I never understood why guys do not have confidence in these baits as I do really well here with them and always have at least two tied on during a tourney. Oh and by far the best trailer is a LFT lake fork live magic shad

yup, lake fork live magic shad on every pattern but black and blue, that gets a havoc pit boss trailer to be stroked and glided off bottom. Bladed jigs are my favorite bait honestly. I can't understand how you can NOT enjoy fishing something that combines aspects of a jig/swimjig/spinnerbait/crankbait/rattletrap and just plain slays big fish. I also don't understand how they have trouble not catching numbers on them... I wear out anything on them, it'll catch 12" dinks for me too all the same!

I wouldnt worry too much about fishing these in clear water. I've had really good luck on a white chatterbait at wheeler branch and that water is crystal clear! I've also caught plenty of smaller bass on them too but they do indeed seem to attract the bigger ones most though. Good read!!

There's no fish at wheeler branch. Stay off my honey hole please.

Thanks for letting my secret out!

I have won countless tournaments on a chatterbait during the winter.

It does take time to build up confidence in it, but when you do you'll always have one tied on.

Maybe I fish it too fast because I have thrown it quite a bit and have had zero bites on it. I do catch stumps with it.

What are your favorite colors?

Black and blue and sexy shad are favorite two, and the must haves. From there, bluegill and/or green pumpkin and charteuse&gold are good to round out with.

The biggest fish drawing potential doesn't rely on pattern so much though. It's a reaction bait. So you basically need a light one and a dark one, and other than that, fish aren't going to notice much more. They see the profile of the bait with trailer and they feel the thump and vibration and sound, and see it deflect.

Color/realism is an afterthought unless you are stroking it off bottom or crawling it. Black vs. silver vs gold blade means more to me than say bluegill vs green pumpin vs black/blue.

Clearish water--silver blade, baby bass
Stained water sunny day--silver blade, albino shad
Stained water cloudy day--gold blade, white
Very stained/murky water sunny day--gold blade, fire perch/sun perch/ or discontinued watermelon chartreuse
Very stained water cloudy day--gold blade, black and blue craw

Good write up Andrew. I have actually caught some nice fish, up to but nothing over 5#'s on chatter baits in pre and post spawn conditions. I need to throw one more. My best color/set up in stained water is the original chatter bait, red/black with black blade, using a grande bass swim bait dipped in red as a trailer.

When putting the LFT shad on do you trim the skirt or just take it off and go with the LFT?

neither, I run the full skirt. You can run it with none in much clearer water or if it's a more finicky bite but I don't have issues getting bit with it and prefer the bulky profile.

Chatter bait works well bouncing off rock too. I caught a 8.02 at lewisvile at the damn in April.

yeah, they work great almost any situation you'd run a squarebill crankbait or a spinnerbait through, and of course can be used anytime you would use a swim jig. Very versatile and powerful lures.

This has been a great thread. I haven't fished a chatter bait much since the spring, but I gave it a shot tonight. I made a "bad" cast into a patch of grass sticking out of the water, gave it a few tugs to get it free and it settled right outside if the grass. A half turn of the reel later, I caught this:



It put up the best fight of any of the bass I've caught this fall, including the ones that were bigger.