Spinnerbait, Chatterbait, or Jig?

[33oldtimer]

You have 3 setups. A Spinnerbait, Chatterbait, and Jig. How do you decide which one to use? Let's say you are bank fishing this time of year.

[king fisher]

Spinnerbait, because that is what I have always used.  When fishing from shore I don't like to use a chatterbait, because the Monkey talked me in to buying Jack Hammer's, and I am scared to loose them.  A jig from shore has never worked for me.  I always think of one as a spinnerbait that's top wire broke, and no longer works.

[LrgmouthShad]

Jig and spinnerbait is a good bank combo. You can skip the chatterbait ?. (I just don’t like em)
 

I would fish both at everything that I think might hold fish. I would combine pitching and casting with the jig, and I would fish the spinnerbait at all depths. Pretty much that simple. 
 

One of the biggest bass I hooked this year, I lost in Missouri during the super early prespawn, bank fishing with a jig. I pitched a large rubber jig to a stickup, felt the bite, wrestled her out of there, somehow lifted her over another branch, and then she tangled herself in a third piece of timber and I lost her. 

[bowhunter63]

Spinnerbaits and Rage rigged bugs or craws. I like jigs but I swim them to avoid getting hung. Don’t forget a weightless fluke or topwater .

[GetFishorDieTryin]

The spinnerbait and chatterbait are interchangeable IMO, as far as ideal conditions go.  I want clouds, wind and or a little stain to the water to throw a chatterbait or spinnerbait.  If I want to throw a chatterbait or spinnerbait on a bright/still day, I'll throw a swim jig.  When I fish a jig on the bottom, most of the time Im targeting something, like a piece of cover or bottom feature.  

I generally favor chatterbaits over spinnerbaits, but it really depends on what im fishing.  I'll cast a chatterbait into a laydown, but if I plan on fishing really tight to wood, ill lean towards a spinnerbait because chatterbaits are prone to snagging up in wood.  If Im fishing grass, then its a chatterbait over spinnerbait all day.  

[33oldtimer]

30 minutes ago, bowhunter63 said:

Spinnerbaits and Rage rigged bugs or craws. I like jigs but I swim them to avoid getting hung. Don’t forget a weightless fluke or topwater .

I need to try swim jigs. 

6 minutes ago, GetFishorDieTryin said:

The spinnerbait and chatterbait are interchangeable IMO, as far as ideal conditions go.  I want clouds, wind and or a little stain to the water to throw a chatterbait or spinnerbait.  If I want to throw a chatterbait or spinnerbait on a bright/still day, I'll throw a swim jig.  When I fish a jig on the bottom, most of the time Im targeting something, like a piece of cover or bottom feature.  

I generally favor chatterbaits over spinnerbaits, but it really depends on what im fishing.  I'll cast a chatterbait into a laydown, but if I plan on fishing really tight to wood, ill lean towards a spinnerbait because chatterbaits are prone to snagging up in wood.  If Im fishing grass, then its a chatterbait over spinnerbait all day.  

I wasn't impressed with Chatterbaits. But then I tried one and started catching fish. It's in my regular line up of lure choices now.

[LrgmouthShad]

4 hours ago, lynxcat said:

It’s too hot in Texas to fish a spinner bait or a chatterbait

What

[KP Duty]

Use the jig to target shoreline cover, and then swith to the spinnerbait to fan cast open areas.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

4 hours ago, 33oldtimer said:

I need to try swim jigs. 

I wasn't impressed with Chatterbaits. But then I tried one and started catching fish. It's in my regular line up of lure choices now.

Chatterbaits are one of those baits that can be difficult to get confidence in.  Had a couple friends struggle initially to get confidence in them, but once the ball got rolling it only took 1 or 2 good days for both of them to invest in a bunch of them.

Admittedly I was a little slow with swim jigs.  I didnt think a swim jig could do anything that spinnerbait, chatterbait, swimbait, arkie head jig or t rigged worm couldn't and I was way off.  A swimjig excels at probing an area that you dont want to get snagged in,  I think of it like a subtle spinnerbait that excels in tough conditions and wont get bogged down by grass.  

 

 

[LrgmouthShad]

4 minutes ago, GetFishorDieTryin said:

A swimjig excels at probing an area that you dont want to get snagged in,  I think of it like a subtle spinnerbait that excels in tough conditions and wont get bogged down by grass.  

