Ultimate Guide to Spring Chatterbait Fishing! (Spring Bass Fishing Tips)

Hey, Bass Resource, John Cruz, here with you to talk more about chatterbaits. Springtime is when everybody's fishing, right? It is a great, great time to fish. One of my favorite seasons, obviously, for the chatterbait, but, during the springtime, we've got a transition that happens from, let's say, in most parts of the country, a pre-spawn situation throughout the spawn and then into a post-spawn, shad spawn situation. So you've got a lot of different stuff that's going on within the chatterbaits. We're gonna break that down for you right here, right now. So if you're looking at fishing at chatterbait throughout the springtime, here's the skinny on you.

So kind of as a leftover from the late winter time as we're going into that early springtime, you're gonna have those red and orange colors like the fire craw and the lava craw trailer for that Spunk Shad, this is what I'm gonna be using at the end of the time period of winter, as the springtime begins. Sometimes for the first third of the spring, I'm gonna stay with that red-orange color on the chatterbait, it can be really good. If you get some extra stained water, the big blade chatterbait can be a really good alternative. You see how bright that is, how big that is. This can be a huge trigger. This thing thumps super hard. You're gonna be putting a bigger trailer, that Spunk Shad, the next size up Spunk Shad, the 5.5 inch, put that on there. Same setup that we're gonna be showing you later, the same rod and reel, all that, but that harder, bigger blade when that water gets a little bit dirty in that pre-spawn, that thing can be dynamite, I mean, dynamite.

And then as you're getting closer to the spawn, the fish are gonna be moving a little bit shallower. They're gonna be getting around areas that might be a little bit clearer water, but you can still absolutely catch 'em on the chatterbait. But then during that time period, I'm gonna go to a trailer that's gonna help keep the bait up a little bit more. So I've got that Missile Baits Chunky D on the back, and it's got the two flappers. I'm gonna turn it sideways so that, you know, when it's going along, these two flappers are gonna stay level like this. That helps keep that bait up. You can go to the 3/8ths-ounce size, and when you're reeling that 3/8ths, you get it by a piece of cover, let's say a stump, dock, post, something like that, and you kill it. Those two flappers on the back give that little wagging, waving action as they go down. It's amazing how many bites you get as that thing is falling during that springtime when you're fishing it around.

This is when I was fishing earlier this year, caught some fish on it at Lake Fork, but you throw it over there, reel it by the cover, stop it, just kill it for a second, and let those tails kick, that can be absolutely dynamite there as well. But as you go into the bass spawn and really into the time period when the shad starts spawning in most of the country, I mean, I'm talking from Texas to Virginia, that whole area during the middle time of the spring, you're gonna have, you know, obviously some white chatterbait regular, but that's the time period I'm gonna go with the Minimax. I've got the 3.5-inch Shockwave on the back, just a little small durable swim bait. That smaller Minimax size around the shad spawn is just absolutely dirty on them. It really, really is. You can be throwing it around rip rap banks, floating docks, you're gonna be throwing it around any kind of willow grass that you might find along the bank, any place that you think that the shad might be spawning really, especially early in the morning, for some reason that smaller size, I think that because it's smaller and the blade's a little more compact, it goes a little bit slower than, like, a heavier, bigger chatterbait and something about that smaller compact size, they eat that thing up. So this is kind of your one little transition time period bait that you're gonna go with.

Then as we go towards the end of the spring, then that's when the brim and all are gonna come out. You're gonna see them all around the bank. That's the time period that I'm gonna be picking up that bluegill color. The green pumpkin, this is a green pumpkin with a shrapnel color. It's like a bluegill type color on that little swim bait, the little Shockwave or I'm gonna be throwing the green pumpkin Shockwave Spunk Shad on the back, just that bluegill imitators, really what I'm gonna be going with. If I'm gonna be skipping docks, I'm gonna probably put a little bit bigger bulkier bait on there like the Spunk Shad. If I'm gonna be fishing it more, just going down the, you know, just a regular bank with not a lot of cover, I'll probably go with just that shrapnel color on the little swim bait. And that's such a great brim imitator. Like I said, anytime I see those brim up there in the later part of the spring, that thing can be absolutely dynamite.

My setup for a chatterbait pretty much stays similar throughout the seasons and all these baits that I showed you just now, it's gonna be the same thing. Sunline 18-pound Shooter is what I use. I've experimented with multiple different lines. That 18 Shooter is the most versatile, I would say, to be able to do kind of anything you want. Even that little small Minimax, you can throw it on 18. Sometimes I might jump down to a 16-pound on that, could be really good. And then I'm gonna have a Daiwa Zillion SV TW and a 7.1 to 1 gear ratio. It's just kind of a good intermediate to where you can reel it fast enough to get it to jump and get erratic. But then when those fish jump up and bite it, you have enough speed, you can reel into 'em and not have a bunch of slack in your line. And then I've got a 7'4" Cashion Chattergrass rod. It's just a nice, moderate bend on that chatterbait. You do not want to have too fast of an action. That moderate action really gives you the bend that you need so that the fish can eat the bait really well and don't come off. So you can see how that bends from, you know, about halfway up the rod to throughout the tip. But it's still got some power to it.

It's not flimsy by any means. It's still got some power to it, and that's just kind of the perfect combination for what you're needing. But as you're fishing these baits in the pre-spawn, you're gonna be trying to hit the cover, whether it's grass, stumps, things like that, the bottom rocks, you're gonna be trying to trigger fish by bumping those pieces of cover. In that early-spring pre-spawn, fish are definitely more territorial. That goes up all the way up through the spawn. Once we get to that shad spawn period, we're just talking about getting it around where the shad-type spawning, you know, like I said, the shallow bank grass, floating docks, anything like that, get it around. There is nothing crazy, you just have to cover a lot of water with that shad spawn to find those active fish that are up on the bank.

And then towards that end, when we have the brim situation going on, you're gonna be just fishing that anywhere around where you see those brim, brim are gonna be hanging out, whether they're around brim beds, along grass lines. Skipping it up under docks can be a huge deal when you see brim kind of around docks. I love fishing that late spring, green pumpkin kind of colored chatterbaits. I've caught some really, really big bass that time of year. A lot of those big brim eaters, you know, a lot of those big dock fish after they've spawn, they're going to those docks and just kind of recovering before they move offshore or they move out a little bit deeper. So springtime, absolutely one of my favorite times to catch fish on a chatterbait.