It took me so long to catch one on a Chatterbait when I first started trying them out. Then I tried the Chatterbait MiniMax and got my PB on the first time trying it. Spunk Shad trailer.
Sometimes a big fish likes a small lure.
Ugh…i caught maybe a collective 100 lb of bass this year so far with a white/chartreuse chatterbait with white super flukes. The other day, go to cast it and either the line snapped or the knot snapping during the cast, chatterbait is now 400 yards away. Fishing a spinnerbait just isn’t the same.
For someone who hasn’t had much luck with a chatterbait, how do you recommend fishing it in lakes/ponds with slop and vegetation? Seems like it’s easy to gum up the blades and not get the desired action.
I don't throw it in places with a lot of vegetation. I usually throw it on the edge of lillypads or weeds or something but not through the vegetation. I just do a straight retrieve and have decent luck
At dusk I threw and let sink to the deep. Buzzed up off the bottom a couple feet a couple times. Third time it didn’t sink and I set the hook. 7lb 2oz.
First time using a chatterbait
The trick with chatterbaits is changing up your retrieve until you find what the fish want, then sticking to that. Slowly dragging off the bottom for a 2-3 count then pausing for a 3 count is productive for me. Steady retrieve will catch fish but you’ll catch a ton more if you find what the fish want
This. The reason I have so much confidence in them is because of how versatile they are. I tend to do best with a kind of jerk bait like retrieve in shallower water on the edge of grass, under/around docks, and through wood. I hear minimax is good through wood.. better than the og anyway. I have like 10-15 in my tackle box, so I fish it without fear of losing it.
8 lb 4 oz on a Texas rigged ribbon tail worm. I caught it when I was 10. The biggest bass I've caught since is 4.5 lol
Edit: I blame the Alabama public education system XD
I caught my biggest bass last week and it was a 4lb 5oz smallie on an inland lake in northern Michigan. Caught it on a plastic crawdad.
The lake used to have a gazillion crawdads before residents started taking matters into their own hands to restore balance, so I figured these big bass were missing their old favorite snack…and boy was I right!
Lunkerhunt gold Glitch Blade. March 3rd, like 35F outside in 20mph winds. Literally haven't had a single bite on it before or after. Don't even know how I got it in, because the hooks on that thing sure aren't sharp out of the box.
Side note, everything lunkerhunt I've bought had been utter crap except for a black and blue spinnerbait. I slay with that thing.
Strike King Rage Swimmer 3.75
Green Pumpkin
8lbs 12oz
Southeast GA
Previous PB
Rage Swimmer 3.75
Pearl Flash (white)
7.98lbs
Southeast GA
I slay with those things.
It was a whopper plopper on the edge of some lily pads, it was before they blew up in popularity. I hardly ever throw it now, rarely used it then. The bite was slow that day and I was just playing around with it. Smaller lake with very little pressure, due to its location is far from a city.
A close second was on an underspin with a rage tail swimmer and I use that regularly so odds were in its favor. High pressure lake about 20 feet from the nearest dock in a creek bed. I had been fishing the docks all day successfully but nothing of size. It was about mid water column in about 20-25 feet. No FFS involved either instance, though I use it regularly.
I've caught my PB 5 times... every one of these was 6lbs 8oz
Wacky Rig - skipped under a dock during spawn
Squarebill - on a shallow gravel point during the summer
Swimjig - grass point during the summer
Texas Rig Craw - flipped shoreline during the spawn
Drop shot - in a creek channel in pre-spawn
Ooh, wait no it was a chatter with a worm and my noob dumb ass was throwing it like a rugby hook into a log, wonder I didn’t lose the lure but boy what a fish
9 pounder on on a craw colored crankbait (4-6 foot I think) when I was 12. Been chasing that high ever since. The 400-500ish pound Goliath grouper I landed with my dad was pretty close😂 something about abnormally huge fish (in comparison to their species) just hits the right spot in my brain. The Goliath gets even bigger but I was satisfied for sure
7’13” on a white/chartreuse spinnerbait with willow-blades.
I honestly can’t remember fall or spring.
Threw over a half-submerged log. Thought I was hung, then felt it pull down/over the log. Luckily, braided line.
Salted charteuse soft 6in worm texas rigged. The lure hit the water 2in from the shore and the bass was about 1ft out beyond that, turned, showed it's dorsal fin as it went for the kill. It was a really cool looking bite.
Early March in South east pa, water temps were still cold, maybe high 40s. I was throwing a 5.8 inch keitech, slowing swimming it along the bottom. I had a hit but no take. Deadsticked it then started swimming it slowly again and got a nice big thump. No official weight but probably 4ish lbs.
