I have seen crankbaits that have a “hunting action” where they dart out to the side occasionally during the retrieve. Are their any brands of bladed jigs (chatterbaits) that have the same hunting action rather than retrieve in a straight line?

No, you need to input any side darting movements.

Tom

By design chatter baits are not going in a straight line.  They travel in a vertical bouncing motion rather than a side to side motion.  

 

To answer your question though, i haven't seen one that does a side motion as is if it was hunting.  My guess is that it is probably because it is a completely different motion than the chatterbait and to get it to hunt it would drastically change the original motion.

There are a lot of blade changes guys make to do a lot of things.  I dont know of one to make it hunt but there are mods you can do to make them different.  The hunting on a bladed jig to me is the up and down not side to side.   

I make my own using a split ring. They dart like crazy.

You can make them hunt by bending the blades. How you bend them is kind of like tuning a crankbait, different bends will get different actions and running depths. 

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

You can make them hunt by bending the blades. How you bend them is kind of like tuning a crankbait, different bends will get different actions and running depths. 

Yup...have done this too....works well.

Have you tried replacing the stock blade? I'm thinking punch a new hole in a blade that is off to one side instead of centered.  I'm not sure if this would make it jerk from side to side or just pull to one side?

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

You can make them hunt by bending the blades. How you bend them is kind of like tuning a crankbait, different bends will get different actions and running depths. 

How do you bend them to make them hunt?

5 minutes ago, FCPhil said:

How do you bend them to make them hunt?

It's something you really have to play with to get what you want but I start about half an inch back and bend to about a 45* angle. Years of trail and error have gone into figuring out how to get the action I'm looking for.

Retreive it like a jerk bait, change the cadence and add a few rod pumps if you want a erratic action on various lures. Tunning lures to run erratic usually causes them to roll in the water, not good!

Tom

 

Try bending the blade right between the two holes where the snap is attached. I bend mine (the ones from LPO) in a bench vise. The bend is only 5 degrees or so.