As soon as the baitfish entered the water, I could tell they were in trouble.

Bass bolted from every direction to devour the hapless prey, despite frantic attempts at escape. This feeding frenzy at the Bass Pro Shops aquarium in Springfield taught me a valuable lesson—if a bass is hungry enough, it can catch virtually anything that swims.

The same theory holds true when presenting lures to bass. I recall several instances when I would quickly reel in a lure that wasn’t running properly and a bass would smash it.

In their constant quest for success, bass pros have noted this phenomenon and taken advantage of this aggressive behavior by employing a high-speed retrieve known as “burning” a bait. “I used to think

I could out-reel the fish but it’s impossible,” says Bill Roberts, a regional tournament veteran from Benton City, Washington. “Even with high-speed reels you can’t reel fast enough if a bass wants that bait.”

Any lure can be burned, but some baits produce better results at high speed. Here are some top choices.

Quick Cranking

When Columbia River smallmouths move to the shallows in May and June and in the fall, Bill Roberts burns crawfish or shad color Worden’s Timber Tiger DC-5 and DC-8 crankbaits. This technique also produces largemouth for him in the shallows of the California Delta. “Tom Seward, lure designer for Yakima Bait Company, built these baits so they don’t flip out or run sideways when you burn them in shallow water,” Roberts says. “They tuck and roll right along the bottom. These baits also go through cover really well too.”

Roberts burns a Timber Tiger with a 61⁄2-foot medium or medium-heavy baitcasting rod and Quantum Accurist PT series (6.2:1 gear ratio) reel with 10- or 12-pound-test mono. “I wind them about as fast as I can turn the handle of the reel,” he says. “Sometimes I burn the crank all the way back to the boat. But if it hits something, I pause it for a second before cranking again. That pause-and-run action often draws a strike.”

Roberts burns a Timber Tiger both with the flow and against current. “Bass often hold on top of little humps or points, and you can catch them by casting with the current and burning the crankbait back upstream,” he notes.

This high-speed presentation produces limits quickly. He once caught a seven-fish limit in 8 minutes by cranking a Timber Tiger as fast as he could. Another time it took him just 15 minutes to accumulate a tournament-winning limit of five smallies weighing more than 21 pounds.

Jimmy Mason, an Alabama guide and regional tournament competitor, has found that smallmouth and spotted bass relating to current on the Coosa and Tennessee River chains of reservoirs in Alabama also relish a speedy crankbait. Mason shifts to a high-speed retrieve during fall, when the water is typically clearer and the river bass feed heavily in fast water as they fatten up for winter.

His choice is a Bomber Deep Flat A in sun perch, firetiger, or Tennessee shad colors. “This bait is very stable at high speeds,” Mason says. “It won’t roll or flare from one side to the other when you crank it real fast.” His gear for this tactic includes a 7-foot Kistler rod and 5.1:1 gear ratio baitcasting reel spooled with 12-pound green Silver Thread AN40 line.

Targeting any type of current break, Mason blazes his crankbait in the same direction as the current flow. “I retrieve steadily while trying to ricochet the lure off an object in the current,” he says. “As soon as it ricochets, I pause the lure, which often triggers a strike.“

Fired-up Frogs

A bass has to shift into high gear to nab a frog before it hops out of the water to safety, so retrieving a swimming frog at high speed appears natural. “Burning a frog often is the best way to fish it,” says Jimmy Houston, television show celebrity and tournament veteran. “When you use a stop-and-go retrieve or jerk it, you don’t get nearly as many bites.

”These lures act like baby buzzbaits but with a more froglike appearance.” Houston triggers vicious strikes by burning a YUM Buzz Frog. “They strike that bait like it owes them money,” he reports.

Frogs have a reputation for being one-dimensional but bass pros have expanded their range of use. “Frogs have been widely used in thick vegetation because few other lures can work in that cover,” he says. “We’ve found they work well in open water along points or around cover such as logs, docks, and standing timber, as well.

“In clear water, bass can see far and I’ve watched fish move 30 to 40 feet to strike a frog bait,” he claims. He selects natural colors such as green or brown for buzzing frogs over vegetation in summer, but opts for bright-color lures around spawn time (white during Prespawn and yellow for Postspawn).

Houston rigs the Buzz Frog on a 5/0 Daiichi Fat Gap hook and works it with a 61⁄2- to 7-foot medium or medium-heavy rod and Shimano Chronarch (6.2:1 gear ratio) reel. He recommends 30- to 50-pound non-stretch superbraid lines. “You’ll up your catch rate by adding a stinger hook,” he says. “Around grass, I add a weedless 3/0 or 4/0 trailer hook. In open water, an open hook is fine.” Houston cautions that you should avoid setting the hook as soon as the frog disappears. “Wait for a two-count and feel the weight of the fish, then snatch back with the rod.”