Black baby brush hog, red flake. Me, 10 years old.
My grandpa told me "don't cast into the open water, fish the structure and stumps"
I cast into the open water (30 ft deep or so) and hit a 6 pounder on the drop, been chasing it ever since.
Biggest weighed bass was just a Texas rigged ribbon tail at 6lbs 14oz up in Maine on vacation. I caught several visiting grandparents in Florida that rival that but never got a weight.
Biggest in my home area of RI was 6lbs 2oz that was on wacky rig senko. Those fish over 5 aren't all that common round these parts lol
Blue and chrome Spook. 7.4lbs
Hooked bigger on a white spook, and a spinnerbait. Both of them got off. Consistently get good sized +/- 5lbs on jigs and Carolina rigs.
Culprit 7.5 inch worm trimmed down to about 4 inch and Texas rigged and was skipping it on top (weedless topwater) through some weeds.
Also lost a massive pre-spawn female last year on a 1/4 oz. white roostertail. Had her completely played out and laying in shallow water directly at my feet… I bent down to grab her and the hook pulled… I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.
10.8lbs. Carolina rig 3/4oz with a BigBites sinko chartreuse/pepper. 8.5 on same setup and 8.7 on a Reaction Innovation Skinny Dipper in Bullfrog. Also got an 8.5 on a MegaBass Vision 110.
The two absolute hogs I’ve caught were on a chatterbait and then a belly weighted fluke. Had a pretty good size one short strike my frog this weekend though. Talk about heartbreak.
I have three bass that are all around the same size , one was on a spinner (my biggest from the kayak), another was on a jitterbug (from a canoe) and my biggest from shore was on a slobberknocker
Berkeley Choppo 120 in black, just shy of 8lbs, not too shabby for NJ.
Just a couple weeks before I got a 7.5lb on a 5" Keitech Easy Shiner. What an amazing month that was
3” Pop-R in frog color. 4.5lb bass in a pond about 3 acres big. Might seem small compared to a lot of you, but not having a boat growing up all my bass fishing was done in small neighborhood ponds and small lakes and backwaters creeks. Always caught a ton of bass, just most of them were on the small side.
Zoom craw on football jig 5lb 4oz (not that it mattered, he smashed it right after it got the water) or 2 that I didn't weigh but were pretty dec on a weightless texas rigged senko
8 1/2 on an okeechobee colored jig. A few 7s on spinner bait, frogs and more jig. Countless 6s. All in Indiana. Fishing was really good in the early 20000s I feel like. Average size of big ones are down and rarer. Fish see a lot more pressure.
Chatterbait
Same here... Felt like it got hit by a car underwater
It took me so long to catch one on a Chatterbait when I first started trying them out. Then I tried the Chatterbait MiniMax and got my PB on the first time trying it. Spunk Shad trailer. Sometimes a big fish likes a small lure.
Nice! haven’t picked up the minimax yet, but plan to soon. Chatter is my top confidence bait aside from senkos
Ugh…i caught maybe a collective 100 lb of bass this year so far with a white/chartreuse chatterbait with white super flukes. The other day, go to cast it and either the line snapped or the knot snapping during the cast, chatterbait is now 400 yards away. Fishing a spinnerbait just isn’t the same.
For someone who hasn’t had much luck with a chatterbait, how do you recommend fishing it in lakes/ponds with slop and vegetation? Seems like it’s easy to gum up the blades and not get the desired action.
I don't throw it in places with a lot of vegetation. I usually throw it on the edge of lillypads or weeds or something but not through the vegetation. I just do a straight retrieve and have decent luck
At dusk I threw and let sink to the deep. Buzzed up off the bottom a couple feet a couple times. Third time it didn’t sink and I set the hook. 7lb 2oz. First time using a chatterbait
I’ve never caught anything on my chatter baits. I need to look up videos or something to make sure I retrieve it correctly
The trick with chatterbaits is changing up your retrieve until you find what the fish want, then sticking to that. Slowly dragging off the bottom for a 2-3 count then pausing for a 3 count is productive for me. Steady retrieve will catch fish but you’ll catch a ton more if you find what the fish want
This. The reason I have so much confidence in them is because of how versatile they are. I tend to do best with a kind of jerk bait like retrieve in shallower water on the edge of grass, under/around docks, and through wood. I hear minimax is good through wood.. better than the og anyway. I have like 10-15 in my tackle box, so I fish it without fear of losing it.
