THE BASS COLLEGE

Over the years guiding and fishing tournaments in the northeast and especially on the tidal rivers of the cheasapeake bay if you booked a trip with me or drew me as a co-angler in a tourney you definitely saw me with my half ounce terminator spinnerbait in many a different blade combo and color locked and loaded on the front deck of my nitro.In fact most including myself would say that was my bait of choice and a highly succesful one at that.However over the past few years Ive had to make room for a new weapon in my arsenal.In fact this bait has become my go to search bait in shallow murky or stained water especially on river systems.This bait is the chatterbait.I prefer the Z-man but they all catch the fire out of bass.Over the past 3 years Ive caught bass to 9lbs on a chatterbait and so many 1 to 6lbers i couldnt even make an honest guess at how many.This bait produces some of the most violent strikes you'll ever see. So give it a try you may just find yourself a new favorite bait.

Never tried the chatter bait, kind saw it as a gimmick.  After reading your post, I may have to give it a whirl.  Do you have luck fishing lakes as well?  Better in the spring, fall, or summer?

Thats my brother and his wife posting. The Chatterbaits are hot!! Any time that you would throw a spinnerbait, throw that. I love it!!

I was similar in opinion. I had thrown the chatter bait a few times and just didnt have alot of confidence, so I never kept it on long. Last season I was on a local lake and after some heavy rains the water had risen and  it looked liked creamy coffee. lol.  I went to my bag, for a spinnerbait actually, and being i keep them in one of the soft storage type books I flipped through it and saw the chatterbaits and said what the heck. I was merely fun fishing anyway. I caught two lil jack fish right off the bat. I then had about a 2 lb. bass hit it and pull off right by the boat. A lil time passed and I felt one hit it but pulled off again, not sure the species, never actually saw that one. This happened yet again a few minutes later. So I went back to my bag, got the ole trusty  hook box out and put on a trailor hook and a small plastic trailor as well. At the end of the day I had boated 15 bass, one a nice 6.5 to 7 pounder, and 6-7 more jack fish(chain pickeral). I was sold! Since then I have reached for it many times, and especially in really dirty water situations and it has produced some good fish for me. I think they are great baits and far from gimmicks. Any angler worth his flipping stick, as they say, should certainly have some in his arsenal. Tight lines! 

we use chatterbaits very often in france too, but it's stange, it's for the pike usually, in winter. I took many bass with it in summer too when i was looking after perch when crawfish loose their skin. But I have to say that i use it more like a rubber jig than a special lure... Is it work in "mid deep" ? (don't know the good word for the place between top and bottom water 

Yes It works in a variety of way for me. a jig, slow rolled, spinnerbait, all ways. The word you used is very close. It is called "MID-Depth. 

thanks professor

I need to throw one more.  I have had very little success with the chatterbait but that was with lakes, now that I fish the river so much I should whip that bad boy out.

time to head to walmart or to bass pro from here - gotta get one  i cant throw it until ive got it and when i do - ill come back here to letcha all know how it killed those ky hawgs !!!!

Great  video and while every bladed jig catches bass the Z-MAN to me is the best its the Original Chatterbait that was made by Rad lures and is now marketed by Z-MAN

Rattles on the Chatterbait. Video from Sante Cooper- Z Man

Inside Z-Man on Santee Cooper - Part 2 October 20, 2009 Santee Cooper Rattles on the Chatterbait?? That's what some have done to make one of the most popular baits ever even better!! Plus...who sold the first Chatterbait??

http://www.anglerschannel.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=radio.home&filename=2009-10-20-05-zman.wmv

If you don't throw this bait you are really missing big bass.

Following its initial tournament-dominating success, few lure types creating the buzz of the chatter bait.  Bait manufacturers scrambled to create their own version of the metal-lipped shaker.  With the dust now settled, the question begs, “Is there still reason to chatter?”