Blazing Buzzbaits

When the water temperature is right, Women’s Bassmaster Tour (WBT) angler Janet Parker likes to burn a buzzbait. “If it’s too hot or too cold, the technique doesn’t work,” says Parker, whose ideal temperature for buzzbait burning is about 72°F.

Burning a buzzbait through schooling white bass also produces largemouths for Parker. “That’s how I caught two of my biggest fish in the WBT tournament at Lake Lewisville in Texas last May,” she reveals.

Parker selects a 1/2-ounce homemade buzzer for this technique. In most cases, she favors a buzzbait with a chartreuse or pearl head and chartreuse-and-white skirt with eight red or blue strands and a red #2 trailer hook. In stained water, she switches to one with a chartreuse head and pumpkinseed skirt with the end dipped in chartreuse dye.

The Texas pro modifies her buzzer by grinding patterns into the rivets and blades. “That changes the pitch of the lure’s sound, and since I grind a deep groove, it creates a subtle tick without having to add a clacker blade,” she says. “Many times, clackers make too much racket unless there’s a good chop on the water. That’s the time for noisy baits.”

If bass ignore a high-speed approach, Parker changes the pace. “I start by running the buzzer at a slow pace yet fast enough to keep it on top. Then I burn the bait, followed by a pause. This approach is deadly over submerged boulders, such as at Grapevine Lake here in Texas. It seems that variation in pitch brings bass up and out of the rocks.”

Braided line is a key component of Parker’s burning tactics, because its low stretch allows her to set the hook by continuing to reel the lure rather than jerking her rod when a strike occurs. She favors 40-pound-test braid on a 7-foot 2-inch medium-heavy action Setyr rod and Shimano Chronarch 50MG baitcasting reel.

Waking Spinnerbaits

Alabama pro Tim Horton has found that winding a spinnerbait at high speed is deadly on clear lakes. “Don’t reel it so fast that the blades come out of the water, but enough so they bulge the surface,” he suggests. Horton’s favorite spinnerbait for waking is a 1/2- or 3/4-ounce BOOYAH model with a white, chartreuse, or white-and-chartreuse skirt and two small metallic willowleaf blades (#31⁄2 and 4 or two #4s). “The heavier spinnerbaits run straight at a fast retrieve and these larger blades create a big bulge,” he notes.

Horton wakes spinnerbaits over grassy points or flats where the vegetation hasn’t reached the surface. “On northern lakes like Champlain and St. Clair, it’s absolutely deadly for smallmouth around vegetation,” he says. “You can’t reel it too fast and it generates bone-jarring strikes.”

Waking a spinnerbait usually works best on cloudy and breezy days, but the tactic also tricks some fish in sunny conditions, especially if the surface has some chop. Horton wakes big spinnerbaits with a 7-foot medium-action All Star rod and Pflueger President LP (6:3.1 gear ratio) baitcasting reel with 17-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon line. “Fluorocarbon helps make long casts, and since it has low stretch, you can set the hook better,” he says.

The former BASS Angler of the Year uses a # 4 treble as a trailer hook when waking spinnerbaits in open water. He selects a single 1/0 or # 1 hook for a stinger for fishing around vegetation.

Speedy Spooks

Whenever he spots bass busting baitfish on the surface, Horton burns a Heddon Super Spook Jr. on top. This tactic has triggered plenty of strikes for him from schooling bass on the clear waters of Missouri’s Table Rock Lake and Lake Hartwell in South Carolina.

He reels the lure quickly so it just skims across the surface for about 4 or 5 feet, then he slows down and twitches it a couple of times. If this fails to induce a strike, he starts speed-reeling again. “A lot of times you don’t want the fish to get a good look at the lure, so that retrieve works better than the usual walk-the-dog action,” he says.

A clear or clear/blue back Spook works best for Horton’s burning trick. He uses the same rod and reel as for waking a spinnerbait, but he switches to 20-pound Silver Thread mono for working a Spook.

A speedy retrieve isn’t always best—there’s no question that slow rolling and deadsticking have their place. But particularly during warmwater conditions, burning a bait can pique the appetite of big bass. There’s no faster way to bag a limit.

*John Neporadny, Jr., is a writer and angler from Lake Ozark, Missouri.