Dont take the skirt off and run a money minnow behind them, wouldnt want you to get your arm broke

I too throw mine in the spring mainly because I am terrible at slow rolling anything. I used the strike king coffee shad and did pretty well. I also throw the z man. I did buy a strike king one but haven't had much luck on that one mainly because I don't fish it long enough I am sure. I also threw it in cloudy water and mainly when it was windy which is practically every day in the spring.

Are you throwing them as search baits or right on the bed?

Big trailer. They will eat it.

I like to throw them with a Lake Fork Tackle Magic Shad and no skirt. throw them any place you would a spinner bait or rattle trap.

I love throwing Chatter Baits. Most of the biggest fish I caught last year was on a chatterbait. My 3 favorite things, chatterbaits, flipping jigs, throwing frogs.

so for those throwing chatter baits a lot ........
have you pretty much replaced your spinner baits with them ?

I think there are times and places for both Nutman

Here is a 10.0 on the original Z Man Chatter Bait. If you are looking for fish like this you need to throw it. www.Zmanfishing.com

That picture is worth a 1000 words if you take note of the conditions... overcast, cold, shallow and with no foliage on the trees.

Duplicate that and I'd say you have a great starting point!

when the bite is slower you can the the skirt off and fish a white rage craw on the back

I learned how to fish a Chatterbait from Marc. He's one hell of a teacher.

I fished Lewisville this morning. I've been putting up zeros for my last 3 trips out there. I decided before I went to bed last night I was going to throw a Chatterbait based on a day I spend fishing with Marc with similar conditions as this morning. I fished it by shallow rock in no more than 5FOW, and caught 7 fish in 2.5 hours. Nothing over 3lbs but it was damn nice to catch some fish again.

I'm totally sold on it being an incredible cold water bait in the right conditions. It was the right card to play today for me.

I used to lose a LOT of fish on them, so many that it discouraged me from fishing them. Then I went to using co-polymer line for less stretch and a stiffer, longer rod. I've been using 15lb P line CXX spooled on Lews Speed Spool w/ an Omen Black 7'3 MH (heavier than your average MH). That setup with a hard hookset and I rarely have a fish come unbuttoned anymore.

Low stretch line a big plus and a stiffer rod is best as timwins31 mentioned. The Chatter bait is like a swimming jig not a spinner bait. So that being said I throw it on a heavy action rod and hardly ever have one throw the bait.

There are some different hooks on the Zman version and I do not like the Gama hooks they use to use, cause the barb is just to small to catch any meat. The Mustad hook is way better and some of the wide gap hooks they use are like aluminum light wire and they give a bit.

I like the heavy wire 3/0 Mustad on them. That wide gap hook they use also allows the fish swinging room when the fish shakes there head left to right, The small hook in my opinion hooks up's little better cause it wedges or locks up. IMO

Next time you buy one really take a look at the hook and check out the barb size cause that is what really catches your fish not the point.

Do you like a trailer or stinger hook on chatterbaits? I've found them to be very snaggy with just one hook, so I've stayed away from extra hooks on them.