Best combo for a chatterbait?

[JigginOG]

Ok, I am going to switch my line to braid to see if that helps due to me usually fishing in stained water.

What about colors? Shad color the go to for most or are the more favorable colors depending on the conditions?

Black blue, green pumpkin, and white are always a good starting point.

[ZJKorman]

I love my evergreen jackhammer chatterbait special. Curado k 7.4. A little heavy but I won't fish a composite rod with chatterbait ever again. Not to mention this combo matches perfectly and is awesome looking!

[Jeffbro999]

Same rod I throw spinnerbaits on, 843c, choose your series. I love the Conquest after using NRX for years. Have also thrown on 873 NRX on the rare occasion I need more power. Can’t stand a heavy glass rod for ripping through hydrilla all day, just not needed. When they eat straight off a rip, it’s really nice to have that solid backbone and fast action for hookset. No idea why people are losing fish, never had that issue.

Mine is only 5.3oz, so it's really not bad. It's tip heavy, but the way I fish them that really doesn't matter.

That’s not bad at all for a glass rod, especially when compared to the rods that Hite has been using.

I dont get how people lose so may fish either, same with frogs.

I like the give with chatterbait setup because the fish can inhale the moving bait easier. Once the fish is on, its on. Less likely for the fish to shortstrike

I get what you are saying, and definitely believe the difference depends on where we are fishing. Can see a glass rod working well if fishing tip down crankbait style. Our fIsh on Seminole crush these things, and short strikes are very rare with big fish. Tip up, stroking the bait through the grass and get crushed, hitting that backbone quickly on hookset is a necessity.

[Rfdong]

You guys that are losing fish on the bladed jig aren't using the right tackle to get a good hook set, or are letting the fish get slack. Any jig style bait will tend to get thrown when a fish gets slack because of the heavy weight at the front of the hook. It is simple physics. The simple answer is to keep the fish down and to not give them any slack. Walk the fish around the boat, like any good crankbait fisherman does, if the fish are still green when you get them to the boat, but don't give then slack. You won't lose many fish with heavy single hooks, heavy rods, and heavy line if you take control of the situation. I have subdued several fish over 10 on bladed jigs with heavy tackle without issues.
Smallmouth and smaller largemouth are a whole other issue. Their small mouths cause them to miss a searching style bait. The good news is they are often aggressive enough to hit the bait several times. Largemouth over two pounds just don't miss baits very often if they are hungry.
The small males around beds during the spring just aren't going to be high percentage catches because they often miss the bait. They aren't eating out of hunger. Make sure that you take this into account.

This is the situation where a softer tip helps. You catch a few more of those around the spawn when they’re not eating but slapping or slashing at it.

[FishingwithBranden]

Grabbed my first jackhammer yesterday. Going to try it out in a couple of weeks.