We love to throw buzzbaits. Entertaining to listen to, buzzers also attract oversized bass. In just a few minutes a buzzbait can make your whole day. While any buzzbait can catch bass straight out of the package, there are numerous modifications that can improve success with these noisy favorites.

One of the quickest mods that can be made between casts is to turn a standard buzzbait into a ‘clacker’ or ‘head knocker’. Clacking style buzzbaits are those on which the rotating blade contacts some metal—usually the lure’s head—and makes a clacking noise (in addition to sound of the surface-churning blade and any squealing sounds already produced by the friction of the lure’s moving parts turning against the wire and the rivet that holds the blade in place).

To make a standard buzzer clack, simply bend the top wire down toward the lure’s head until the blade barely ticks it with each rotation. The bait will now sound like a string of tin cans following a pair of newlyweds as they drive off on their honeymoon…and bass often fall in love with it.

This is a great hack for drawing bass out of grass, deeper water or any low visibility situation including overcast, windy days or those summer nights when you fish after dark to beat the daytime heat. This modification can be easily undone when extra noise is not needed.

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Video transcript:

Tyler Berger:
Well guys, welcome back to the Monsterbass channel. My name's Tyler Berger, I'm out here doing a little buzz bait fishing today. Super excited. I love a buzz bait. It's just to me, it's one of the best baits simply because a buzz bait can work in really hot water. We think about it a lot of times when it's summertime, but it also can be very good in cold water. I've actually caught fish on a buzz bait in water temperatures of 48 degrees before. So that's one of the best things I really love about a buzz bait. The other thing is that it catches really big fish. If you've fished a lot of buzz baits, you know that you may go days where you're not getting a ton of bites, but the ones that you get are good ones. It's really something that every bass fisherman should kind of have a handle on, and today I really want to talk about buzz bats that are head knocking buzz baits, and ones that aren't because there's a big difference when you're going to fish those ones that are more silent and the ones that are actually considered a head knocker.

Tyler Berger:
As you guys know, this is your buzz bait right here. It's a very simple lure. It has a blade. It's one that we've all started to fish with. Now, the thing is is that some buzz baits are considered head knocking buzz baits and some are not. Now basically, buzz baits that are head knockers, they actually will have a blade, as you can see here, the shaft of this buzz bait is actually a little bit shorter, and that blade is really in line with the head of that bait. The reason you call it a head knocker is when you reel this through the water, that blade is going to just gently hit the head or knock the head and that's why it's a head knocker.

Tyler Berger:
Now, there are a lot of buzz baits that are actually made not to do that and there are times when I'm going to fish the head knocker and there are times when I'm not going to fish the head knocker. Today we're going to talk a little bit more about that.

Tyler Berger:
Situations that I like to have a head knocker, one that is loud, is really when I'm fishing in loud conditions. I try to make this really simple in bass fishing because it can be so complicated, but when you get to the lake and the water is what I consider loud, is going to be if it's windy out or if you have cloudy conditions or even if you have stained water. In those situations, it's very easy. You're just going to simply bend your blade back down and you don't want it to absolutely crush the top of this head because it will actually get stuck right there. You want it to barely just be touching. You can actually, what I've seen, is be just a hair above it but when it's in the water, that's what's going to help that blade to hit that head and create that noise.

Tyler Berger:
As fishermen, it's easy for us to just spend a bunch of money on a bunch of different lures, but having a buzz bait that basically you can have kind of the best of both worlds, one that is a head knocker and one that is silent is really important for me for a number of reasons. One, it's going to save me money, but two, as a fisherman, sometimes you just go around the corner and all of a sudden there's a shade line or the breeze picks up and so to have a bait that I can modify literally within a second and just push it down or pull it up is really going to allow me to catch fish and be a lot more efficient out there on the water without having to sit down and retie baits.

Tyler Berger:
A lot of guys think that with the buzz bait, it's just a cast out and reel in type of bait and that's actually not the case. A couple of things that you can do is one fish it fast or fish it slow. When I fish in cold water, I tend to fish it slower. In the summer when it's hot, I tend to fish it a little bit faster. Now, one thing that I really like to do is what I call popping a buzz bait. As I'm reeling it, every now and then I'm going to pop my rod tip very slightly or you can simply speed your reel up and it's going to just spit a little bit of water. I've seen on days, actually there was a day I was fishing Lake Norman, where every fish hit it after that little spit like that. That is one thing you want to always do with your buzz baits. Now another thing is modifying the bait and you want to know when to knock and when to not knock.