buzzbait. I think the buzzbait is tremendous post-spawn bait. If you’re fishing up north where the bass may just be beginning to spawn, you still can catch bass on buzzbaits. I think the buzzbait can be deadly effective right now from Florida all the way to the Great Lakes. I fish it in these regions from May to July.

Question: What’s your favorite color buzzbait to fish?

Grigsby: One of my favorite colors is black. I also like white. I like the buzzbait because it actually calls bass to the lure. The buzzbait produces sound and splash, and leaves a trail for the bass to follow up to the lure. It gets the bass’s attention because of its squeaky sound and the popping noise that the propellers make, and when the bass hear the lure, they can see it on the surface. They can’t handle that much sound and splash without attacking. If they can’t see the bait, they can track the wake that it leaves on the surface, especially on calm days. They can follow it up to the bait and crush it.

Question: How do you determine whether to use black or a white buzzbait?

Grigsby: I have a simple formula to make this call. I start with a white buzzbait and if the bass are not attacking it, then I fish a black buzzbait. Not nearly as many people are fishing the black buzzbait as they are the white buzzbait. I think this is the reason a black buzzbait will catch more bait than a white buzzbait will, especially if you’re fishing a lake where buzzbaits are used quite often.

I think there are two reasons bass attack black buzzbaits. They can see them well because they’re silhouetted against the sky, or since they’re black, the fish can’t see the bait in all the bubbles the buzzbait is creating. In other words, they hear the noise and see the splash of a baitfish in distress. They attack what they think they see – a baitfish – without actually seeing the bait.

Any time you’re fishing a lure that you can add a trailer hook to, do. I always use a trailer hook on a buzzbait. The best buzzbait I’ve used is Strike King's new Deuce. With blades on either side of the lure, the Deuce tracks straight through the water and doesn’t go to the left or right, which makes the bait weedless. If you want to fish the buzzbait through logs, brush or grass, the Deuce will stay upright and not get hung-up. This allows you to fish a trailer hook without getting it hung. The other advantage to the Deuce is that you can work it slowly. You can crawl the Deuce across the surface of the water and keep it in the strike zone of the bass longer. Without question, the Deuce buzzbait is the best I’ve ever fished.

Shaw Grigsby on Late Spring and Early Summer Fishing

Part 5: Buzzbaits

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