# Easily make your own chatterbaits for $1



## onthewater102

We have a lot of pike in my smallmouth waters, and the toothy bastards loved snatching my $5 & $6 chatterbaits but to fish with a wire leader means just about abandoning hope of catching the smallies I'm usually targeting. Now it doesn't break the bank when the slimers come and steal my gear. Incidentally, I found that by making them myself I can use EWG light wire hooks a size smaller (3/0 works well on smallies for me) and make a smaller profile bait while still having the hard thumping action of a 1/2oz, 5/8oz or 3/4oz bait. The EWG light wire hook helps with the softer strikes I get often in colder water. If the heavy weights drop too fast to trigger a strike I can always stick on a lighter weight. The only trouble is your weights and blade sizes are related to one another - too big a blade with not enough weight and you won't chatter - you'll spin & make a mess. Experiment a smidge & you'll find a happy medium.

What you'll need:







$0.10 - Blade
$0.05 - Snap (20#)
$0.07 - Split Ring (20#)
$0.12 - Mustad #32608N Size 4/0 (not the hook pictured, but probably the preferred general public chatterbait hook. Pictured is a 3/0 EWG Mustad Flat Eye jig hook.)
$0.40 - 1/2oz Casting Sinker (can easily swap sizes up or down - its connected only to the split ring.)
$0.35 - Jig Skirt
$1.09 TOTAL

I believe I bought the blades and jig hooks from Lurepartsonline.com, but really any build-your-own website will carry them. I paid $1 for 10 blades. - snaps, split rings & casting sinkers can be found just about anywhere. 

Purchased in any reasonable bulk the individual parts total ~ $1 including the cost of a skirt (I make my own, so each costs ~$0.35 - but you could purchase a 4 pack at Walmart for a few bucks.)

Should be pretty self explanatory - connect the snap clip to the blade, attach the split ring to the bottom of the blade, attach the casting sinker to the split ring...the only part that takes any time is whipping on 4 strands of a plastic jig skirt to make the hook keepers. Not being fancy, I used some scrap superline that was at the bottom of the spool that wouldn't fit on my reel, but any braided line will work. Secure the knot in the line to the shank of the hook using a dab of superglue starting at the end farthest from the eye of the hook & working your way back toward the eye. Peel off the skirt strands in pairs, bend them way back so they stand out as you'll need them to block your skirt from sliding backwards or from having your soft plastic trailer slip off. I've found these keepers actually work better than the barbed ones on most jig hooks, and if I'm fishing a soft plastic without a skirt I will add these to be sure it stays in place.

IMPORTANT - use hooks with a "flat eye" or your hook won't track correctly.

Final assembled setup looks like this - NOTE - observe the positioning of the snap on the blade (on the opposite side from the hook). Also you tie your line to the backside of the snap (typically connected to the swivel in a swivel-clip setup.) It looked a little wierd the first couple times I did it:





I added a quick change clip to the split ring & attached the casting sinker to this instead so I can swap the weights around & get the drop rate just right.

And lastly with the skirt attached & the ribbon tail from a chewed up worm donated to be used as a trailer. I trim the skirt to be just longer than the hook on these smaller chatterbaits:






With the weight dangling beneath the hook these are very weedless - you should feel the top of the weeds with the weight before your hook is buried in them. Furthermore they come over brush very well, as the weight deflects off obstacles while the hook is riding 1/2" higher up and can't roll to the side. It is not a texas rig, throw it into brush and it will hang up.


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## Jim

Fantastic! Thanks for posting!


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## SMDave

Awesome! Thanks for sharing man, cool and helpful tutorial. Forgive me if I missed where you touched on this, but why the teardrop/drop shot weight over using a jighead? Is this just so that you can adjust the weight and upsize/downsize on the fly?


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## onthewater102

I fish these tight to the bottom or the top of the submerged weeds. I fish mostly impounded rivers which have a lot of rocky bottom area, with scattered tree limbs resting on the bottom. The chatterbaits with a jig head tend to roll to the side when you drag them over cover & as a result they tend to snag more. Football or other broad faced jigs help with this and I started using a different style chatterbait that had the weight on the blade (i think it was the strikeking rage bait, not sure now) which worked even better when it dawned on me that the design wasn't mechanically any different than what I've cobbled together here.

Swapping the weights has been a really nice benefit - when I use the little clip on there to swap them out it's way faster than retying a different bait. Just make sure that the clip opening faces rearward or it's prone to gathering grass for you. 

Thinking about it more straight hooks (not jig hooks with a bend at the eye) probably would be even better in terms of keeping the bait from tangling on itself (which does happen on occasion.) Of course a jig with the weight on the hook would work just fine in place of the hook/casting weight so long as it has a flat eye.


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## richg99

I really like this idea. I only own one chatterbait and haven't caught anything on it yet. I haven't used it often, either. On Chickamauga in TN, a guide recommended using them.

What kind of quantities must you buy from... ???... to skip the shipping charges etc. ?

Any help appreciated. 

richg99


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## onthewater102

Unfortunately the shipping is the problem - I just try to order as much as I can from one place or use my amazon prime account when I can. Apparently the blades cost double now what they used to as well, its up to a little over $2 for 10 blades. Football jigs work well in place of the hook/weight combo, though there are performance reasons you'd want one or the other (brush comes to mind - wouldn't want the football jig in brush if I had the other style with me.)

I get everything lately through www.lurepartsonline.com because I really like the variety of silicone skirts they sell, but they require you spend $150 to get free shipping. That's a lot of silicone skirts to have to buy - but I find it fun, certainly gives you the ability to match the hatch on your local waters (so to speak). This year I got into tying hair jigs too - haven't fished with them yet, but i'm having a blast making them up with my 3yr old. I'm hoping to make up a bunch of lures this year and sell them at my local club's swap meet to at least recover the cost of the materials. If all goes according to plan I should be left with enough materials to still make quite a few for myself.


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## Captain Ahab

Great =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>


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## mud-skipper

I love it! I'm going to get this going over the winter months. My bit of the Erie Canal is drained (and frozen) so I have lots of indoor projects to do. 

I caught a really weird fish in my casting net last summer. Here's my blog on the Oxbow 

https://theoxbowblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/a-different-carp/


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## Jim

mud-skipper said:


> I love it! I'm going to get this going over the winter months. My bit of the Erie Canal is drained (and frozen) so I have lots of indoor projects to do.
> 
> I caught a really weird fish in my casting net last summer. Here's my blog on the Oxbow
> 
> https://theoxbowblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/a-different-carp/



:beer:


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## richg99

I just bought this lot of ten blades on Ebay. Just FYI. richg99

https://www.ebay.com/itm/162181134351


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## Jim

richg99 said:


> I just bought this lot of ten blades on Ebay. Just FYI. richg99
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/162181134351



Awesome! Cant wait to see the end results! I do believe in chatterbaits!


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## Captain Ahab

Jim said:


> richg99 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I just bought this lot of ten blades on Ebay. Just FYI. richg99
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/162181134351
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Awesome! Cant wait to see the end results! I do believe in chatterbaits!
Click to expand...



I want to make a 4 -6 oz one to try in the canal


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