Can someone define "Yo Yoing"?  I have just picked up on some Chatterbaits and saw in a post about Yo Yoing.

What I am referring to is pulling the bait (Chatter bait in this instance) toward you by lifting the rod - then kill it and let it fall while reeling in the slack.  Some people call this horizontal jigging.

Yeah yeah, but can you do the "sleeper" or "walk the dog"?

While I don't see much benefit in yo-yoing a chatterbait, you can probe a big brush pile with a wood jig doing that. Let it fall straight down into the brush, draping line over a branch. Then bob it up & down off that branch. Do the same over a submerged tree, working individual branches. Crawl the jig to the branch, let it climb over, and start another yo-yo until you can't find more branches to drape the line over. You need an abrasion resistant line for that. Sometimes bass relate very close to dense brush in deep water, waiting for forage to come through it. They might not be willing to swim out of it to grab a mouthful, but will bite if you aggravate it enough in it's hidey hole where bass see VERY few lures, if ever.

Jim

I don't see much benefit in yo-yoing a chatterbait

It actually works pretty well.  Remember a chatterbait is basically a jig.  So the bass will hit it on the drop.  I like to let it drop on fairly taut line so I can keep the balde rotation going both up and down.  Most hits still come on the drop, but I have had a few on a steady retrieve.

I agree with Avid, I've had success this year with the yo-yo retrive on the Chatterbait.

Either a yo-yo or a stop and go.

I haven't had any hits on a steady retrive...yet.

I've lost all 3 of my chatterbbaits, very prone to hanging up, not weedless at all, no weed guard. I sent two types of plug knockers down, and for whatever reason that didn't work. I think maybe it's because it can't get past the plate, pulling the nose down and burying the hook deeper. It's a guaranteed hangup letting it climb over a branch. Stop & go free swimming isn't yo-yoing, which is an up & down movement without moving toward the boat, like a yo-yo on a string.

Jim

I've had just the opposite experience - I find them to be very weedless.  Now I haven't pulled 'em through a christmas tree brush pile, but on regular lake weeds it zips right through and if you do get "gorilla snot" on your bait the vibration slings it off and it comes back fairly clean.

Swimming it through weeds almost always has at least one strand of hydrilla where the line ties on, and often it gobs the blade enough to stop it from flapping, a hard yank not clearing. But that isn't the topic. You can yo-yo it over a log, but not get it through a brush pile like a regular jig. It hangs up on limbs under about 2" diameter. About the only way to yo-yo it in heavy grass is through a hole in a heavy mat, but the chatterbait will be so clogged up trying that it won't be chattering going down or coming back up. It's fine for open water and ticking the tops of weeds.

Jim