The Shaky Head Rig by Jeff Banko
If you follow professional bass fishing, have seen a fishing magazine, or attended a fishing show in the past year you have probably heard of something called the shaky head worm or rig. This rig has become very popular over the past year or two on the tournament trails. The reason for the sudden popularity is quite simple, under tough conditions such as a cold front, or a heavily pressured fishing area, this rig will outshine most others allowing you to catch fish and catch them in good numbers. It will also catch big fish which makes it one of the best all around rigs out there. The bottom line is if you have not tried a shaky head rig you really should. With that in mind I am going to share some of what I have learned about fishing this rig so that you may also enjoy this great way to catch bass.
The first and most important part of the shaky head rig is the jig head itself. There are a lot of round head or ball head jigs out there and they will all work for a shaky head rig. My preferences are those where the line tie on the hook is not sitting right against the lead head. I like a little of the hook shaft between the line tie and the lead, usually this will be about 1/16” to 1/8”. (see the picture below of one of the jig heads I use. You can notice how the line tie is separated off the lead)
I have found that having a little space gives me more leverage to shake the bait on the rig in one spot which can be killer when the bite is slow. I let the depth and current I am fishing dictate the weight I use. Most often I will use 1/8 oz but if the water is deep or has fast current I will go all the way up to 3/8 oz. The key with the weight on this rig is to make sure you have enough to keep the bait on the bottom. Unlike a lot of rigs, where the way the bait falls is what triggers strikes, with the shaky head most of your bites will be while shaking your bait right on the bottom so make sure you use enough weight to keep the bait there. The last element to the jig is color. I actually do not worry about this too much. For the most part I use black painted heads but I have really found no particular difference in colors as long as the color of the head is something that looks natural, like brownish greens, browns, or black.
Once you have selected your jig head you will need something to rig on it. The standard bait for a shaky head rig is a straight worm like the Zoom Finesse Worm or Trick Worm. You can also use other worms such as a c-tail or ring worm. Whatever worm or soft plastic you choose look for one key thing. It has to have a tail that is buoyant so that it will float up above the jig head when it is on the bottom. If you want to try a worm or other soft plastic and are not sure it will work, just test it out by rigging it on e jig head and tossing it in your kitchen sink. You will see very quickly if the tail of the worm will float up or just lay flat on the bottom. If it floats give it a shot.
After choosing your worm you have two options on how to rig it to your jig head; weedless or what I will call standard. To rig the bait weedless, insert the hook point into the tip of the head on the worm. Then work it down into the worm about ¼”. Next pull it out through the worms side and push the worm head up onto the collar of the jig head. I like to put a drop of Pro’s Soft Bait Glue onto the collar before pushing the worm head over it to help hold it in place. Once you have secured the head of the worm onto the jig head you next need to push the hook point into the worm again. You want to let the worm hang straight down over the hook point and then push the hook point through the worm at a point that will allow the worm to remain straight on the rig. (See picture). Once you have done this the rig is ready to go.
For the standard rigging method you simply put the point of the hook into the tip of the worm head. Then thread the worm on until you have the hook shaft all the way into the worm up until the bend in the hook (see picture) . This rig is now ready to go. My preference of these two is weedless and I always rig my shaky heads that way. That is because I usually fish this rig around a lot of cover and would snag a lot without the bait being weedless. If you are going to be using this rig on sand or gravel flats or areas like that the standard rig is probably your best choice as it will allow for the best hook penetration should a fish bite.
Now that you have your jig head, and worm and you have it rigged up weedless or standard style you need to tie it onto one of your rod and reel combos and fish it. For my rod I like using a 6 1/2ft medium spinning rod with a fast action. I have tried quite a few rods for this and I find that the medium power rod will let me handle any fish I hook up with while having a fast action makes it very castable, yet gives me a stiff enough tip to work the subtle shakes that are this rigs namesake. This rod also gives me great feel as to what the bait is doing. On my rod I mount a 20 series spinning reel, mine is a Quantum Catalyst 20Pti. I have found that this size reel works great for this as it has enough power to handle any fish you will encounter but is small and light enough to not be cumbersome. I spool my reel with either 8 or 12 pound fluorocarbon line. I have tried using mono, and superlines, but nothing even comes close to the fluorocarbon when fishing a shaky head. Flouro is just so sensitive that you pick up the slightest little bites, it also is invisible under water which gets you more bites, and flouro sinks which helps keep your baits on the bottom where they work best.
Enough about the equipment side, where and how do you fish the shaky head? Really it is quite simple. You can fish the shaky head essentially everywhere except in heavy weed cover. I will fish it on sand, gravel, rock, and clay bottoms, in places where the weeds are sparse, in and around cover such as trees or docks. You get the picture: essentially everywhere. To fish it is quite simple cast out your rig and let it hit bottom. Once the bait is on the bottom make sure the line between your rod and the bait is moderately tight and then shake the rod tip up and down ever so very slightly, the object is to make the jig head roll back and forth which will make the tail of the worm floating above it shake. I usually shake for a few seconds then let the bait rest for 4 or 5 second, I will then shake it again, let it rest again and if I have not gotten bitten at that point lift the rod tip and reel in a little bit to move the bait a little closer to the boat. I then repeat the whole pattern and will keep repeating, shake, rest, shake, rest, move bait until I think the bait is no longer where I think fish will be holding at that point I just reel in and cast again. There is one variation that I will sometimes use if the bite seems to be especially tough. I place the index finger on the hand I hold the rod with on the line just above the reel. I then use my finger to pluck the line to make the jig and worm shake rather than moving the rod tip up and down. By doing this you can get a very gentle, subtle shake which on really tough fish can bring on the bite.
In a nutshell this is what I can share about the shaky head rig. It is an awesome way to fish and is quite simple. Hopefully the information I have shared here will lead to some of you catching fish on the shaky head.
Tight Lines.
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