I noticed this and wondered

[Oregon Native]

Was watching the recaps of the classic the other evening and noticed that when someone hooked one on a chatter they seemed to say... stay on...stay on and many times fish would come off in boat.  I know bouncing isn't usually an accepted policy but did noticed that this was said more with the chatterbaits.  Maybe it's just me...

[Brad in Texas]

Interesting! I don't fish chatterbaits often enough to have a personal experience, a statistic to share. But, I do know that when big bass jump and shake a lure off, if the weight of the thing is tight to the hook, it gives them leverage to do so. If, in the case of a plastic bait, say a Senko, that slides down and away from the hook, they have much less leverage.

 

One or more of the experienced chatterbait operators will likely chime in so we can know if this is an issue for them or not.

 

*** Some experienced anglers modify certain lures so the body separates on a hook-up just for the purpose of robbing a fish of this leverage. I know Bill Wilcox of YouTube Honey Hole fame , some tv coverage, too, showed how he runs the line through a hard bait and rigs one up this way. I don't think this sort of modification would work for a chatterbait.

 

Brad

 

 

[Bluebasser86]

One of the theories that I have has to do with the fact that fish often "choke" a bladed jig. The tissue back in the roof of the bass' mouth is soft and not very tough and also kind of a funny angle since the bait wants to follow the line back down at a slight angle to get out of the fishes mouth and kind of pulls the hook point down away from where it needs to go to dig in. So even at best case scenario, the hook ends up dug into one of the softer portions of the mouth. Then a fish pulls hard during the fight, tissue tears, hook pulls out. I've caught lots of fish hooked back in the roof of the mouth where it was starting to tear that made me think it could be why I've lost big fish that I thought were hooked good because I couldn't even see the bait during the fight, but then lost them, usually as the dove and pulled hard near the boat. 

 

This is all speculation on my part, and there's no solution that I can think of, but it's the best reason I can come up with. This is the best picture I have to illustrate what I'm talking about when a fish inhales the bait, but the angle of the hook and direct the bait is trying to travel back out of the fishes mouth. Bait is choked, but fish is barely hooked in a very soft part of the mouth.

 

[Scarborough817]

i have had issues with fish pulling off in the past as well, the thing i have done to change this is use a moderate rod. i personally use 2 rods for this my 7' MH/M daiwa ballistic and my 7'3" M/M abu garcia Ike rod. i feel these rods do a couple things for me.

1) it allows you to better feel the vibration of the bait, which helps with feeling for bites and grass

2) it helps with not ripping a huge hole in the fishes mouth (this in itself keeps more fish on)

3) it helps with something bluebasser just mentioned, when a fish surges at the side of the boat it allows more flex in the rod, this means the hook is less likely to tear out and cause a fish to be lost.

 

to me the general idea that its a jig and needs a fast action rod is wrong, the bait has an exposed hook, you are already reeling when the fish eats it so the bait and fish are already moving so stopping to make a big hookset like you would on a jig makes no sense. think about an a-rig, most of the time they are fished on a rod that has a decent amount of "tip" to it, meaning more moderate because you can almost just reel into the fish and sweep the rod. a bladed jig has the same exposed hook as the head you would put on an a-rig so why would you change rods. 

[Mike L]

Interesting...

Good Info about the why and how, never thought about it. 

 

I say "Stay On, Stay On" on every fish I hook regardless of what I throw. 

 

 

 

Mike

[Deleted account]

I haven't noticed any issues with keeping fish buttoned on chatterbaits, I have noticed that a lot of pros do plead with bass to "stay on" or beg them to "not come off". I think it probably has more to do with the situation than the bait. I guess someone could ask them, and then we'll know.

[All about da bass]

The only thing I could think of would probably be that when a fish bites at the lure, they hit towards you. I don't know if that affects it coming off or not. When I was fishing them last week, when they would hit it there would be a lot of slack in my line and I couldn't keep up with the fish even with a 7.4:1 gear ratio reel. Maybe that helps.

[BassNJake]

I agree with Blue and what his image shows.

Some chatterbait fish get hooked in that thin membrane of skin that covers the roof of the mouth.

This does not always allow the hook to penetrate very well.

 

This will happen to me at times when they are eating jigs really well too.

 

 

 

 

 

[Deleted account]

3 minutes ago, BassNJake said:

I agree with Blue and what his image shows.

Some chatterbait fish get hooked in that thin membrane of skin that covers the roof of the mouth.

This does not always allow the hook to penetrate very well.

 

This will happen to me at times when they are eating jigs really well too.

 

 

 

 

 

frogs too sometimes.

[sully420]

I've had great luck fishing a chatter bait with a rod that has a parabolic action.

