Can You Call
Do chatterbaits work?
“Chatterbaits first started as a fishing fad but have become a staple for many anglers”
We need to chat – well sort of. The Chatterbaits celebrated 10 years in production recently. The so called ‘gimmick bait’, the fad of 2003 in the fishing world is more than a decade old now.
Why? It flat out catches fish. That rhythmic thumping vibration on retrieve is down right deadly.
Basically a jig with a hexagon blade at the line tie, has won me over. I recently took a handful of these baits to a test lake to see how they performed.
I would fish basic shoreline cover, docks, downed trees and weediness. The color I opted for on fishing these locations was a silver/white/black combo that mimics the herring that school here.
And for the rocky portions of the lake I chose a crawfish pattern. This bait seems to glide through all but the thickest of cover due to its hex blade up front.
The vibration that courses up the line, through the rod, and into your hands is the major fish-calling attraction of this bait. I started just casting to visible shoreline cover and retrieving it back.
At times after casting to cover, I would let the bait drop a bit before starting my retrieve.
The bass, a lot of the time hit on the initial turn of the reel handle after this drop. It really didn’t matter, by varying retrieves I was able to get some good bass from the docks, downed trees and weedlines.
I also caught some good bass just working the shoreline throwing to nothing in particular. Now I wanted to move to my favorite type of structure: rock, ledges, piles and rocky flats.
Armed with my crawfish pattern chatterbait, I pulled up on a ledge I like that holds some good bass. This particular rocky flat is about 6 ft deep from shore out about 40 yards, after that it drops off to 20ft.
But on that drop from 6 to 20, there is a rock pile on that edge, sounds good, right?
I just cast toward shore, over the rocky flat and retrieved slowly ticking the bottom.
But when my bait hit that rock pile on that edge, I immediately let that bait fall along the face of that ledge and BAM!
- Varying the retrieve and bumping structure brought some nice heavy strikes, and in turn some good fish to the boat.
All who use this bait know the deadly results when tying one on brings. And for those who have yet to try this “gimmick” bait, don’t miss out any longer.
If you want to check out chatterbaits for yourself, you can find more reviews and prices here on amazon
Upgrades are offered for just about everything we use these days.
Heck when we upgrade our cable TV service or a warranty for a certain piece of electronics we own, it’s pretty straight forward and easy to do. I just upgraded to a better watercraft. The options, service packages, electronics and choices gave me a headache. Do I really need that 21 foot boat with a 250 on back, powerpoles, and 15 inch fishfinder? Though very nice, it just wasn’t practical for the waters I wanted to fish most of the time, or my bank account. It was about being happy and grateful for what I was about to receive.
So I downgraded while upgrading. The decision on going with what I need vs. what I want isn’t always easy. So by going with what I need, it saved me around $20k and gave me a boat I can afford easily, had some bells and whistles, 175 on the back and I was in business once again. So be grateful for what you now have, or can afford.
About the Author
Bill Peraino co-hosts “The Reel Deal” with Richie Moschella. The show can be found in northeast New Jersey where it’s been running for 4 years. An avid Kayak fisherman, Bill can be found fishing with his Ocean Kayak. Bill has been bass fishing for 20 years and shares his knowledge, tips and tricks to Bass Fishing Gurus.
You can read more entertaining articles from Bill on these links below
