New Chatterbait

Jig it, spin it, buzz it, if it's got a wire or a lead head, it can and will be discussed in here.
joekaz
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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by joekaz » Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:16 am

I ordered a Jackhammer. I did cringe a little when I hit the "add to cart" button. I caught a few hundred fish on the TW Custom Chatterbait last year so I am looking forward to see how the Jackhammer compares head to head. I am also going to test out the Jackall Break Blade, D&M Piranha original, and Piranha 2.

Taxin That Bass
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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by Taxin That Bass » Wed Mar 29, 2017 2:38 am

Mike and Pike wrote:360 degree twist.
Mike, I like this design except for the fact the bend radius and the spinner bait head design make it so the blade will not contact the jig when vibrating on the retrieve. I personally feel this is an important part of a good chatter bait, i want to see the paint knocked off the head. I have been thinking of using my arkie mold and heating up the hook eyelet and using a punch to open it, however i am not sure i will be able to close it once the lead is poured and the eyelet may not be large enough to hold the blade.

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by Mike and Pike » Wed Mar 29, 2017 2:49 am

Taxin That Bass wrote:
Mike and Pike wrote:360 degree twist.
Mike, I like this design except for the fact the bend radius and the spinner bait head design make it so the blade will not contact the jig when vibrating on the retrieve. I personally feel this is an important part of a good chatter bait, i want to see the paint knocked off the head. I have been thinking of using my arkie mold and heating up the hook eyelet and using a punch to open it, however i am not sure i will be able to close it once the lead is poured and the eyelet may not be large enough to hold the blade.
I agree on that head and loop. I just whipped that one out from a spinnerbait form that was already poured and painted.
Next time I make some up I will make the loop tighter to a rounder head. And it will also look a lot more professional.
Thanks for the input.

Rich

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by toddmc » Thu Mar 30, 2017 3:10 am

Taxin That Bass wrote:
Mike and Pike wrote:360 degree twist.
Mike, I like this design except for the fact the bend radius and the spinner bait head design make it so the blade will not contact the jig when vibrating on the retrieve. I personally feel this is an important part of a good chatter bait, i want to see the paint knocked off the head. I have been thinking of using my arkie mold and heating up the hook eyelet and using a punch to open it, however i am not sure i will be able to close it once the lead is poured and the eyelet may not be large enough to hold the blade.
You do want the paint gone from the head! ;) I tried opening up hooks without success also. Like I said earlier, I think a bigger diameter connection to the blade is a good thing if you want the blade to rotate more and cause the bait to search. I should have a Jack Hammer tomorrow for testing. I have a couple of worn out/retired baits that I can cut open to show how Barlow's and Lure Parts Online did their original baits where you insert the blade directly and clamp down the eyelet. I'll show pictures when I get the time.

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by Mike and Pike » Thu Mar 30, 2017 11:33 am

Touching on the contact with the head topic. I was wondering with all the turbulance and noise created from just the blade and body, is it a bass thing that the extra noise is needed for? I have been using chatterbaits off and on for pike and muskie and they have no problems zeroing in on them without head clankin. But if there is a definite benefit to almost all species to having contact with the head I am all up for it. Sometimes species to species do not always cross over as far as noise benefits.

Taxin That Bass
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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by Taxin That Bass » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:42 am

toddmc wrote:
Taxin That Bass wrote:
Mike and Pike wrote:360 degree twist.
Mike, I like this design except for the fact the bend radius and the spinner bait head design make it so the blade will not contact the jig when vibrating on the retrieve. I personally feel this is an important part of a good chatter bait, i want to see the paint knocked off the head. I have been thinking of using my arkie mold and heating up the hook eyelet and using a punch to open it, however i am not sure i will be able to close it once the lead is poured and the eyelet may not be large enough to hold the blade.
You do want the paint gone from the head! ;) I tried opening up hooks without success also. Like I said earlier, I think a bigger diameter connection to the blade is a good thing if you want the blade to rotate more and cause the bait to search. I should have a Jack Hammer tomorrow for testing. I have a couple of worn out/retired baits that I can cut open to show how Barlow's and Lure Parts Online did their original baits where you insert the blade directly and clamp down the eyelet. I'll show pictures when I get the time.
I made a bunch of chatter baits myself from the "head banger" jig head and that really worked well until they got shut down. I made mine with the oval blades which were OK, except for some reason i had to use a 4.5" swimbait trailer to keep it running, otherwise it would blowout. I suspect this is due to the oval blade vs the coffin blade.

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by Taxin That Bass » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:47 am

Mike and Pike wrote:Touching on the contact with the head topic. I was wondering with all the turbulance and noise created from just the blade and body, is it a bass thing that the extra noise is needed for? I have been using chatterbaits off and on for pike and muskie and they have no problems zeroing in on them without head clankin. But if there is a definite benefit to almost all species to having contact with the head I am all up for it. Sometimes species to species do not always cross over as far as noise benefits.
Mike - they certainly work if the blade doesn't contact the head, there is no doubt about that, but i feel they work a little better when that blade "chatters" the head, it makes a lot more noise down there and they hunt better. Think of it like a square bill crank bait that hunts a little bit or deflects off of cover, do the work just winding them in or grinding into the bottom? Sure, but the ones that are special really kick, deflect and hunt and thats what you look for.

