How To Fish A Chatterbait (Beginner Tips AND Advanced Tricks)

[Music] hey guys Matt Allen here welcome back to tactical Bassin today we are talking bladed jigs we are talking chatter baits this is something you guys have been requesting all spring we see those comments we know that this is a video that you guys have wanted so we finally carved some time out to sit down and talk bladed jigs and we are gonna talk everything this is gonna take a little bit of time we are gonna start out talking trailers I want to start there we're gonna talk about traditional trailers we're gonna talk about some unique modifications you can do some of it is stuff that we've covered before some of it is brand new then we're gonna move on we're gonna talk about the baits we're gonna talk about the different bladed jigs that are on the market what I think your best options are I'll give you some recommendations and then finally we'll talk about gear because in the marketplace there is a huge split in what kind of rods in line you took you should throw a ChatterBait on they're very good fishermen that lean both ways so we're going to talk about those differences as well right off if you're not familiar with what a ChatterBait is or a bladed jig it is literally a jig with a blade out in front and when you run that thing through the water that blade kicks left and right creates an incredible amount of vibration and gets that jig moving and swaying and puffing back behind and it's an amazing bait it's amazing in the springtime it's amazing in the summertime you can cover water with it and you catch them in the grass you catch them in open water you get hot bottom oh we weren't supposed to talk about that yet there's so many different things that you can do with this bait it's it's phenomenal so let's start with trailers and then we're gonna work back from there you guys stick with me we're gonna cover a lot of ground today basically you've got two options you got a swimbait style trailer you got a cross style trailer based on the color and what you're trying to imitate you decide which way you should go so if you're running you know green pumpkin or Browns or craw colors maybe you're better off with a craw Emmett ater the - craw imitators that I use or that I would recommend the first one is going to be a strike king rage and guys if you're not familiar down in the video description we link every single product that we talk about you don't have to try and figure out what we're talking about you open the video description you'll see it laid out what the item is and a link where you can look at it so you can look up close at each item but straight King rage you get so much movement out of the tails of those baits they're phenomenal they pair really really well with a ChatterBait the biggest thing with ChatterBait fishing to me is that my trailer the movement of the trailer the speed that it moves the way that it moves matches the ChatterBait or the jig I don't like when one is going fast and one is going slow I I really don't think the fish respond well to that it's important to have baits where they work well together so the rage works really really well either the rage craw or the rage trailer both work great and then this guy is a brand new Yamamoto bait I picked up and started fiddling with they call it a cowboy but you see how it's like a double tail grub but look how huge these claws are they're massive you get a ton of movement and really good flow out of this trailer and it's good bulk it's a good size I mean it's big and throw it on here real quick this trailer is is no joke it really really fills out that profile you've got a ton of motion and a ton of size coming through the water and pre-spawn you know that's a good deal so that cowboy is a really good option the nice thing about a double tail grub especially this one with those big wide tails on it is that you're going to get a ton of movement but the movement is dictated by whatever it's being pulled on whether it's on a jig it's on a jig it moves slow if you're burning on a ChatterBait they're really speed up and they move well and it matches well so that's key on the swimbait end of things probably your most basic trailer is your Yamamoto swim Sanko very basic it just gets back there and it just kicks it's not big but they work it's a lot of people's favorite trailer and I won't go into it a ton because it's not my favorite trailer but I can't not talk about it because there are a lot of really good fishermen who that is their favorite ChatterBait trailer it's got a good kick it matches well to the bait the other guys the Yamamoto zico that guy there that came out last year specifically designed to pair to chatter baits that's specifically what it was made for so you can see that made it's a swimbait profile but you can see the ribs it's ribbed all the way down and then it's got a little bit of a rib to the tail so that bait is back there it's got a very fishy it's not like a wide tail kick tarry fishy tight kick and it runs really well behind that bladed jig it matches really well it is a small profile you'll notice so depending on the bait that you put it on you may need to trim up the skirt material so they don't interfere with each other some baits won't have that problem like that guy there see how it's puffed out more and that'll fit up inside there and they won't interfere but this one it's absolutely going to cause that trailer not to work if you don't do something about it so keep that in mind but that is a really good option I mean specifically designed for this application now last this is