“Absolutely,” declared Deron Eck, a consistent tournament competitor that fishes the heavily pressured waters of the Northeast.  “A chatter bait remains a top lure choice, especially early in the year, during the pre-spawn and post-spawn periods.”

2008 Bassmaster Classic winner Alton Jones too often reaches for a bait that chatters during early season efforts.

“I always have a rod with a Booyah Boogie Bait tied on early in the year,” noted the Waco, Texas pro.  “It’s an exceptional big fish bait.”

He said newly emerging weedbeds -- milfoil and hydrilla rising a foot or so of the bottom in three to four foot depths -- is a scenario where a chatter-style bait excels.

“They don’t bite it every day, but some days it’s all they want,” stated Jones, who once used a chatter-style bait on the final day of competition on Guntersville to catapult himself to the top spot, with a bag that included a six and five-pounder.

Using a three-eighths ounce Boogie Bait, Jones concentrates on both the inside and outside edges of the weeds.  He expects to find fish relating to the weed edge when in a more aggressive mood, and on the outside when less so, such as during post-frontal conditions.  He makes casts that quarter over the cover.

“The key is to make contact with the tops of the weeds, which are often irregular in height,” explained Jones.  “I vary the rate of my retrieve so the bait ticks the tops of the growth.  I often change speeds during the same cast, slowing down when I lose contact, or speeding up when I feel the lure bury into the growth.”

He often throws bass a changeup by switching from the standard split-tail trailer to a Yum Craw Papi, a ribbon-tail plastic worm, even a four-inch white tube.

Like Jones, Eck relies on chatter baits for largemouths scattered over low-riding early season cover.  But he’s also discovered a pattern that shines on deeper, highland style reservoirs.

“You can slow-roll chatter baits similar to a spinnerbait when bass are holding along wood and bluff banks in clearer, deeper reservoirs early in the year,” explained Eck.  “It’s a pattern few anglers are wired into.  It shows the fish a different profile, and provides a lot of vibration.”

Though a chatter bait doesn’t fish all that well through heavy wood, Eck’s found that it can be rolled through the tips of cover such as shoreline laydowns that fall into deeper water.

“Look for bigger laydowns on bluff banks, ones along steep breaking shorelines where the channel swings tight to shore,” noted Eck.  “Something else I’ve had success with, that no one else seems to be doing, is fishing a chatter bait parallel to bluff banks.  Just slow rolling it along the side of the break as you might a spinnerbait.  Some days it can really fire those fish up.”

A trick Eck uses to get a chatter bait to run a bit deeper for his slow-rolling pattern is to drill two eighth-inch holes in the blade, one on each side of the line tie.  He prefers the more subtle look of a gold blade, feeling a silver blade is often too flashy.

16-pound test fluorocarbon has proved to be the ideal line for this pattern.  Eck said it furnishes the strength needed to fish around the wood cover, transits the vibration of the lure well, and sinks, providing a touch more potential depth.

Chatter baits aren’t limited to stillwater environments.  I find chattering lures to be quite productive on river systems for early season smallmouth bass.  River smallies will stage up in protected backwater areas during the pre-spawn, often behind islands and gravel bars that provide the habitat on which they will later nest.  Many days the three- or four-inch ChatterStick will draw these shallow-holding fish in like a magnet.

The only downside of this bait is its tendency to foul back on itself during the cast.  I found that spooling with a smooth casting spectra-based superline helps keep the lure from tumbling during the cast.  Also, employing a short, stiff, fluorocarbon leader helps keep the hooks from fouling.  A slow, steady retrieve, one that presents an easy-to-track target, typically works best over these two- to four-foot flats.

Following the spawn, as river bass move into summertime current-fed locations, smaller versions of chattering lures, such as the mini and micro versions of the original Chatterbait, stand out.  Replace the skirt and split tail with a small twister-tail grub or paddle-tail soft swimbait.

The guys have great success with them here in SA too. Time for me to invest in this bait.

jake buy the bait u wont regret it - when purchasing the bait consider the color and size u need by what the bass forage are in South Africa.