Three for October

The buzzbait was the most-agreed-on October bait in our research. Greg Hackney and Jason Christie both named it their number one in Wired2Fish’s roundup, and Mike Iaconelli includes it in his October video breakdown.

The two pros rig it in opposite ways. Hackney fishes a 1/4 oz buzzbait with a small Strike King Gurgle Toad and no skirt. He says shorter days trigger the bite more than water temperature. Christie throws a skirted War Eagle most of the time, a half-ounce in open water and 3/8 oz around targets. A Lurenet piece on his early-fall picks says he favors white to suggest shad.

We split the difference with two 3/8 oz War Eagle rigs:

Both trailers are made of Z-Man’s ElaZtech, which floats. That helps a 3/8 oz bait get up on plane fast. Tackle Warehouse’s listing also warns not to store ElaZtech baits mixed with standard soft plastics.

Rig tip: the BugZ’s four appendages add drag. Make a few test casts to confirm the bait runs upright, and trim the legs if it rolls.

Buzzbait guide

When bass follow shad shallow, they tuck into stumps, laydowns, brush, rocks, and docks. A small crankbait is a compact shad imitation that you can grind right through that water. Wired2Fish’s Shaye Baker and the TacticalBassin crew both lean on shallow cranks this month.

One caution on the Frittside 5: a few Tackle Warehouse reviewers report breaking the bill by slapping the bait on the water to clear grass or banging it hard off rock.

Crankbaits guide·JPFish Crankbait Selection Tool

The underspin covers the fish the first two picks miss: bass suspended around schools of bait off points and creek mouths. BassResource, TacticalBassin, BassGeek, and Mike Iaconelli all put a small swimbait on a head in their October lineups. TacticalBassin’s point is that the blade helps a swimbait stand out inside a crowd of real shad.

We rig the Owner Flashy Swimmer with a Keitech Swing Impact FAT in two sizes:

We’re throwing Original Sexy Shad on both, but match your hatch. Keitech offers multiple shad colors, so pick the one that fits your water.

A few tips from Tackle Warehouse reviewers:

• The molded weight can twist on the hook shank after a few fish, which makes the bait roll. Check it between catches.
• Crimp the blade wire where it attaches so it can’t slip off.
• Keitechs are soft and tear easily. A dab of glue at the head makes each one last longer.

Underspin guide

For Halloween month, a bait that’s been named “Spook” since the 1930s: the Heddon One Knocker Spook in the color Ghost.

How it got the name: Heddon’s first plastic lures were sold as “Spooks” because of their see-through look. The Zara Spook started life as a wooden lure, the Zaragossa, and the plastic version arrived in 1939. A Rutland Herald story on the National Heddon Museum says workers thought the translucent body looked ghostly with light shining through it. Bass Pro’s “Classic Lures” history tells a different story, crediting a skeleton-like pattern painted on its sides. Either way, it fits October.

It also earns its spot on the water. Jason Christie names a Spook his number two October bait in Wired2Fish’s roundup. He likes that he can fish a One Knocker two feet deep or over a 20-foot brush pile, and keep covering water. The One Knocker adds a single tungsten rattle in a sound chamber for a heavy thump on every twitch.

Walking Baits guide