favourite technique for bucktails: which one is it and why does it sem to be productive? Any particular time or place that you use a certain technique? I fish them for about a year now and still haven

[divani]

[Schuler]

I haven't yet caught anything on a bucktail, but they are by far my favorite lure to use. Put one on my 7'6" rod w/ a C4 reel and they cast a mile and come in fast.



-Zach Schuler

[ToddM]

I do just about everything with a bucktail. I was slow retrieving one today. Last week I was trolling them behind planer boards over shallow weeds just under the surface.

[divani]

don't inlines kink the line when you troll them? I know they don't when you retrieve them, but trolling? That's new to me.

Todd, when you troll them, do you tend to keep them close to the boat and use a heavier one, of further behind the boat and a lighter spinnerbait?

[ToddM]

Divani, I use a ball bearing swivel on all my leaders. No twisting problems here. When I was running those boards I had 30 feet of line behind them. The bucktails were light but big and would run just under the surface. Any deeper and they would have been in the weeds.

[divani]

Todd, do you only troll weeds or also over deeper water? I'm going to fish a drain of 10m wide and 2m deep with loads of small and larger side-arms entering that specific drain (sort of a motorway for boats but not with heavy traffic). Last time we took most of the pike at the crossings of that drain with the side-arms on trolled supershadraps. I want to use the buckspinnerbaits I built but I could do with some tips.

any specific color that does well now? A Dutch friend did very well on a black-haired spinnerbait with orange blades, I took zero, zip, nada on it. I don't understand it!! It's my last trip of the year so I really want to catch a fish, otherwise it's until februari!!

[ToddM]

Divani, I mainly troll crankbaits but I switched to a bucktail over the weeds because they would ride over them and not get hung up. I tried spinnerbaits but they got down in them. Even the 6" mann's minus 1 got into the weeds. These weeds were just under the surface so your bait had to be just under the surface.

[MATT@ERC]

What about ripping them????? Or is that considered a straight retrive?

[divani]

what do you mean by ripping a bucktail? I have tried jerking it back or fishing it back with short pulls like for a suick and letting it sinks after every pull. Nothing can lure a northern here for me!! Bummer:'(

[HerbB]

I catch most of my fish on bucktails and what I find the most important is to add some action to the lure. A straight retrieve works at times, but adding a bulging and/or slight twitching motion can really help induce strikes. I've found that simply slowly moving the rod tip up and down down a foot or two during the retrieve adds a great deal of action to the lure and often triggers fish. I also add trailers to all my bucktails to add more lift, give more vibration, and add something unique to the lure.

divanni, As far as those big Northerns go, try putting a large double-tail (4 or 5 inches) on a 3/8 to 1 oz jig and slowly work the jig over the structure. I've caught many big Northerns that way. The whole key is to work it slow and let the jig flutter a bit. Never tried it much for Muskies, but I suppose it might work.

Good luck.