something we've covered before but I'm going to cover it again because I know some of you have not seen the older video and this is critical a lot of people use kite X as trailers on their chatter baits a lot of people it's a it's a lot of people's favorite trailer but if you put a chi tech on the back of a ChatterBait and you just swim it and specifically I like the 4.8 okay in anything 3/8 or heavier if you're going really really light with your bladed jig you go smaller but 3/8 are heavier I really like that 4.8 size if you just put this on here the blade is up there moving really fast right it's shaking back and forth going super fast but the tail of this swim bait because the water is already disturbed out in front of it that blade is moving so much water this guy is in the back it ends up instead of running straight that kind of tip up and it just has a lazy kick a lot of people still throw them I really really don't like that action it's super lazy it doesn't match right and I've not seen that much success with it so there are two things that you can do number one take your Chi tech and instead of putting it on their right side up turn it over that's it wrong side up so that tail is upside down you would think that wouldn't matter but I'm telling you it's because of the way the water comes around the blade on the front of the bait the way that water moves if you run it right side up it's going to tip up and it's going to look like garbage if you run it upside down it doesn't tip up and it gets a phenomenal kick and it speeds up and it matches the blade they move at the same speed it's all because of the way the water is coming around the blade on the front of that ChatterBait it looks fantastic the other thing you can do with your junk baits take your chatter bait I'm sorry take your your kite egg see that tail there I'm gonna cut that tail off flush so I took just the tail off but I left that shape you take that guy you thread that on there right side up and that little trailer is no joke that guy swims so so good like that because you already have the vibration of the blade that's creating movement in the bait the skirt is pulsating and it's shaking the bait that tail without that resistance in the back just follows it and it becomes the tightest swimming this tail is just a perfect s super fast in the water even faster than a Zico swim super tight and looks exactly like a bait fish that's making a run for it I mean exactly exactly like it that is a phenomenal option now let's move on to the actual baits themselves because there are so many different bladed jigs on the market there are so many different options which one should you try which one should you avoid it all comes down to personal opinion okay I mean I'm gonna give you my opinion my opinion is that there are only a couple bladed jigs out there that I will put my time into throwing and I'm not brand-specific what I am is connection specific the way that they make them matters to me anything that uses a double split ring because they're you know like 50 different bladed jigs on the market anything that works off of a double split ring and I'm not saying one brand versus another because I don't even know who they all are but I'll tell you if that's the setup I don't use them and the reason why is in my fishing or in what I found going out and catching fish the faster a blade starts to vibrate at the beginning that is the key to chatter rate fishing because when I throw it up into a pocket I want it to move instantly the second I start to turn the handle I want that thing kicking and if it's a double connection it's not instant it takes time for it to get going but it doesn't only matter at the beginning of the cast it matters through the entire cast because every time I pause every time I break every time I bump a piece of grass every time I bang off of cover the same thing happens that blade stalls out and it takes time to speed back up that double split ring just does not work as well as the traditional hands down the z-man ChatterBait is the fastest starting blade that there is but I'm not a fan of the original ChatterBait I'm just not so I'm gonna run you through a handful of baits that I really like for this technique and then there is one other brand and that's in fact we'll just start there the because of the shock blade they came out with a little bit different way of making a connection I don't know if they came out with that last year or the year before but it's been out for a little bit but that different way of making a connection does work that's the only other one besides the z-man product that all fish with because again that blade starts really fast it starts right away so every time you bump cover or make a pause or do anything it stalls and starts that's the difference between getting bit and not getting bit because you don't want that fish's first look or when you make a pause you don't want that fish to be running and go to react and then the baits not working that's the exact wrong time for the bait not to be work that is the critical couple of seconds throughout your retrieve it's the most important moment and if it's not working right you are wasting your time if you're just chucking a winding straight retrieve whatever that's fine but if you're doing things to get fish to react or you're fishing cover it's it's a hundred percent critical so the specific ones that I'll use that Picasso Schokolade is a good choice I like that connection it's got a solid hook in it overall I have good things to say you do need to trim the skirt it's a very very thin skirt