Few lures in history have had a more profound impact on freshwater fishing than The Original ChatterBait ® lure and products. From its inception in a South Carolina garage to its first major tournament victory on Lake Okeechobee, The Original ChatterBait bladed swim jig quickly earned a reputation for results. Today, it’s the go-to bait of choice for top pro and recreational anglers.
Z-Man is constantly improving this game-changing bait with input from top FLW and B.A.S.S. pros. Thanks to its patented design and unique, hex-shaped blade, the sound, vibration, flash, and action of The Original ChatterBait products are unmatched. Its one-of-a-kind design produces an erratic motion that mimics wounded prey, producing the action of a crankbait, profile of a jig, and flash of a spinnerbait — all in a single bait.
When you fish an Original ChatterBait brand swim jig, you’ll feel every pulse—and the vicious strikes its distinct vibration will elicit. Equally effective in heavy cover or open water, its hex blade serves as a weed guard, and prevents it from hydroplaning on fast retrieves.
Z-Man’s original EZ Skirt ® , TrailerZ ™ extended silicone skirts, and ElaZtech ® split-tail TrailerZ™ provide countless options to choose from when customizing this bait to match the conditions.
The Original ChatterBait lure flat out catches fish. Always has. And, always will.
Celebrating the tenth anniversary of its
introduction to the bass fishing world, the Original ChatterBait ® brand bladed swim jig
once again made a huge splash on top-level professional tournament trails this past year. At the first FLW Tour event of the year in January at Lake Okeechobee—the very site where the ChatterBait lure burst onto the scene with Bryan Thirft’s memorable Rayovac victory in 2006— angler Brett Hite dominated the entire field in his wire-to-wire victory using primarily a green pumpkin colored Z-Man ChatterBait Elite lure, amassing a tournament-best four day total weight of over 88 pounds.
Just a month later on day two of the BassMaster Classic on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville, B.A.S.S. Nation qualifier Paul Mueller shocked the weigh-in crowd by hauling a single day, five-fish Classic record catch of 32 pounds, 3 ounces onto the stage. Mueller relied on a 3/8 ounce ChatterBait
Elite swim jig in the sexy shad color, finding that not only was he able to tempt larger bass by reel- ing it slowly through submerged grass, but also was able to keep big fish hooked more effectively than with a lipped crankbait. Mueller went on to finish second at the 2014 Classic—the highest finish by a B.A.S.S. Nation angler since 1997.
In March, Hite accomplished the rare feat of notching tour-level victories on both the FLW and B.A.S.S. trails in a single season when he used the ChatterBait bladed jig almost exclusively to stomp the field at the year’s first BassMaster Elite Series tournament at Lake Seminole. Targeting pre-spawn bass in grassy stretches of the main river, Hite sacked a four-day total of 97 pounds, 10 ounces, besting the second-place finisher by a whopping 13 pounds.
This unprecedented streak of tournament success on a single lure continued through the 2014
season. Late in March at the Sam Rayburn Lake FLW Tour stop in Texas, Thrift employed an Original ChatterBait lure as part of his tournament-winning arsenal, and several other top-10 finishers relied on a bladed jig as well. On the final day of the BassMaster Elite event on Lake Dardanelle in Arkansas in May, pro Gerald Swindle rallied in the tournament’s final hours using a black/blue Original ChatterBait jig to come within ounces of an incredible come-from-behind victory, only to end up with a highly respectable second-place finish.
Throughout the season, numerous other pros cashed paychecks using ChatterBait brand lures, making it easily the top money-winning bait on tour in 2014 and cementing the lure’s reputation as one of the foremost big fish baits available to tournament pros—and recreational anglers—today.