Actually a teaser, the Billy Buster replicates a school of baitfish on its rigid, six-armed frame. It comes with a pack of shad bodies that clip onto the arms. (As with a Christmas toy, assembly is required.) You then attach a lure of your choice, with a hook in it, on a dropper leader, allowing this hooked bait to straggle behind the “school” and incite the predatory instinct of any gamester you happen to run over.
I clipped on a 12-inch Fin-S Fish, dropped it overboard and worked the mouth of an inlet on an ebbing evening tide. Bluefish, at least, loved the Billy Buster and tore it up. Billy Buster provides the fish a different look, compared with umbrella rigs, and is more compact, easily stowing in the supplied tube. $16.95; clydessports.com
