ChatterBaits
PRO BASS LURES IDEAL FOR UK PREDATORS
catch you more!
IMAGINE taking a jig head, a spinner and a crankbait and combining them into the ultimate lure. Impossible? Not so Ð enter the ChatterBait. Hailing from the ultra-competitive American Pro Bass scene, ChatterBaits are unique ‘hybrid’ lure patterns that freshwater bass anglers use as a ‘searching bait’ to quickly locate fish. Why? Because predators, quite simply, cannot resist having a go at them.
One man who uses them to great effect is Martin Ferrett. So confident is he in their effectiveness that he imports them to sell in the UK.
“Because these Pro Bass boys are competing for big money, they are always on the lookout for that ‘next-level’ edge that could be the difference between them winning $100,000 or nothing,” Martin said.
“The reason ChatterBaits are so incredibly effective is down to the distinctive hex-shaped blade that sits at the front of the jig head.”
When the bait is worked through the water column, it is this shaped blade that produces the ‘chatter’.
Water pressure pushing on the front of the blade as the lure is retrieved makes it rattle or chatter very quickly, producing a very fast, yet shallow, vibration.
For those who have never seen or fished with one, the best way to describe this is to imagine placing a lollypop stick between the spokes of a bicycle wheel. The clicking as the wheel turns is very similar to the vibration transmitted to the rod.
NOT JUST FOR PIKE
ChatterBaits are available in a number of sizes, but most popular in the UK are the micros 1/8oz (3.5g) through to the Original ChatterBaits weighing 1/2 oz (15g).
“They do make them larger and heavier in the US, but for this country, a maximum of 1/2oz is perfect for most depths of water,” Martin said.
“I tend to use either the micros or the 1/4oz (7g) models for canals and stillwaters. If I am fishing somewhere quite deep or on a river with a decent flow, I will go up to the 15g model.
“Based around a jig head with a blade attached, the resultant vibration is rather fast, unlike most pike lures, which tend to create a much longer, slower vibration. The great thing about this is that as well as still turning on the pike, perch, zander and chub love them too.
“The high-pitched pulsation that ChatterBaits produce seems to light up a predator’s lateral line like Blackpool illuminations! They just can’t help themselves.”
HOW TO USE THEM
The best thing about these distinctive lures is that they are so easy to set up and fish with. Just make sure that when they are attached to either your wire trace or fluorocarbon leader, the leader comes off the jig head underneath the chatter blade.
This means that when it is cast, the blade sits at around a 30-degree angle to the jig head. It is this angle that produces the vibration.
Using standard lure kit of a 7g rod and 10lb braided mainline, Martin reckons there is no way to fish these bait incorrectly.
“You can cast out, let the ChatterBait fall to the bottom and then slowly retrieve it. You can let it sink before ripping it back and allowing it to fall again, exactly the same way as you would fish a jig, or flick the rod-tip to the side, to make it dart through the water column,” he said.
As well as the blade, ChatterBaits have a rubber skirt around the base of the jig head, which pulses in the water on the retrieve, adding an additional dimension.
A further advantage is that as a ChatterBait is basically a bladed jig head with a skirt, you can either fish it straight out of the box, or thread a shad or other rubber lure on to the
hook, just as you would with a standard jig head set-up.
“I like to do this more when it’s pike I’m targeting,” Martin explained.
“I feel that the larger silhouette produced by adding a shad to the ChatterBait presents the pike with a more substantial food item, so they are more inclined to hit the bait.
“For perch, zander or chub, I usually fish them straight, without the additional shad.”
To prove this, and just how effective ChatterBaits are, Martin took us to the highly-pressured Saul Junction, where the Gloucester Canal and the Stroudwater Navigation meet.
Here the predators see a great deal of lure anglers and so they have started to wise up to the usual tactics. However, within three hours, Martin’s ChatterBait approach had landed a fine pike well into double-figures, a few zander and a rake of perch, proving there is more to these strange-looking baits than meets the eye.