Author Topic: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?  (Read 23320 times)

Offline Muskygary

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Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« on: 07/23/14 07:51 UTC »
I make my own chatterbaits and do not use skirts on them. I just add the plastic swimbait and they catch fish. I can't see where a skirt would help; to me it looks like some weeds on the front of the bait. What do you think?

Offline nativeam

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #1 on: 07/23/14 08:42 UTC »
I must ask. How are you making them?
Are you molding the jig? What mold?  What hook? Split ring or not?

I was considering making these just this AM. The jigs that are offered with the open hook eye appear to have to little room for a skirt and trailer both. I could not find just the open eye hooks to purchase.

Thanks,
-TR

Offline andrewlamberson

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #2 on: 07/23/14 08:59 UTC »
I make mine using the Do-it Arkie mold (with the double collar and the suggested hook) and I normally add a skirt...but I do fish it occasionally without a skirt an just use a Swim Shad. I make 90%+ of them in the 3/8 oz size.

I probably fish it the most with a skirt...but with no trailer because I like the way it shakes!

And yes...a split ring is necessary to attach the jig (and I think you get better action...IF... you use the right split ring. They need to be a small diameter or they bind).

If I was going to buy only one jig mold...it would be the Arkie. You can make Chatterbaits, it's a good swim jig and it's really effective crawling along the bottom with a crawfish trailer.
" You can't buy happiness...But you can buy fishing gear...and that's kind of the same thing"

Offline Muskygary

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #3 on: 07/23/14 09:04 UTC »
Like Andrew, I use the arkie mold. I get my blades and split rings from Barlows Tackle Express

Offline Justin9j

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #4 on: 07/23/14 09:42 UTC »
No skirt here either.  Just a swim bait. 

Offline nativeam

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #5 on: 07/23/14 11:55 UTC »
With a split ring do you need to use the 730 style or the 32798 flat eye style hook?

Thank you for the info.

-TR

Offline Muskygary

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #6 on: 07/23/14 12:01 UTC »
If you want to use one split ring, you have to use a flat eye jig. A regular jig you have to use two split rings. Go to Barlows Tackle Express and look under "Make your own tackle". Next look under how to make a Shaklee lure; explains it very well.

Offline andrewlamberson

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #7 on: 07/23/14 14:27 UTC »
I bought all my stuff from Barlow's because of that excellent explanation...and telling me exactly what to buy.

I make all of my Skakee Lures (Chatterbait is trademarked!) without weed guards. I cut a couple of the aluminum pins that come with the molds short (to just barely above the body of the bait) so that the weed guard hole fills with lead and use side cutters to trim the little nub off.
" You can't buy happiness...But you can buy fishing gear...and that's kind of the same thing"

Offline Lamar

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #8 on: 07/23/14 15:23 UTC »
  I make mine a little different. I make them with a 5/8 oz football shaky head and a 6/0 hook. Then use a 3.5 swim bait as a trailer. I think the advantage to the weight is you can retrieve it fast and it won't roll over on you or retrieve it slow and fish it deep. I like fishing it in the fall on the flats when the bass are up smashing the shad. They see rattle traps a lot but this gives them a new look.

Offline Justin9j

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #9 on: 07/23/14 17:27 UTC »
Want to make one shake hard. Make the blade out of a willow leaf blade. Shake your teeth out.

Offline kymer

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #10 on: 07/23/14 18:37 UTC »
This is the latest ones I got. Made by a guy in California. That's a "real" chatterbait in the back for comparison. 

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Offline Lamar

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #11 on: 07/24/14 05:42 UTC »
Want to make one shake hard. Make the blade out of a willow leaf blade. Shake your teeth out.

  Interesting. So your just drilling the two extra holes about the same distance up ? And what size blade you using ?

Offline Justin9j

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #12 on: 07/24/14 06:41 UTC »
yes just drill the holes.  I cut the top off the blade take the point off.  Size. #3 and up.
Oh and flatten it with a hammer some.  Sometimes you have to play with bends to make them not blow out of the water.  But they hunt when right.   My grandpa done before there was "chatter baits". 

Offline smalljaw

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #13 on: 07/24/14 06:52 UTC »
I make my own chatterbaits and do not use skirts on them. I just add the plastic swimbait and they catch fish. I can't see where a skirt would help; to me it looks like some weeds on the front of the bait. What do you think?

This an excellent question, I thought the same thing myself and so I tried the no skirt deal on spinnerbaits and chatterbaits and here is what I found out. With the spinnerbait there was a larger difference in the amount of strikes I got with a skirt, I had to do this a bunch of different ways as I normally don't use a trailer with a spinnerbait so I tried it with nothing on the back and then a worm, a grub and a swim bait. The swim bait did ok but without the skirt I had a large number of fish hit the blades, this didn't happen with the skirt which makes me think the added bulk really attracts the fish away from the blades. The chatterbait was a different deal, I did get more strikes with the skirt when I used grubs and worms for trailers but when I went to a swim bait it seemed there wasn't any real difference with or without a skirt. Here is the real kicker and it was pretty much what I expected, in stained water the skirt was almost required, I was getting bit more often by larger fish on average than I was without the skirt however, in clear water the numbers favored the bait without a skirt but the larger fish on average went for the skirt and I'm chalking that up to the added bulk with the skirt. In summary I'd have to say that with a chatterbait, you don't need a skirt but if you are fishing tournaments and are looking for larger fish you will definitely want a skirt. I will also add that I only conducted this observation on the chatterbait for 3 seasons, the spinnerbait I did over a span of 6 seasons, like I said, when I started making spinnerbaits, I tried everything and wrote it down, I would make 100 spinnerbaits with different lengths of wires and different blade sizes and I would go to a shallow calm water spot that was super clear and for 7 to 8 hours I would reel each bait slow, medium and fast and write down the results. There was no fish in the area I was at, it was a small wash out next to the river and was about 2.5' deep and clear, it was my testing water, and when I was learning I had the same question as Muskygary, and that was the one about whether skit material makes any difference and it most certainly does in most cases.

Offline Muskygary

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Re: Chatterbaits-- With or without skirts?
« Reply #14 on: 07/24/14 10:53 UTC »
Wow! Thanks for all the information guys. Smalljaw, I mainly fish clear water lakes here in Indiana; so that's probably why I came up with my conclusion. I never paid much attention to the size of fish as the lake I fish is ,loaded with sub 14 inch bass.