Just keep it simple! I'll never be a sharpie but fishing alongside quite a few, the bucktail revolves around simple fundamentals that is generally agreed upon by many: Retrieve it just enough so it does not drag on the bottom constantly but if there is a bottom change your lure will go into the hole/trough/etc. in the fish's face, use the proper weight so it can handle the sweep without looking unnatural in that it can submarine it's way through, just reel if you feel a bump (because the fish will hook itself anyway, when you go to "set the hook" you are basically just securing the hook's place in the fish's mouth), and use pork rind if you are hooking into toothy critters or have a chance of it (i.e. Fluke, Weakfish).
Honestly I've bucktailed with no trailer and still caught fish. It's an extremely simple lure, so fish it simple as well.
The one thing to always keep with you no matter what you are using is to look around at the people fishing. If you see them using a bucktail and not hooking up, look at their retrieve and their timing of their casts (you almost always want to cast into when a wave breaks and the white water forms). If it is legit, try and do the opposite of what they are doing! I've driven people nuts (to the point where I'm not invited to go anymore with them making fishing lonely) doing simply that. If they are dragging it through the sand and emphasizing twitching, then make your retrieve a little quicker and swim it. You'd be amazed. You will have some days where the fish strictly prefer the bucktail dragging through the sand (usually around sand eel time).
Even though this is a bucktail topic I have to say this: if it isn't working, don't bind yourself to just the bucktail! That's why we have other plugs! You can work a diamond jig and a storm shad almost the same exact way you would a bucktail and produce very well!
Lastly, if you have a bucktail that loses its hair, don't throw it out. Save it for times you will put bait on it or a rubber tail/bass assassin/etc.
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