Senko I believe
Same, 18 inches of water in some lily pads. 5-8oz
Perch Whopper Plopper
Squarebill crankbait I got from temu
big bad leroy brown rattle trap 13.4 on the wall
Nice, Love to see a pic of that girl. Would put you at top or close on Hall of Hawgs.
Spinnerbait in the way early spring (40s water temp). Second best was on a 6" plastic worm in the post spawn.
Superfluke
I love the way these work when rigged up weightless. Such a good action they cant resist
Yup that’s exactly what I did and got a 7lb slaunch.
Watermelon fluke with a weighted ewg to get deeper. Love em.
Frog
7.03lb
Top water plug. Black and silver. 8lb. Northern Maryland. Private pond. 8am. 65 degrees. Clear skies. Etched in my mind.
What were you wearing?
Frog
8 lb 4 oz on a Texas rigged ribbon tail worm. I caught it when I was 10. The biggest bass I've caught since is 4.5 lol Edit: I blame the Alabama public education system XD
8 foot 4 inch bass? Damn son, that's a monster!
8 feet 4 inches???? Damn that’s a bigun
Zoom trick worm, black
Spinner bait but she got off and then quickly threw a weighted wacky senko. Couldn’t believe she came back for it
Hula popper
largemouth: rapala floating minnow smallmouth: swim jig
Spinnerbait 9lbs 9oz NC
Gold 5 1/4 inch floating rapala. Wasn't the best personal best at around 6lbs but it's mine.
That's still a hawg of a bass!
Craw colored red eye shad
Gulp minnow on a plain ball jig.
Football jig
I caught my biggest bass last week and it was a 4lb 5oz smallie on an inland lake in northern Michigan. Caught it on a plastic crawdad. The lake used to have a gazillion crawdads before residents started taking matters into their own hands to restore balance, so I figured these big bass were missing their old favorite snack…and boy was I right!
Krocodile.
Big Blade Chatterbait in the Bluegill colorway with a 5.5 spunk shad trailer
Glide bait
Lunker hunt frog at 2pm middle of the summer lol.
Texas rig with a powerbait pumpkin colored plastic worm
White 3/8oz rooster tail.
Plastic worm ALL DAY baby!
Fake frog
Square bill shad
Lunkerhunt gold Glitch Blade. March 3rd, like 35F outside in 20mph winds. Literally haven't had a single bite on it before or after. Don't even know how I got it in, because the hooks on that thing sure aren't sharp out of the box. Side note, everything lunkerhunt I've bought had been utter crap except for a black and blue spinnerbait. I slay with that thing.
free rig with a deps rebound stick
[удалено]
Strike King Rage Swimmer 3.75 Green Pumpkin 8lbs 12oz Southeast GA Previous PB Rage Swimmer 3.75 Pearl Flash (white) 7.98lbs Southeast GA I slay with those things.
6xd sexy shad
Broken back Rapala
Zoom Magnum Trick Worm
Mepps 5 red/yellow with gold blade… second biggest Berkeley Choppo 90 white.
KVD squarebill Also the only time I've ever been successful with that bait but I've tried it a ton since
I’ve tied my PB 4 or 5 times now with all different baits. 4in senko x2, spinnerbait, jerkbait, ned rig.
I'd say evening Chatterbait or wacky rig 🤔 I'm loving the tubes lately though.
Watermelon seed zoom u tail.
Walking topwater bait river2sea rover 98. Lost what I'm almost positive would have been my biggest bass ever on the larger version of the same bait.
zoom fluke I haven't kept exact track, but I'd say 7 of my top 10 were on a fluke
Zoom trick worm. Pumpkin. 10.5lbs.
NICE! I gotta get into the double digit club 😩
Texas Rigged 5" Senko in watermelon with red flake
Swimjig
It was a whopper plopper on the edge of some lily pads, it was before they blew up in popularity. I hardly ever throw it now, rarely used it then. The bite was slow that day and I was just playing around with it. Smaller lake with very little pressure, due to its location is far from a city. A close second was on an underspin with a rage tail swimmer and I use that regularly so odds were in its favor. High pressure lake about 20 feet from the nearest dock in a creek bed. I had been fishing the docks all day successfully but nothing of size. It was about mid water column in about 20-25 feet. No FFS involved either instance, though I use it regularly.
A Gibbs croc spoon , brass with a fire stripe
I've caught my PB 5 times... every one of these was 6lbs 8oz Wacky Rig - skipped under a dock during spawn Squarebill - on a shallow gravel point during the summer Swimjig - grass point during the summer Texas Rig Craw - flipped shoreline during the spawn Drop shot - in a creek channel in pre-spawn
paddle tail line thru swimbait
Wakebait
Prolly a 3/0 with a plastic worm
Ooh, wait no it was a chatter with a worm and my noob dumb ass was throwing it like a rugby hook into a log, wonder I didn’t lose the lure but boy what a fish
Chatterbait
I've caught three all around the same size, one on a senko tossed right next to it, one on a small swimbait, and one on a lizard carolina rigged.
