There was no hesitation in bass pro Brent Bonadona’s voice when he talked about his favorite artificial lure for May.
“I like a buzzbait, really. I cover a lot of water with it. I try to get a reaction bite and move,” said Bonadona, a 45-year-old FLW Toyota Series angler from Port Allen.
Bonadona prefers a 3/8- or ½-ounce buzzbait from Delta Lures. His top three choices are a copper blade with a chartreuse/white skirt, a bigger black blade with a black skirt or a ½-ounce model and silver blade with either a white skirt or a white Zoom Horny Toad. The latter combination allows him to make longer casts, which he likes to do with a fast retrieve.
He said, “I’m not a slow-roller guy. I cover water. It’s a search bait. I’m really moving it.”
It’s effective anywhere in Louisiana, he said from experience, adding, “It’s a great coverage bait. I typically try to find water with a little visibility, 4 inches, at least.”
Bonadona targets the edge of grass lines and hyacinth mats, plus certain areas in natural bayous, particularly in the Atchafalaya Basin. The curves and bends offer optimum conditions for buzzbait fishing in May, either on the current side or on the slack side; check out both sides, he said.
“Normally, this time of year, I catch on the current side, especially in May,” he said.
How to fish it
Cypress trees and the shade they provide, even on the sunniest of days, offer good ambush points to pick off bass, too, he said.
A soft presentation, as opposed to a “huge splash,” is the key to triggering bites with the sputtering topwater, he said.
Delta Lures’ buzzbaits are “great” to go out of the pack, he said. However, he applies certain modifications to the blade to get a louder chirp.
Bonadona pointed out the buzzbait has its own custom wire and a trailer keeper to secure a soft plastic in place, plus it features a durable head that is hand-painted. The Delta Lures buzzbait also boasts a Mustand Ultra Point hook, he said, and the buzz blades, even the black blade, are anodized to emit a unique sound that aggravates bass into hitting the source of the noise.