material I trim them to get a little more bulk out of it so it doesn't mess up the trailers I think that's key after that we're talking all z-man let's talk about the differences between them I mean the first one is the most expensive bladed jig on the market but it is consistently a best-seller all the elites are throwing it you look on tackle our house bestseller list it's always on there it's the jackhammer so why are people spending 16 bucks on a ChatterBait what's the deal why is it different well first off its got a gaming hook gamatatsu hook it has a double keeper I'll just run you through their features as a double wire keeper plus a good lead keeper the skirt material is very very thin flows extremely well head designs solid it's got a really really good blade on a heavy blade color is matched perfectly and then a really really good snap those are all critical critical things but that bait it 100% it starts the fastest it is the most consistent product to product to product they're very very consistent they charge a ton for them but they have the best build quality of anyone so you know if it's in your budget the jackhammer is in my opinion the best ChatterBait out there but to step down from there there are still some really good options now the second one is going to be the ChatterBait custom I really like this bait ChatterBait came out with the elite a couple years ago the difference from the elite to the custom is basically that they went to a stainless blade it's a stainless steel blade it stronger blade but this bait that custom specifically comes with a smaller hook it comes with a four OTT hook and everything but the heaviest size so it's it's a significantly smaller hook significantly and then say a project Z I really like that because it's not always that you need a big heavy giant hook there are times when you need it there are times where you need to catch these fish on a pool cue with a really heavy hook but a lot of the time especially if you're trying to catch those two three four five pound fish you're not trying to catch eight and ten pounders that lighter wire hook will stick more fish and the overall profile weighs less so you get better movement and vibration out of the jig so these guys the Zeeman the custom I think bang for the buck is phenomenal it uses a very different connection but it's strong it works well it's a our key style head I like this bait I think if bang for the buck is the most critical thing to you I think that this is the best bang for the buck in chatter baits smaller hook very very sharp - good head shape comes through cover it's a good skirt it uses a single wire keeper instead of a double it's a single wire in there but you put a bait up on there threaded on the trick two wire keepers is that you only put a bait on one time what I mean by that is if you go to put this bait on you thread it on you mess it up and you pull it off you turn around you thread it again pull it off you'll destroy the bait but if you practice and you get good at it and you put them on one time and it's right the first time they stay stuck on a wire keeper it works really well it's the same keeper same kind of keeper that I use on the Matt Allen swim baited I really like this style of keeper but the key is to thread of eight on one time don't try and correct them once they're on there that'll get you last to be that project Z there your a heavier hook you're using a traditional lead double barb keeper they use a completely different skirt I think it's a silicone skirt maybe I'm not sure different head design completely different blade completely but it is all really nice components a huge upgrade from the original ChatterBait they look good they swim good the action is there they're nice baits but I'll tell you again from a personal opinion these are cheaper these are a dollar less the customs and I like them better it's again it's personal opinion hook is way smaller profile overall way smaller but they flat get bit if I'm gonna spend the money I spend the money and go all the way up to the jackhammer I mean those are those are my two favorites this is running a four out hook jackhammers running a five ik all upgraded components but you're talking about like I think $6.99 and $15.99 there's a big difference between them both are killers so I hope that that helps you guys there are so many blades on the market so many different baits but if you stick to those baits that see all chatter baits these a straight connection it goes straight from the wire to the blade see that those always start to vibrate faster and then that Picasso it's using kind of a double barb but same concept and it works really well too also they say that they designed theirs to stay down I think that's why they have the holes poked in the blade they do they do stay down a little bit better so if you're fishing deeper and the Picasso comes in a ton of sizes so if you are fishing deeper again that's a really good option but overall overall my two picks are the jackhammer and I'm not that custom I think that's the way to go how many times have I said that right now retrieve wise retrieve is critical because you can't just throw a chatter right out there and just reel it back and you'll catch fish that buggers just vibrating tails looking good everything looks good don't worry about color colors up to you guys you know match what's in your water throne Green pumpkins there are shad colors throw bluegill colors that changes Lake to Lake but retrieve you can just chuck in wine just cover water but I'll tell you what one of the best things you can