Jack’s scant respect for a ChatterBait!
I WAS first introduced to ChatterBaits by England lure men Sam and Gary Edmonds at Pitsford Reservoir on their quest for lure-caught predators (page 42).
Cast across weedbeds, they proved to be absolutely deadly and an extremely visual way to fish, with plenty of strikes.
The next time I encountered them was in Key West last year, on my annual Big Adventure with Roy Marlow and others. Tim Watson took some ChatterBaits with him. They were produced by a very well-respected company and looked the part, so when we were attacked by a shoal of hungry crevalle jack when tarpon fishing on a rough day outside Key West harbour, Tim asked if he was likely to get a strike on a ChatterBait.
Crevalle jack are mean machines, more or less the Atlantic equivalent of the Pacific Ocean’s giant trevally, and when they are in the mood they’ll eat most things – so on went the ChatterBait.
A few seconds into the first retrieve there was a splash behind the lure, then it was hit – and hit hard. The battle lasted just seconds before the line went slack and Tim retrieved the blade at the front of the lure...Mr Jack had kept the rest. It had hit so hard the metal loop keeping the parts of the lure together had opened up!
I don’t think a pike or any other fish in the UK is ever going to do that because even the biggest, baddest esox doesn’t get within a country mile of even a modest jack in the fighting stakes, but it was a good learning curve for Tim...