So I have been trying to make some of my own chatterbaits with mixed results. The painted head is a Phoenix casting jig that I tried opening up the eyelet to put a blade on. As you can see I broke several trying with a punch so that did not work well for me. The bottom bait is a 30 degree hook poured into an a sparkie do-it mold that worked quite well. I have never caught a fish on one of these baits but since I like to tinker I figured I would give it a shot.

 

Allen

You can also use a flat eye jig and a split ring. 

That'll work though, that's how the original chatterbait was invented...

Barlows tackle sells unpainted jigs that work well. I'm starting to use those now, and have use a discontinued model that used to be made by Boss.

On 4/27/2016 at 11:52 PM, Kevin22 said:

You can also use a flat eye jig and a split ring. 

That'll work though, that's how the original chatterbait was invented...

much better to do it this way i was never a fan of the direct connection to the jig head.

i have tied a couple myself i actually took an old strike king swim jig and connected the blade by tying it with 65# braid it worked well though it took a lot or tinkering 

Whether you can bend out a hook eye without breaking it depends on the temper the manufacturer put into it.  Generally, japanese hooks have better temper and break when bent so they are not good candidates.  VMC hooks usually work ok.

If you use a spinnerbait head mold with a bit of wire where the formed wire would go for a spinnerbait, you can form a loop in the wire so you can connect the blade direct to that. Dead easy to do. You can adapt a jig mold to do it easily too if there's a shape you prefer. Best to use a straight eyed hook and put the wire through the hook eye in the mold, then it's all encased in lead and strong.

I agree with Tim- you can use any existing spinnerbait mold to make chatterbait heads and you can also modify jig molds by drilling a channel to the head. I was able to do this with the poison tail jig mold. I tried to upload a pic but the file is too large- sigh- another technical hurdle to cross!

 

I think I was able to add a pic now- sorry!

Edited June 5, 201610 yr by Dave A
added picture