I want to grab a couple chatter baits. What colors and what trailers and colors should I get? I fish rivers ponds the lake sometimes. I'm in central North Carolina if anybody can guess what I need I really appreciate it. 

Im not sure if it's gonna make any different in your area but I have good result with white, green pumpkins and black/blue. For the trailers I like paddle tail so I can slow roll along the bottom and still get enough action. Zoom swimming Fluke is good or you can even use super Fluke, cheap and available anywhere with good color selection.

White or black and blue I like the original trailers they come with or robo worm.

4 hours ago, JustJames said:

Im not sure if it's gonna make any different in your area but I have good result with white, green pumpkins and black/blue. For the trailers I like paddle tail so I can slow roll along the bottom and still get enough action.

Those 3 colors will get you through most situations. The paddle tails are good trailers. I also like the Rage Menace and Havoc Pit Boss. 

Color suggestions above are good - for Fall it's all about the shad bite so go with white and I suggest Zoom The Fluke (regular or Super Fluke Jr. ) in Pearl or Albino colors . I believe a boot tail trailer competes with the action of the chatterbait too much , so I tend to stay away from those .

Green pumpkin for spring and summer (bluegill and Craw imitation). 

 

Shad oriented color for fall. 

 

 On rare occasions and dirtied water I’ll throw a black and blue one pre or post spawn if we’ve had a lot of rain. 

I mainly use 2 colors, green pumpkin and chart./white. I use a twin tail or a GY Zako.

By far my best color lately in stained water has been red/chart. with chart split tail trailer.  In clear water red/white with red trailer.

10 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Those 3 colors will get you through most situations. The paddle tails are good trailers. I also like the Rage Menace and Havoc Pit Boss. 

I intended to try rage menace and pitboss for a while and fortunately I have those in green pumpkin and blue color. I did try with Zman craw but never got hit on that.

i like my trailer to be around 4" all my trailers now are Zman diezel and paddlerZ 4" but Zman don't have a good color on those.

Colors listed above and flukes seem to work great 

See I think I'm messing my self up not using the right colors with anything I'm fishing. How do you know when to fish what color?

14 minutes ago, Chaddy said:

See I think I'm messing my self up not using the right colors with anything I'm fishing. How do you know when to fish what color?

Fish the colors you have confidence, those will catch you the most fish.

Chatterbait is my go to bait. I use it a lot more than crankbait or spinnerbaits.

I use 3 colors. 

In smaller lakes with a lot of bluegill, I use green pumpkin and pumpkin combination.

in reservoirs that have a lot of shad, I use a white and chartreuse combo.

In really stained water, I will throw a black and blue combo.

keep it simple black/blue, green pumpkin and a white, i throw a paddle tail 80% of the time the other 20 % is a rage menace rigged vertically try a blue sapphire trailer for a bluegill coloured bait

Do you guys take the skirt off and then add the trailer or leave the skirt and add trailer?

I like to trim the skirt instead of completely removing it, but I don't think their is a right or wrong answer, simply experiment to see what you like best, not having a skirt changes the action and may be what the fish want.

 

I think most people use the same trailers, One thing I have had luck with over the years is a craw trailer without much action like a Critter craw or a Salt craw. I have no idea why this works as it looks strange in the water, but some days a trailer with less action just really works. The Menace, Paddle tail swimbait, or even a straight tail worm can work really good. I think the trailer matters more than the chatterbait from my experiences. A paddle tail gives off a completely different action than a fluke or craw.

I use Project Z 1/2 ounce. I mainly throw the breaking bream (bluegill) color in ponds. In lakes and rivers I through shad patterns like white and chartreuse. I personally like split tail grubs or no trailer at all.