[Brad in Texas]

7 hours ago, Scarborough817 said:

i have had issues with fish pulling off in the past as well, the thing i have done to change this is use a moderate rod. i personally use 2 rods for this my 7' MH/M daiwa ballistic and my 7'3" M/M abu garcia Ike rod. i feel these rods do a couple things for me.

1) it allows you to better feel the vibration of the bait, which helps with feeling for bites and grass

2) it helps with not ripping a huge hole in the fishes mouth (this in itself keeps more fish on)

3) it helps with something bluebasser just mentioned, when a fish surges at the side of the boat it allows more flex in the rod, this means the hook is less likely to tear out and cause a fish to be lost.

 

to me the general idea that its a jig and needs a fast action rod is wrong, the bait has an exposed hook, you are already reeling when the fish eats it so the bait and fish are already moving so stopping to make a big hookset like you would on a jig makes no sense. think about an a-rig, most of the time they are fished on a rod that has a decent amount of "tip" to it, meaning more moderate because you can almost just reel into the fish and sweep the rod. a bladed jig has the same exposed hook as the head you would put on an a-rig so why would you change rods. 

This and sully420's comment about rods. Both make sense to me. A parabolic bend and/or the proper power rating for a rod go a long way. I think so often the tendency is to get a power rating one more than we actually need. Rods seem to get longer and longer, and heavier and heavier actions, rod offerings are often dominated by fast tips. A rod needs to load up and stay that way to keep a fish pinned, to give the angler the best shot to land it. Let a rod straighten out and you have problems. The other benefit of a notch lighter power or a deeper bend? It gives you more, not less, power over a fish as the lifting point moves back closer to your hands. It seems we often use rods we could land tuna with.  Brad

[WRB]

During this tournament most of the chatterbait trailers were 4"-5" paddletail swimbaits and that creates a mouth full of lure and trailer, getting a good solid hook set is critical.

Chatterbaits are a jig with a blade so a single strong hook shouldn't be an issue unless the trailer fills the hook gap and my guess is the swimbait has a tendency to do that.

Christie lost this event because a good size bass came unbuttoned using a Chatterbait-swimbait combo, his 1st bass on the final day and would have filled his limit. Christie is probably saying don't come off in his nightmares!

Tom

 

[Deleted account]

1 hour ago, Brad in Texas said:

This and sully420's comment about rods. Both make sense to me. A parabolic bend and/or the proper power rating for a rod go a long way. I think so often the tendency is to get a power rating one more than we actually need. Rods seem to get longer and longer, and heavier and heavier actions, rod offerings are often dominated by fast tips. A rod needs to load up and stay that way to keep a fish pinned, to give the angler the best shot to land it. Let a rod straighten out and you have problems. The other benefit of a notch lighter power or a deeper bend? It gives you more, not less, power over a fish as the lifting point moves back closer to your hands. It seems we often use rods we could land tuna with.  Brad

Agreed. I always start with the shortest, softest, and slowest rod That works well for a particular application, and work my way up if need be. It seems most folks do the opposite.

[sully420]

We shouldn't overlook that you need a sharp hook and the right hook set with a parabolic or moderate rod also at least floro c line to drive the hook in. I also sometimes fish a swim jig on my parabolic rod, the rod i speak of is a 7'6 mh duckett ghost. It took a lot of lost bass to learn how to land fish with single hook baits on that rod. And still would rather not fish swim jigs on it. My next rod purchase will be a shorter rod 6'10" to 7" with a more moderate action for chatter baits spinners ect. In other words it's going to take some time to figure out how to hook up fish with a traditional cranking type rod on chatterbaits.

[A-Jay]

17 minutes ago, sully420 said:

We shouldn't overlook that you need a sharp hook and the right hook set with a parabolic or moderate rod also at least floro c line to drive the hook in. I also sometimes fish a swim jig on my parabolic rod, the rod i speak of is a 7'6 mh duckett ghost. It took a lot of lost bass to learn how to land fish with single hook baits on that rod. And still would rather not fish swim jigs on it. My next rod purchase will be a shorter rod 6'10" to 7" with a more moderate action for chatter baits spinners ect. In other words it's going to take some time to figure out how to hook up fish with a traditional cranking type rod on chatterbaits.

I fish composite / moderate action rods quite a bit; always moving baits. (spinnerbaits, vibrating jigs, & several treble hook baits)   What works for me is ~ 'never stop reeling'.

Feel the strike, keep reeling, - rod loads, keep reeling, - set the hook(s), keep reeling.

 Compared to other 'hooksets, (bottom contact presentations for instance) it does seem like an eternity waiting to feel the weight of the fish & for the rod to load; especially when I first started doing it.  But now anything else seems 'too fast'.  In reality it's probably a 2 count between strike detection & fish on - but I have to keep reeling.  If I stop during the process at all, bass have a very decent chance to shake off. 

 

A-Jay