Question about an idea for a buzzbait build

[famjr]

Hello, new here. A recent Tactical Bassin vid about skirtless buzzbaits gave me an idea and I'd like to float it by you all and see if it's a sound idea.

I originally was going to just go buy a wallyworld dollar deal buzzbait and rip it's skirt off since the 4 I own now are actually quality lures. But, I then happened to remember about a certain skirtless buzzbait in the March MTB Pro from an unboxing video, the Lucky Craft B-MH. It has a less traditional wire shape, leaning more towards like a spinner bait in height than standard buzzbait length.

I just so happen to have laying around here a weighed spinner bait with straight & unused wire arm and a loose buzz blade: will a 4-bladed plastic 2" wide buzz blade keep a 1/2oz spinner bait body with a 4" Mogambo grub rigged on it up on the topwater or is it doomed to the depths?

Thanks for your time and insight.

Also, I was wondering, would a little #3-4 hammered willow blade rigged behind the buzz blade for a bit of extra flash be too much, or just kinda useless?

[Musky Glenn]

famjr, If you wind fast enough it will stay on top, I don't believe you will have any trouble at all. Be careful the willow leaf doesn't hit the wire frame and block it from spinning.  Sounds like a good idea that needs trying. Good luck.

[famjr]

On 7/19/2017 at 9:16 AM, Musky Glenn said:

famjr, If you wind fast enough it will stay on top, I don't believe you will have any trouble at all. Be careful the willow leaf doesn't hit the wire frame and block it from spinning.  Sounds like a good idea that needs trying. Good luck.

Yeah, what I was thinking of trying to do is -since the B-MH I'm kinda modeling after puts the buzz blade forward of the bait-body leaves about 2" of arm wire behind it- cutting it down to an inch, fold it over in half with a lil loop on the end for a small split ring if I go with that willow blade flash idea, and glue the parallel wires together with the folded wire's tip acting as the rub for the metal rivet-cap on the back of the buzz blade.

Also, should I stick with a slightly diverging angle on the blade like the B-MH or set it parallel to the wire going through the bait-body?

[famjr]

Heh, convergent evolution strikes again! I was just sitting there pondering  over whether or not I should go through with my idea or use the spinner bait it was originally designed for when I had a why not both moment in my head coming up with that willow blade idea. Now I'm definitely going to do it; what color should I go with for the blade? It's a black blade and black weight on the spinner bait and the first 6" Mogambo grub I'm rigging on it is deep purple glitter. Just looked, apparently they don't make that color and a few other patterns I have anymore.

[famjr]

Cool, thanks dude, that'll be really helpful with finalizing the buzzbait!

I'll probably buy a blade from someone in the wanted section, the only local bait'n'tackle shop here in town didn't really have any spinner blades, he mainly just does live bait and hair jigs besides used tackle resale (found my beater #5 black-dot-on-white Mepps Comet spinner there to keep my good one stashed, summertime Susquehanna smallies love that one!).

[famjr]

Ohh, the Colorado blade is on a safety spinner arm with a clevis, huh... well, the Colorado blade's said to be more thumpy than a willow blade, so. I'll most likely use just a swivel & split ring since I was thinking mainly doing the willow blade idea for a bait-flash angle. Thanks for uploading!

[famjr]

Probably expired, Hildebrandt sells pretty much the exact same thing through Jann's (overpriced imo), just downsized for ultralight spin-fly & micro inline bait-spinner casting (like a #1-2 Mepps Black Fury Combo), same for Joe's Flies Short Strikers.

That curly buzz frog looks amazing, saw a 2011 clip on YouTube and I need to buy me some!

The main reason I started to get into lure building is because, grubs do pretty great here around the Susquehanna-Chenango besides inline spinners like Swiss Swings. I've been really wanting to nail down my topwater smallie bite (I've only been fishing for a couple years now getting back into it from my early teens), the idea of designing my own lures appeals to me, and I came across this pic of inline buzzgrubs.

The local bait'n'tackle shop here in town had a few buzzbait blades plus some spinner bait bodies so I grabbed them to start out on. My first build: 

One of the blades was this 1" chartreuse one, so I bought some Arkie 4" twintails to go with it. The wire shaft is Chinese takeout handle lol. Originally I put an Aberdeen hook on it for good hooksets since most of the spots I fish around here are clear topwater, but the grub & hook would flop over and twist some with the blade too. I thought a ewg hook might drag against the water and keel it right but it only improves it half the time, so I'm gonna have to add a 1/16th oz bullet shot to the hook, I should do that anyway to get more distance, so.

[famjr]

Finally got around to assembling the buzzbait, it's pretty much what I had in mind:

will attach that blade behind the buzz blade when I get ahold of some blades with a swivel snap, figuring either stick with the big willow blade idea for bait-flash or a big ol' black Colorado blade for thump. Also, the pic is misleading, that's not a blue grub, if you look up at it to a light or the sun it's actually grape kool-aid colored with the blue glitter. Don't think Kalin's makes grubs in that color pattern anymore either.