I know what you're thinking — so much has already been written on the use of bucktails spinners for muskies. How could Bucher possibly be writing about anything new or out of the ordinary on the subject? Well, in a sense, you are right on. A lot surely has been written about bucktail spinners covering everything from colors, sizes, blade styles, and techniques. Yet, when it is all said and done, I still see anglers fishing these highly productive musky lures incorrectly. At least in the sense that they definitely are not taking advantage of all that a bucktail has to offer.
In fact, just this past summer I shared the boat with two well known musky guides at different times and was amazed that neither angler took advantage of what I consider the two most important parts of a retrieve with bucktail: 1) lure entry, and 2) a boatside figure. Even though these guys had taken plenty of muskies on bucktails over the years, I am convinced they'd have caught even more by paying more attention to just these two details. Inside this article, we're going to deal in detail with item # 1 – lure entry – or what I've come to call "lure synchronization".
SYNCHRONIZING – LURE ENTRY WITH REEL ENGAGEMENT
I made a statement over a quarter of a century ago in my original book "Bucktail Fishing For Muskies" that I still live by today. At least 40 % of the fish you are likely to catch on a bucktail will hit within the first few feet of your retrieve. Four out of ten muskies you are apt to catch on any given trip are going to hit that lure a few moments after it hits the water. I still stand by that statement today. While this stat is arguable and may vary from one trip to the next, the plain fact remains that a large percentage of muskies are going to strike your bucktail spinner within the first few feet of the retrieve. Fact.
The overall potential of this lure entry is often destroyed simply by improperly engaging their reel after the lure has hit the water. This is especially true of right-handed anglers who have to reposition the rod from their right to their left hand after the cast in order to begin the retrieve. While this might not seem like a big deal at first, think about what's happening to that lure for the one or two seconds before you switch hands, engage the reel, pick up all the slack line, and get the lure moving forward. Simply put, it's sinking — and most often it's sinking right into a patch of weeds. This immediately renders the lure unproductive and the cast is a waste unless you are fortunate enough to blast the weeds off on a power hookset. If you even know there's a weed clinging to the lure or not.
This problem compounds even further as the season wears on and the weeds get higher. If your boat is positioned deeper outside the weed growth, and casts are made inward to shallower waters with thick mats of high growing weeds imagine how many casts are wasted (lure fouled in weeds) over the course of an hour? A day? A week? I can assure you the odds stack up quickly against your success. You can not be effective at fishing this lure if weeds are clinging to the lure as you lift it from the water at the end of the cast. Yet, many musky anglers continue to fish this way without correcting the problem.
Now replace those weeds with a rocky environment and the problem worsens. Some of our best big musky waters are dominated by rocks, not weeds. In many cases, these big fish will be right up on top the shallowest portion of these rock humps, points, or shoreline stretches. When the wind blows hard pounding big waves into rocky shores or overtop shallow cresting rock humps, it can really crank muskies up, and a bucktail spinner is usually the most productive lure here. The strong wind accentuates boat movement forward (drift), which challenges you to pick up your line even faster after the lure hits the water. If you don't, the bucktail is now hung up in rocks! A bad deal for sure. You will have to spook the fish and ruin the spot by going in to get the hung up lure. Plus, put your boat, trolling motor and outboard in a dangerous position for possible damage as you move in close to wave pounded shallow hazardous rocks. Finally, any time a bucktail lodges on a rock, it sure to have hook point damage. You'll have to resharpen your hooks quite often if you get your bucktail snagged up in rocks with any degree of regularity. If you don't resharpen, you're sure to loose a fish.
This all can be solved with proper synchronization of your reel engagement with lure entry to the water's surface. When coordinated correctly, your reel should be engaged a split second before the lure actually hits the water so that the bucktail is moving forward and the blade is spinning instantly. This should also be combined with a faster retrieve speed initially to further compensate for boat movement, line slack, and reel spool diameter. Few consider the fact that your reel actually picks up less line per revolution when you first start retrieving (a long cast). As the lure nears the boat (on the retrieve) the reel's spool diameter is increasing as it picks up more line. This makes the reel automatically retrieve the lure faster as it nears the boat. To compensate for less spool diameter at the end of a long cast, crank faster initially. This also forces the spinner blade into quick "lift mode".
Basically, the faster you retrieve a bucktail, the shallower it will run. The faster the bucktail's blade revolves, the more lift it creates. As many of you already know, if you crank a bucktail too fast, it will actually break the water's surface. Crank it slower and it runs deeper. Let it sink momentarily before engaging the reel combined with a slow retrieve out of the box, and you're likely to lock up on rocks; not fish. This ruins the spot, dulls hooks, and frustrates the angler. It also results in a totally inefficient way to fish for muskies.
So how do you accomplish this task if you are right handed since most musky baitcasters must be held with the left hand? The answer is a simple one, but it can be solved a number of ways. Of course, one solution is to switch to what the industry calls a "left handed model"; which is in all reality a right handed model since you essentially cast with the right hand and hold the reel in the right hand while retrieving. But, this is often hard for some anglers to adjust to.
A second solution is to retrain yourself to cast left handed. I have encouraged a number of my friends to take this approach and they've done so successfully. Personally, this is how I do it. I cast baitcasting style reels with my left hand, and spinning gear with my right. This is the best approach, in my opinion, because your hand never changes position. It stays the same from cast to retrieve to figure eight; and remains the same from one cast and retrieve to another. The left hand palms the reel while the thumb is always ready to hit the free spool button for the cast as well as control the line on the spool.
A third option is to cast with your right hand, and then perform a hand switch (to the left) while the lure is still in mid-air. I'd speculate that the vast majority of musky hunters cast this way, but I would never agree that this is the preferred technique. The mid-air hand switch can be done successfully, but it is certainly a lot tougher to pull off. Particularly when attempting to synchronize reel engagement correctly to lure entry. Mid-air hand switching is never much of an issue with any floating lure, since there is plenty of time to make the switch – even if the lure does hit the water prematurely, since it floats. But, when you're attempting to cast a bucktail or a spinnerbait, or any other lure that sinks, mid air hand switching can be a bit tricky. It's even more difficult when the cast is short since there's less overall mid-air travel time on the lure. If you can't master the left handed cast, switching hands during the cast is still an option.
A final problem with the hand switching technique occurs after the retrieve has been completed. Each and every time a retrieve ends, the rod and reel must be replaced into the right hand again to make the cast. In my opinion, this whole process is simply too clumsy, and it both slows the angler down as well as destroys overall efficiency. If it is avoidable, I'd suggest relying on one of the other two methods that keep the rod & reel in one hand the entire time. However, if this is not possible, do your best to master changing hands in mid-air so your bucktail is moving forward as soon as it hits the water.
While this whole process of lure - sync might seem like an over blown deal to some, I'm sure some of you will agree that this is a vitally important part of good bucktail fishing. The first time you have a big fish explode on your lure a mere nano-second after it hits the water, you'll know what I mean. In fact, the biggest fish I caught in July last year hit just this way. I was fishing with my good friend Gabor Ujvary – and attempting to film a 2006 episode of Fishing With Joe Bucher. My white 700 Buchertail sailed perfectly towards the very tip of a wind slapped weed point. I instinctively engaged the lure a split second before touch down and began to crank the reel hard as soon as the bucktail hit water. I had barely turned the reel handle once when a big musky pounced on it! The fish his so fast and so hard I was literally stunned. But, because I had properly synched my retrieve, the rod doubled perfectly on time and another successful musky episode was in-the-can. Without proper lure sync, I doubt this would have happened.