"I will start throwing buzzbaits well before the weed beds begin to grow. Any time the surface temp at Big Bear gets above 50 you can find some bass shallow. They are often aggressive right after they move up out of deep water," Freire said. He fishes riprap and rocks early in the spring, searching out boulder-strewn shallows where bass have moved in to find water a degree or two above the main lake's temperature.

THE RIGHT REEL
Fishing a buzzbait without ending up with sore forearms requires a special type of reel. A good buzzbait reel has a high enough ratio to allow you to get the bait on top of the water fast and keep it coming, without having to grind the reel handle like you were grinding coffee. A reel with at least a 6:1 retrieve speed is what is needed to lift the buzzbait to the surface and get it to run right through a surface film.

Oakie noted he was moving up to a new Shimano Curado reel that has a 7:1 ratio. He also said he likes to use a triple-wing design by Gibbs Performance Baits in Lake Havasu City, since they come up quickly and run a little slower.

Manny Freire agrees, saying he also favors a reel with at least a 6:1 ratio. "It's just too hard on your arms to crank a slow reel all day, and it's very hard to keep the bait up and at speed with a slow retrieve."

You'll also want to select a buzzbait rod that is stiff enough to handle the constant drag of the bait against the rod as it churns along, and most anglers think nothing of moving up to 20-pound-test line on their buzzbaits. Any bass that is provoked into charging a buzzbait running at full speed isn't likely to be line-shy.

The tri-blade designs get up quicker and will run slower. They have more lift than a single-blade style, and some of the big-bladed Lexan or plastic-blade models will run on top with just a little forward speed to keep them spinning easier than the aluminum blade designs, although the aluminum blades will often make more noise. Double-propeller buzzbaits -- those that have two blades mounted side by side on wire shafts -- are even louder than single-wing baits, and will run even slower.

Buzzbaits are essentially weedless, and the single-blade, in-line types may be the most weedless of all. Just about any one of them can be run through some awful stuff without hanging up, and this leads to the best technique for using a buzzbait. It is an ideal tool for fishing over weed beds that haven't grown all the way to the surface. Even a couple of inches of clearance will allow the buzzbait to whir over the weeds, pulling bass out to strike it. You can fish it right in the muck, but you will spend a lot of time cleaning slop off the bait to get the prop turning again.