do during a retrieve is to vary it if you have color if color cover if you have sparse grass if you have lay down wood if you have anything you can bang into dock pilings that's great throw it right up alongside that stuff run it down and then it'll bang into the cover and it will naturally deflect it'll kick off the blade will stop and then it starts up again that's that magic moment where a fish that's following will just come in and kill it but if you don't have cover you want to create that yourself so there are a couple things you can do if you're burning that bait along you're just reeling it you can just pause it right you just stop and then but you don't want to pause for long you just want it to drop for a second basically is to breaking cadence you stop [Music] that works really well you see a lot of guys pump them but what I found that works better than a pump is a burn and then pump it with the reel so you're reeling along and then you just give it a you just give it one fast turn of that handle in the middle of your retrieve and it almost imitates bumping cover right that that baits just kicking along and then it runs for it it's it dirts speeds up and it will almost always cause it to to change directional but either rise or go to the side but it's that moment where if a bass is following in that chatter baits up there kicking that bass just tail it when that thing makes that dirt the bass thinks that things got my number it's making a run for it they kill it right away they don't give it any time so you'll be real and pump it and they're just instant Hooksett right away and then the last way that I fish ChatterBait is slow on bottom I've done better with it night fishing than I have in the day but I've caught big ones in the daylight - my biggest night fish on a chatter bass just shy at 12 pounds biggest day fish hop and bottom like this is a 9 and 3/4 what you do is exactly those of you that have watched our lb 500 videos or our lipless videos we talk about slow fishing on bottom we do the exact same thing with that ChatterBait that's why we have these heavier sizes that's a 3/4 the Picasso comes all the way up to 2 ounces but put a crawler on it don't use a swim bait trailer use something like that cowboy on there something that's gonna have a lot of movement really quick throw that thing out let it go to bottom and again this is another one of those times where that blades starting right away is so so critical is you throw that thing out let it settle the bottom and then all you do is just pull it up and it's gonna vibrate up it'll kick up off the bottom and then you just hold the rod tip and you just let it settle back to bottom on its own reel up your slack pull it up reel down pull it up so you're just swimming it up off the bottom and then letting it flutter back down swim it up flutter back down it draws that same height as the lipless as a spoon it's just that reaction bite to either something that's making a run for it or something that's wounded and dying it kind of replicates both of those things but again this is one of those times where that start time is so urgent because if you're only pulling it a foot foot and a half and it takes a foot and a half for the blade to start kicking it's useless but if that blade kicks the first time you move it you've got a really good swim and then same thing with that trailer you want a trailer that starts right away if you put you know a swimbait style trailer on try and do this the swim baits barely even kicking by the time it's stolen back out but something like this he's gonna kick right away and then it's gonna swim its way back down to kick right away swim its way back down that's critical I typically do that style of retrieve with crawl colors with Browns blacks black and blue green pumpkin and then paired with akrur a l'heure that's just where I've seen my best success hopping bottom with it but all of those are good retrieves now last but not least let's talk about the gear let's talk about the rods because there are two very different trains of thought and I'm gonna tell you where I am I'm the guy that throws it on heavier gear I throw it on braids I throw it on 50-pound braid corrado 70 is what I throw them on either way but I throw it on a fast retrieve ratio throw it on seven to one and then I throw it on a seven foot or longer medium heavy rod at a minimum and if I'm in heavy cover I even go to a heavy rod but typically medium heavy seven to seven three medium heavy has worked extremely extremely well for me it's got some backbone to it so when I'm reeling that thing along and I pause it and a fish eats it I mean I smash on them even with that lighter hook with a medium heavy rod you're not gonna bend that hook set your drag even with braids so I go fifty pound braid to typically a fifteen pound mono leaders what I fish it on you know this is not finesse fishing I'll even go up to a twenty pound leader if I've got the clarity or if it's murky is what I mean if it's crystal clear I got a twenty-pound because it just doesn't matter in that murkier water but on that setup when they eat that thing I can really hit them and a ChatterBait bites funny a lot of times they'll smash it but more often than not you'll be reeling that thing along and all you'll feel is you got this perfect vibration and it'll just stop because when that fish comes up from behind and they clamp on it you don't immediately feel them clamp on it you feel when they stop the blade it stops shaking because official come in behind and what they'll do is the fully engulfed the bait and they're still