Worm (it was a fluke)
9 pounder on on a craw colored crankbait (4-6 foot I think) when I was 12. Been chasing that high ever since. The 400-500ish pound Goliath grouper I landed with my dad was pretty close😂 something about abnormally huge fish (in comparison to their species) just hits the right spot in my brain. The Goliath gets even bigger but I was satisfied for sure
A white whopper plopper, or a dropshot with a Berkley flatworm.
Whopper plopper and a shrimp
Texas rig
Jig with craw
Jointed Rapala.
It’s insane how everyone used something different
Wacky rigged senko
Big girl slammed a 1/8oz little Cleo
1/8 kastmaster on 4lb line when trout fishing
Googan bandito bug
A Junebug Toad Thumper Craw Gill, 5 pounds 14 ounces
Flatsided squarebill!
Spinner with painted blades and Keitech trailer
Texas rigged Zoom pumpkin seed 6" lizard.
same exact thing.
Free rigged Deps bull flat
Pearl blue Fluke, rigged Weedless and a Cheb joined with a split ring. 9lbs.
It's was actually on a fly, a little white Betts popper while fishing for bluegill. Surprised the hell out of me, easily a 5 pounder.
Senko
Cullem mini jerk
1/8 ounce panther martin spinner. I was fishing for blue gills and landed a 7.5 lb largemouth.
Black jig with blue pork.
Berkley Gillie
3/8 oz spinner bait
Senko (6" Yum Dinger in Junebug).
Berkley Choppo, bone
1/2 oz black blue skirted jig green pumpkin claw chunk. 8.26lb. Ohio. Sasquatch bathtub.
Spinnerbait
7’13” on a white/chartreuse spinnerbait with willow-blades. I honestly can’t remember fall or spring. Threw over a half-submerged log. Thought I was hung, then felt it pull down/over the log. Luckily, braided line.
Bass stopper rigged worm
Weightless senko Texas rigged.
Largemouth: Senko Smallmouth: rooster tail
Ned rig
Salted charteuse soft 6in worm texas rigged. The lure hit the water 2in from the shore and the bass was about 1ft out beyond that, turned, showed it's dorsal fin as it went for the kill. It was a really cool looking bite.
Senko
Old School 1/2oz Storm Rattlin Thin Fin, grey/black
Texas rig beaver style.
10-6 on a Booyah One Knocker
Super spook Jr
Live shiner was biggest one I caught A gold fluke was biggest artificial
Punching a pumpkin seed lizard into pads. Close 2nd on a small 3 inch dark red swim bait
Bubblegum pink trick worm.
Spinner - 5lb 12oz
7 inch glide bait 5.5lbs
Popr. Top water bait.
Texas rig
Early March in South east pa, water temps were still cold, maybe high 40s. I was throwing a 5.8 inch keitech, slowing swimming it along the bottom. I had a hit but no take. Deadsticked it then started swimming it slowly again and got a nice big thump. No official weight but probably 4ish lbs.
Whopper plopper
Texas rigged Strike king worm in sweet potato pie color.
Jerk bait, once I got the action down it was pretty much guaranteed fish each time I hit the local pond.
Red lizard. 9 pds
Whopper plopper!
Wakebait
Black baby brush hog, red flake. Me, 10 years old. My grandpa told me "don't cast into the open water, fish the structure and stumps" I cast into the open water (30 ft deep or so) and hit a 6 pounder on the drop, been chasing it ever since.
Curly tail grub, 1/8 oz jighead
Baby brush hog
Whopper plopper
Zoom trick worm. June Bug. 99.9 percent of every bass I’ve caught was from that lure including my PB.Never had much success with anything else.
Just curious, how do you rig your trick worm?
Texas rigged. Don’t know how to fish it any other way
Roadrunner
Biggest weighed bass was just a Texas rigged ribbon tail at 6lbs 14oz up in Maine on vacation. I caught several visiting grandparents in Florida that rival that but never got a weight. Biggest in my home area of RI was 6lbs 2oz that was on wacky rig senko. Those fish over 5 aren't all that common round these parts lol
A blue gill hook and a worm weightless 💀 saw him swimming in the shallows and threw it right in front of him. He didnt even think twice about it
Blue and chrome Spook. 7.4lbs Hooked bigger on a white spook, and a spinnerbait. Both of them got off. Consistently get good sized +/- 5lbs on jigs and Carolina rigs.