Yeah. A swim jig is unlike a spinnerbait or chatterbait. I really like it in the spring, but it works pretty much year round. I wouldn’t really use it in winter, but some forum members have said that they have with success. 
 

It is a pond menace too

[GetFishorDieTryin]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Yeah. A swim jig is unlike a spinnerbait or chatterbait. I really like it in the spring, but it works pretty much year round. I wouldn’t really use it in winter, but some forum members have said that they have with success. 
 

It is a pond menace too

I use a swim jig a lot like a spinner bait, im either chucking and winding it, pitching it and bouncing it off of cover and anything in between.  A few years ago I ordered a couple greenfish chibi swimjigs, just because it was different from any swimjig I had thrown.  I really didnt think a fine wire jig with a really light brush guard would be very useful.  They work when swimbaits wont, and still get quality fish.  As long as you dont bog it down its great around moderate cover, but the way fish respond to them in open water was eye opening, especially pressured fish.  There's definitely something to it, in the past couple years a bunch of companies have put out compact finesse swimjigs.

[Hammer 4]

9 times out of 10, I throw a spinnerbait, caught many bass on them. Jig would be next choice out of the 3 mentioned.

[Bazoo]

I'm a diehard spinnerbait man.

 

I've not caught any fish on the chatterbait I just started using this year, but I do fish it, and I have confidence in it because I've read of how others have excellent results with it, and I seen a bill dance video with him using one. I've not had an instance that I tied the chatterbait on when the spinnerbait wouldn't produce though and then caught fish yet, like some folks claim.

 

I know in my local moss covered pond, the chatterbait is a moss magnet, where the spinnerbait will come right over the top of it. I have fished a jig there, but not had any luck with that either, the spinnerbait does well and both with the fish and the moss though.

[FrnkNsteen]

For me, it comes down to what type of presentation I am looking for. Swimjig being the most subtle, followed by a willowleaf spinnerbait, then colorado bladed spinnerbait, then a bladed jig

 

A swimjig works well for me in clearer water or when the only vibration I want is the kick of the trailer. If the water is a little more dirty or stained, I'll go to a willow leaf spinnerbait, as it gets dirtier I may go with a big colorado blade spinnerbait. If I want more vibration I will go to a bladed jig.

 

That being said though, I've had a few very productive days throwing a Jackhammer or Thundercricket in clear water on rocky/sandy flats of pencil reeds!!

 

I'll even choose different "Chatterbaits" depending on how much vibration I want. I think a Jackhammer has more vibration than a Thundercricket,... and Sieberts Fogy has much more thump than either of them.

[scaleface]

The jig is most snag resistant and I like to fish snags . Spinnerbaits do well in snags too. Chatterbaits not so much . So I pick according to what I'm targeting.

[Pat Brown]

I think I'd just bring the jig and spinnerbait and a buzzbait.  Bottom, middle, top.  Fish em hard wherever the water is wet.

[Bazoo]

Talk about chatterbaits being more snaggy. I lost mine the other day on a laydown that I fish my favorite spinnerbait on regularly. I hate to think of the thought of losing my Terminator Titanium spinnerbait.

[gim]

14 minutes ago, Bazoo said:

I hate to think of the thought of losing my Terminator Titanium spinnerbait.

It's painful losing one of those, being that they're discontinued and hard to find.  I still have a few left.  When I get snipped off by a pike with one on, first I swear, then I cry.

[thediscochef]

I kind of learned bass fishing with chatterbaits. But small ones. It is not too hot for chatterbaits in Texas right now but my use has been limited to morning shaded areas around boathouses/marina docks, or in later afternoon when open water feeding comes close to the pier for a brief moment. I like a spinnerbait for shad spawn season and fall fishing, I just haven't had so much summer luck on it. I've not caught a fish on a traditional skirted jig yet, that I can remember. But if I'm forced to fish in hotter water then that's probably the choice of the three 

[r83srock]

Use the Spinnerbait to locate fish. Once you find them slow down and pick the area in general. Of course in the spring or on a cloudy windy day I could throw a Spinnerbait all day. This would apply if I’m fishing the bank or from a boat. I would give the chatterbaits to a kid.