CHATTERBAITS?

PASSING FAD OR WEAPON OF CHOICE?

I must admit that when it comes to new lures hitting the Australian fishing scene, I’m not one to race out and fill my tackle box with whatever the latest offering happens to be.

My traditional approach to freshwater fishing remains based around hard body lures, however in the past few years I have embraced spinnerbaits and found them to be a deserving additional to the lure armoury.

Lipless crankbaits are another style of lure that I’m yet to fully appreciate, partly because I tried them in the old days (Cotton Cordell rattlin’ spot) and didn’t find them anything special, so I am biased away from the jackall revolution. That’s not to say that jackall’s aren’t an effective lure, it’s just that I don’t enjoy using bibless lures as much as a spinnerbait or hard body.

Soft plastics for me are in the same boat as lipless crankbaits. I used “Mister Twister’s” for flathead when they became popular in Australia 20 odd years ago, but for freshwater fishing for murray cod and golden perch, I am yet to warm to their effectiveness. As such, my plastics are usually attached to a spinnerbait as a sweetener, rather than being a front line option.

Being a conservative fisherman, I was sceptical when Dave Harp from Mudguts Spinnerbaits handed me his prototype chatterbait. I had seen other chatterbait brands in the tackle shop and magazines but had yet to tie one on and see how they work.

After a few test casts in a local pond we found the prototype had a few minor bugs (which didn’t help my enthusiasm toward the new lure) and Dave headed back to the workshop to improve his design.

A couple of weeks later, I hosted Dave and Anthony Curtis (AC Lures) for a days fishing on the Murrumbidgee. The morning we spent fishing hard bodies, but the afternoon we devoted to spinnerbaits and gave a good test run to Dave’s revised chatterbait, which he dubbed ‘Scatterbrains’.

My scepticism was reaching new heights when my first six casts with the chatterbait snagged immediately. I realised then that I was trying to fish this lure the same as the spinnerbait which I had just been casting for three hours. I varied my retrieve and was into a fish on the next cast. With the retrieve sorted we continued to nail fish for the rest of the afternoon.

The basic idea of the chatterbait and spinnerbait is similar with a weighted body, but the way in which they need to be retrieved is a world apart. Spinnerbaits have blades which slow the sink rate on cast, so they can be thrown and allowed to ‘helicopter’ down to the required depth with or without retrieving line, whereas the chatterbait has a flat pivoting bib on the nose which vibrates the lure once the lure is in forward motion.

If the chatterbait isn’t moving forward, they plummet to the bottom, and stick into the nearest snag. In order to reduce the snag on cast problem, they need a short, sharp flick with the rod as the lure hits the water (or in deeper water give a flick once you have the required depth) which will start the lure moving forward causing the bib to pivot and slow the descent through the water column.

Once the chatterbait is in the water and swimming, I found the most effective retrieve to be about the same speed as a spinnerbait (slow) with the addition of a sharp snap of the rod tip, rather than a slow roll normally used for spinnerbaits. This sharp snap has the chatterbait darting in all directions and certainly presses the buttons of cod and goldens in my part of the world.

The strong vibration of the chatterbait through the rod makes these lures feel like a hard body which is probably why a hard-body freak like me, finds them such an appealing lure. They aren’t the sort of lure I would give to a beginner as they do need a bit of attention to get the best out of them, but there is no doubting their effectiveness.

The Mudguts ‘Scatterbrains’ are due for release in November, but Dave is taking special orders now. For a sneak peak, visit my website www.riverinasportfishing.com and click on the ‘Mudguts’ logo on the front page.

© Jamin Forbes October 2007