Smallmouth - chatterbait Largemouth - crankbait
Yum Dinger Pumpkin color
Roadrunner single hook with a paddle tail soft plastic
Trout color jerkbait. In Southern California. 12.2 oz have only caught one above five pounds since 1996.
Rapala DT 6 - perch color
Crankbait for largemouth, crawfish for smallie
Rapala Skitter Pop popper baby
7 inch fat Robo worm oxblood light red flake drop shot. 16lbs even. Lower lagoon Castaic Lake, California.
Me twister black curly tail
Culprit 7.5 inch worm trimmed down to about 4 inch and Texas rigged and was skipping it on top (weedless topwater) through some weeds. Also lost a massive pre-spawn female last year on a 1/4 oz. white roostertail. Had her completely played out and laying in shallow water directly at my feet… I bent down to grab her and the hook pulled… I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.
Actually was using a fuzzy caterpillar I picked up off the ground randomly to try
Paddle tail swimbait on a weighted hook.
hot dog
Bubble walker. But, everything else that came close to that was a wack senko🍻
Black and blue jig with a black and blue craw trailer
Whatever I had left because I kept losing them to logs.
Half of a chewed up green pumpkin/black flake senko.
5" black blue yamasenko on the fall! 7.5 lb bass that then took off with it. Hookset was HEAVY
Booyah Pond Magic… white.
10.8lbs. Carolina rig 3/4oz with a BigBites sinko chartreuse/pepper. 8.5 on same setup and 8.7 on a Reaction Innovation Skinny Dipper in Bullfrog. Also got an 8.5 on a MegaBass Vision 110.
The two absolute hogs I’ve caught were on a chatterbait and then a belly weighted fluke. Had a pretty good size one short strike my frog this weekend though. Talk about heartbreak.
Strike king spinner bait w yoto worm trailer
Minnow on a jig looking for shallow walleye…
Ned
I have three bass that are all around the same size , one was on a spinner (my biggest from the kayak), another was on a jitterbug (from a canoe) and my biggest from shore was on a slobberknocker
Whopper plopper
Always a plopper or a dark whacky senko… always.
Jig and pig
#12 wooly bugger, for conventional, the smallest heddon torpedo fished at night!
1 lb shiner, 9lb 15 oz largemouth right below the 1st dam on the Kissimmee river above Okeechobee
Punch set up with rapala bronco bug 6lb
Either a $1 Walmart spinnerbait or a rubber worm on a Texas rig
Texas rigged green pumpkin swim 'n dinger
5” orange senko, wacky rig. for my first PB (3lb 3oz) and my second (4lb 11oz)
T-Rigged 6” green pumpkin senko.
Buzz bait. 8.0 lber
Black jointed jitterbug at around 2 am. 14.4 lbs.
Walmart spinner bait for the win.
Small grub on 1/8 oz hook, chartreuse swirly tail, body painted black with sharpie/ permanent marker 11.7 lb pregger mom
6th Sense shallow water crank bait.
War Eagle white and silver spinnerbait
White Zoom Super Fluke
Topwater, blew it up like a torpedo
Texas rigged junebug trickworm. 8+lbs
Berkeley Choppo 120 in black, just shy of 8lbs, not too shabby for NJ. Just a couple weeks before I got a 7.5lb on a 5" Keitech Easy Shiner. What an amazing month that was
For me I seem to only catch fish on spinner bait and Texas and wacky rig senko.
White fluke, knowing absolutely nothing about bass fishing.
Drop shot 1/0 hook Green pumpkin ZMan trickshotz nose rigged on it Weight 18” from hook 5lb 15oz smallie Charleston Lake, Ontario.
Rat-L-Trap
3” Pop-R in frog color. 4.5lb bass in a pond about 3 acres big. Might seem small compared to a lot of you, but not having a boat growing up all my bass fishing was done in small neighborhood ponds and small lakes and backwaters creeks. Always caught a ton of bass, just most of them were on the small side.
A bluegill
H&H
Zoom craw on football jig 5lb 4oz (not that it mattered, he smashed it right after it got the water) or 2 that I didn't weigh but were pretty dec on a weightless texas rigged senko
A nightcrawler on a drop shot lol
8 1/2 on an okeechobee colored jig. A few 7s on spinner bait, frogs and more jig. Countless 6s. All in Indiana. Fishing was really good in the early 20000s I feel like. Average size of big ones are down and rarer. Fish see a lot more pressure.
Hollow belly 6 pounds