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by toddmc » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:49 am

Taxin That Bass wrote:
toddmc wrote:
Taxin That Bass wrote:
Mike and Pike wrote:360 degree twist.
Mike, I like this design except for the fact the bend radius and the spinner bait head design make it so the blade will not contact the jig when vibrating on the retrieve. I personally feel this is an important part of a good chatter bait, i want to see the paint knocked off the head. I have been thinking of using my arkie mold and heating up the hook eyelet and using a punch to open it, however i am not sure i will be able to close it once the lead is poured and the eyelet may not be large enough to hold the blade.
You do want the paint gone from the head! ;) I tried opening up hooks without success also. Like I said earlier, I think a bigger diameter connection to the blade is a good thing if you want the blade to rotate more and cause the bait to search. I should have a Jack Hammer tomorrow for testing. I have a couple of worn out/retired baits that I can cut open to show how Barlow's and Lure Parts Online did their original baits where you insert the blade directly and clamp down the eyelet. I'll show pictures when I get the time.
I made a bunch of chatter baits myself from the "head banger" jig head and that really worked well until they got shut down. I made mine with the oval blades which were OK, except for some reason i had to use a 4.5" swimbait trailer to keep it running, otherwise it would blowout. I suspect this is due to the oval blade vs the coffin blade.
You can bend and cut the blades to get all kinds of effects. The coffin blades do tend to search less than the oval nosed blades. You can get your bait to search at whatever speed you want by bending or cutting the blades. I have baits tuned for various presentations.

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by Mike and Pike » Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:45 am

Taxin That Bass wrote:
Mike and Pike wrote:Touching on the contact with the head topic. I was wondering with all the turbulance and noise created from just the blade and body, is it a bass thing that the extra noise is needed for? I have been using chatterbaits off and on for pike and muskie and they have no problems zeroing in on them without head clankin. But if there is a definite benefit to almost all species to having contact with the head I am all up for it. Sometimes species to species do not always cross over as far as noise benefits.
Mike - they certainly work if the blade doesn't contact the head, there is no doubt about that, but i feel they work a little better when that blade "chatters" the head, it makes a lot more noise down there and they hunt better. Think of it like a square bill crank bait that hunts a little bit or deflects off of cover, do the work just winding them in or grinding into the bottom? Sure, but the ones that are special really kick, deflect and hunt and thats what you look for.
Gotcha. We have almost zero rocks or logs on the chain I live on here . The structure is almost 100% weeds, which is one reason I also use a lot of spinnerbaits.
Next time I make up some chatterbaits I will make sure to get them hitting heads and note the differences.

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by toddmc » Fri Mar 31, 2017 2:41 pm

They were out of the Green Pumpkin 3/8 Jack Hammer at TW. So, I ordered the Black/Blue 3/8 on Wed. and I got it today. I ordered another Daiwa SV103XS and I wanted to make sure that everything is okay with it. I spooled it up with 16lb. Sniper and I slapped it on a nice sensitive Phenix K2 custom rod to test the vibration of the Jack Hammer. I then headed out back to the closest golf course pond in back of the house.
The Jack Hammer is surprisingly compact. the head is much smaller than my old school Barlow's heads. The original Chatterbait head is in between the two in the picture. The eyelet on the Jack Hammer that attaches to the blade isn't as big as I had hoped and the bait doesn't search nearly as easy as mine. I was fishing at night, but the Jack Hammer looks like it fits in between the easy searching bait that I make and the "harder to get to search" original Chatterbait. The Jack Hammer shares the same blade as the Chatterbait, but it doesn't appear to have the patent stamping on it, or maybe the black paint is too thick to see it.
I managed a 14 inch fish on my first short pitch of about 25 feet. The bass in my backyard are like my pets and I know exactly where each sits. There is a little point where the lily pads meet a stretch of tules and it has a resident fish that will eat anything. I try not to beat up the closest lake to me and I will only throw the bladed jig a couple of times a year. They hadn't seen it in a while and I managed about 20 fish in 50 casts. I can cover the small crystal clear 1 1/2 acre lake in about 50 casts without allowing the fish to see my bait multiple times. That way, the fish won't get too conditioned to my bait. I didn't manage any fish over 4lbs. and most were about 2.5 pounds like the one in the picture.
The Decoy Egg snap and keeper are top notch on the Jackhammer. The paintjob is durable, but the blade ate the paint off where it makes contact with the head. I'm pretty sure that the cool letters on the bottom of the head that show the size will wear off after a few casts in the rocks.
The Jack Hammer is a few grams lighter than the original 3/8 oz. Chatterbait head and also the Barlow's head. I would buy the 1/2 oz. size if I had it to do over again. It's not easy to skip the bait when you can't see at night, but I did get it to skip about the same as any other bladed jig. I'm sure a flat trailer like the Rage Bug would allow me to skip it easier than the Little Dipper that I was throwing. The Jack Hammer is a solid quality bait and a big improvement over the Chatterbait Elite, but it isn't a true $16 bait. I would pay $9 all day though.
Attachments
Barlow's Old Style Head.JPG
Barlow's Old Style Head.JPG (20.82 KiB) Viewed 8325 times
Jack Hammer 3-31.jpg
Jack Hammer 3-31.jpg (45.5 KiB) Viewed 8325 times
Jack Hammer Size.JPG
Jack Hammer Size.JPG (40.56 KiB) Viewed 8325 times
Jack Hammer vs. Barlow's Old School.JPG
Jack Hammer vs. Barlow's Old School.JPG (43.48 KiB) Viewed 8325 times

