Chatter’s & buzz’n

[ctom]

With this warmer weather I’ve been in the shop casting a lot. Chatter baits and buzz baits have been my focus right now and I have about 50 of each nearing the finish line now, then I’ll go back to the Crappie spinner bait and start on them.

What is in the picture is an assortment of white-based baits that seem to get the attention of the large pike we target beginning about mid-June.

Right now the silicone is banded but I’ll be either re-wrapping with wire or with thread and then the bands will be snapped. The weed guards on the chatter baits will be glued in when the re-wrapping I’d finished. The line clips in the blades will be the final step.



I should note that Gamakasu hooks are in all of these baits, 4/0 spinner bait hooks in everything. All of the heads were powder coated using the handy powder sprayer that Do-It sells. And of course the eyes are from Do-It's Attack line-up of eyes. The silicone came from Do-It's line too. The props for the buzz baits are Do-Its, even on the 1/4 ounce buzz baits that are not shown. The chatter blades came from Barlows along with a mess of willow leaf blades to finish a full line of spinner baits. The buzzbaits shown here are 3/8 ounce cast from the Ultra Spinner mold with a tiny bit of modification. The chatter bait heads are 1/4 ounce from the grass jig mold hybrid grass jig head with the hook eye cavity opened up to take the hook with the eye opened up enough to allow that blade to be slipped in place after painting. Once the blade is in place on the hook the eye gets pinched closed.

There's a lot of hands-on work with both of these bait styles but its fun work. The best part is one doesn't have to look much further than the Do-It store for the bulk of the work and Barlows does a great job of carrying the other components like the chatter blades.

[Lamar]

 Nice baits. Just a suggestion I would add a small bead on your buzz baits between the blade and the rivet. It will make it spin easier.

[21xdc]

Nice baits. Just a suggestion I would add a small bead on your buzz baits between the blade and the rivet. It will make it spin easier.

It will spin easier, But at the cost of a squeak. I prefer the squeak, Like everybody else I know.

[bigjim5589]

It will spin easier, But at the cost of a squeak. I prefer the squeak, Like everybody else I know.

Yep, that's been the case for me too! I'll add a bead ahead of the blades, because they will sometimes get hung on that bend in the wire and the bead stops that.

When i had first started making buzzbaits to sell, I was big on the plastic blades, but they can be difficult to sell. Most folks want the metal blades.

I like both and have caught fish on both.

I have some old Okie bug frames to make a knocker type of buzzbait and the plastic blades make a heck of a racket on those frames! 

[Lamar]

Yep, that's been the case for me too! I'll add a bead ahead of the blades, because they will sometimes get hung on that bend in the wire and the bead stops that.

When i had first started making buzzbaits to sell, I was big on the plastic blades, but they can be difficult to sell. Most folks want the metal blades.

I like both and have caught fish on both.

I have some old Okie bug frames to make a knocker type of buzzbait and the plastic blades make a heck of a racket on those frames! 

 I like the metal one's too. I add a clacker to some of them and they really make noise then.

[ctom]

If you look closely you'll see a spacer, a crimp-on actually, at the back of each blade before the bend in the wire. The crimp-on is loose and slides like the blade. I checked each blade to be certain the crimp-on would not slip inside the blade's hole.

[bigjim5589]

Tom, that's how I make mine, it's a rivet used as the bearing point for the blades and I will crimp them so they can't spin.

Lamar, I make some with the metal blades & clacker blade, but the plastic whacking on the Okiebug frame has a different type of noise to it. Those are the only one's I've ever seen made in the manner that they are.

I think that it can be good to try different things to get a different sound. Just as it is with crankbaits & other lures that make noise.

I don't want them all to sound exactly the same. I think that defeats the purpose of the noise they make although the squeek, does seem to attract bites!

[Fatman]

Nice baits!!