coming at you and then they turn sideways and that's when it draws tight so if you're not paying attention all of a sudden little jerk but really you almost blew it that fish already had that bait so when I'm reeling that thing along if that bleed ever stops vibrating slam that hook set right away that's the way I like to fish a chatter right now there's a whole second group of anglers that do not agree they use moderate rods very very lighter I shouldn't say light action but lighter action rods medium moderate some guys leave in from on crank bait rods and they're all using fluorocarbon I do fish that style too but I I go heavy if I can get away with it but what's the deal well because I'm not the best at it I wouldn't ask some people that were a lot better than me and I pulled a bunch of my friends why are you throwing it on a moderate rod on fluorocarbon what's the deal what's your two cents why do you do it and I got a bunch of answers and it matched my own fishing and what the answer is is the guys that want to throw it on fluoro and moderate the one thing that's true across all of it is they're all grass fishermen and I think that we've got our thumb on the issue the issue is when you're fishing on that heavier gear like I do and you're in grass you get hung up the grass and you rip it out right when you rip it on braid and a heavy rod it comes flying out of that grass but if you do it on that lighter stuff when you got to pull it out that rod kind of loads up that fluoro stretches that when it comes loose there's some acceleration time essentially what it boils down to is you leave the cover slower so if you hang up in the grass and a fish comes down there to look at it if you're throwing it on that heavy rod and you rip it out of there that thing just takes off like a rocket and that fish is now left behind it has to try and catch up if you're on that lighter rod fluorocarbon when you finally break free it takes time for it to accelerate like a slingshot it takes time to speed up and that fish is right there on it they eat it as it comes out of the grass that seems to be the difference if you're primarily a grass guy you at least need to experiment with that moderate gear my favorite rod for that style I just started playing with that Bantam we did a review of that Tim and I both scooped that reel up so I just started playing with that Bantam but I've always thrown it on a Corrado 70 but the rod that I like is that there's a cash-in and I'll give you the model down in the video description but it's a 7-foot one it is a micro guide rod which I typically don't use but because this application is specifically fluorocarbon I tried it you guys already knew that we picked up a few of these rods to try them because we kept getting a request so we picked up a handful of them I think we picked them up in the fall and then played with them through the winter and now played with them this spring but they're chatter bait rod I've really liked it's got a really really moderate slower action to it and those fish really load up well on it so that's the rod that I've enjoyed when I'm pairing with fluoro otherwise that mid 7s 72 medium-heavy that's the way that I go that's the way I've always gone but I'm open-minded I'm still playing with my options and I do really really like this when I get in that grass I have seen a difference those guys were right it does accelerate slower and it gets bit better coming out of the grass but everything else I'm still up a heavy rod guy personal preference guys I hope that helps you we just talked for a long time that is pretty much everything you could ever want to know about chatter baits or bladed jigs we've covered trailers we've covered the styles of the jig itself and why it matters getting that acceleration getting trailers that match and then depending on the type of cover that you're fishing pairing it appropriately to the rod and reel end line again we covered a ton of stuff so links to everything will be down in the video description if you enjoyed the video hit that like button subscribe to the channel turn on those notifications so that you know when we're putting out new videos but they do come out every Monday Wednesday and Friday and then if you enjoyed this video leave us a comment so we know about it tell us the videos that you want us to do in the future we are here to teach you guys we're here to take you along on the water but we want to know what you want to learn so that we're teaching you the right stuff so leave those comments we do see them even when we don't have time to respond to them we appreciate you again hit that like button subscribe to the channel we'll talk to you soon [Music] you

Channel: TacticalBassin

Views: 1,193,376

Rating: 4.9043198 out of 5

Keywords: chatterbait, chatterbait fishing, chatterbait trailers, chatterbait underwater action, chatterbait setup, chatterbait fishing tips, chatterbait rod, spring, spring fishing, prespawn, prespawn bass fishing, prespawn bass, prespawn fishing tips, pond, pond fishing, bank fishing, spring fishing lures, spring fishing tips, tacticalbassin, underwater footage, underwater fishing, bass fishing, bass fishing tips, Jack Hammer, evergreen jackhammer, jack hammer chatterbait, senko

Id: tej0NsHeT5U

Length: 29min 35sec (1775 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 06 2018

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In depth video covering all thinfs chatterbait related. Moving baits can have really effective days covering tons of water. Searching and catching fish. Use this to improve your chatterbait skills.