Fishing a Chatterbait

Fishing a Chatterbait should be put back on the list of baits in your arsenal? When was the last time you actually spent the time and fished a Chatterbait?  There has been some renewed interest in the forum and members are actually making their own again. What is a Chatterbait? Basically a Chatterbait is a bladed jig that does a fantastic job of attracting bass. The Chatterbait is a simple bait to fish. You don’t need to overthink this one, honestly. Use a Medium heavy rod with at least ten pound test and retrieve at a steady, medium pace. You should be able to feel the vibration if you have decent enough equipment. Our friends over at Wired2Fish posted this video over on Youtube. Make sure to check it out.

I stole the below tips directly from the Z-Man website site which you can click on here. Z-Man is the original maker of the Chatterbait.

Fishing With The ChatterBait

The Chatterbait® is one of the most unique, fish catching lures to hit the market in a long time. The most common use of this lure is a constant retrieve, in other words, cast out and reel in. Although this retrieve will do the job on some occasions, the Chatterbait® is much more versatile and can be use in many ways. You can fish it like a jig, fish it like a spinnerbait, or even fish like a lipless rattle crank bait.

Pro tip 1: When using it as a jig, one should think about weight size. 3/8 oz to 5/8 oz seems to be the most effective sizes. Color choice of the darker colors, black/blue, brown/orange, pumpkin, or green pumpkin seems to be the most effective. Blade color is optional but I prefer either a dark scaled blade (Pro2 black/blue) or a black nickel blade (Chatterbait black/blue). Heavy cover calls for a weed guard model (Pro2) open water such as rocky points, the standard swim jig will work equally well. (Chatterbait). The retrieve should be very similar to the normal retrieve of a jig.

Pro tip 2: Another effective way to use the Chatterbait® is to work it like a spinnerbait. You can “slow roll” it, retrieve at a constant medium retrieve, or use a fast retrieve (burn it). The beauty of the Chatterbait® is that you don’t have to be a pro to use it and catch fish. A lot of fisherman use a standard cast and retrieve and the results are excellent.

Pro tip 3: Make sure when you don’t confuse the Chatterbait® with other swim jigs. The Chatterbait® has the blade attached directly to the eye of the hook. By design the blade needs to wobble back and forth striking the head of the Chatterbait®. This creates two fish attracting things, a rattle or clattering sound (we all know bass like the sound of rattles) and a wobbling erratic action. The closer the blade is to the head the better the action.

Pro tip 4: “It’s all in the retrieve.” We talked about the Chatterbait® having an erratic action. Because of the blade to head design the Chatterbait® when being retrieve will be coming straight back in and then for no reason it will erratically veer off course. This sudden darting action is a tremendous strike getter. A real good tip on retrieving the Chatterbait® is every 4 or 5 turns of the reel handle interrupt the speed you are retrieving with a quick speed up of your retrieve. This will cause the swim jig to dart either left or right giving it even a more erratic action.

Interested in making your own? Check out what the members our forum have done here and here.

Looking to buy?  Order some online at Amazon here: Chatterbaits