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by toddmc » Sat Apr 01, 2017 1:39 am

I threw that first picture of the cut up Barlow's head in to show how they did their original heads. "Smalljaw" is a lure builder that uses this forum and he suggested a few years ago on one of our threads that it is from a Do-It Sparkie jig mold. They use a 4/0 Mustad spinner bait hook and a double ended clip like this http://www.barlowstackle.com/Connector-Links-P835.aspx. The Dremmel blade that I was using was dull and I cut one end of the clip off. The clip is left slightly open in the mold and the blade is inserted and then the clip is clamped shut. "Mike and Pike" is right about the .051 diameter wire being right. You can see that the clips are .053 wire.

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by Taxin That Bass » Thu Apr 06, 2017 2:18 am

toddmc wrote:I threw that first picture of the cut up Barlow's head in to show how they did their original heads. "Smalljaw" is a lure builder that uses this forum and he suggested a few years ago on one of our threads that it is from a Do-It Sparkie jig mold. They use a 4/0 Mustad spinner bait hook and a double ended clip like this http://www.barlowstackle.com/Connector-Links-P835.aspx. The Dremmel blade that I was using was dull and I cut one end of the clip off. The clip is left slightly open in the mold and the blade is inserted and then the clip is clamped shut. "Mike and Pike" is right about the .051 diameter wire being right. You can see that the clips are .053 wire.
Nice work, i have a vertical line tie arkie jig mold, think that would work?

Taxin That Bass
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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by Taxin That Bass » Thu Apr 06, 2017 2:18 am

toddmc wrote:I threw that first picture of the cut up Barlow's head in to show how they did their original heads. "Smalljaw" is a lure builder that uses this forum and he suggested a few years ago on one of our threads that it is from a Do-It Sparkie jig mold. They use a 4/0 Mustad spinner bait hook and a double ended clip like this http://www.barlowstackle.com/Connector-Links-P835.aspx. The Dremmel blade that I was using was dull and I cut one end of the clip off. The clip is left slightly open in the mold and the blade is inserted and then the clip is clamped shut. "Mike and Pike" is right about the .051 diameter wire being right. You can see that the clips are .053 wire.
Nice work, i have a vertical line tie arkie jig mold, think that would work?

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by toddmc » Thu Apr 06, 2017 3:41 am

Taxin That Bass wrote:
toddmc wrote:I threw that first picture of the cut up Barlow's head in to show how they did their original heads. "Smalljaw" is a lure builder that uses this forum and he suggested a few years ago on one of our threads that it is from a Do-It Sparkie jig mold. They use a 4/0 Mustad spinner bait hook and a double ended clip like this http://www.barlowstackle.com/Connector-Links-P835.aspx. The Dremmel blade that I was using was dull and I cut one end of the clip off. The clip is left slightly open in the mold and the blade is inserted and then the clip is clamped shut. "Mike and Pike" is right about the .051 diameter wire being right. You can see that the clips are .053 wire.
Nice work, i have a vertical line tie arkie jig mold, think that would work?
It should work. I'm probably going to get sued by Chatterbait! :lol: I think this will help anyone that wants to build their own. I'm going to cut up the Jack Hammer when the hook gets dull to see how they do their blade attachment.

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Re: New Chatterbait

Post by Taxin That Bass » Mon Apr 10, 2017 3:28 am

toddmc wrote:
Taxin That Bass wrote:
toddmc wrote:I threw that first picture of the cut up Barlow's head in to show how they did their original heads. "Smalljaw" is a lure builder that uses this forum and he suggested a few years ago on one of our threads that it is from a Do-It Sparkie jig mold. They use a 4/0 Mustad spinner bait hook and a double ended clip like this http://www.barlowstackle.com/Connector-Links-P835.aspx. The Dremmel blade that I was using was dull and I cut one end of the clip off. The clip is left slightly open in the mold and the blade is inserted and then the clip is clamped shut. "Mike and Pike" is right about the .051 diameter wire being right. You can see that the clips are .053 wire.
Nice work, i have a vertical line tie arkie jig mold, think that would work?
It should work. I'm probably going to get sued by Chatterbait! :lol: I think this will help anyone that wants to build their own. I'm going to cut up the Jack Hammer when the hook gets dull to see how they do their blade attachment.
How do you bend your blade on the oval type? do you put it in a vice? Do you have a jig or something to control the bend? Are they sensitive to having the blade be perfect or can you get a rough swag and its close?

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