shakey technique

Frankfort, Ky. – The first time I watched Chad Miles fish, he caught a 23-inch largemouth bass within the first 10 minutes. Tossing a straight-tailed, 6-inch plastic worm beside a submerged flat rock, he took his hand off the handle of his spinning reel as his lure fluttered to the bottom of Nolin River Lake.
He gently shook the rod tip a few times, and then slowly lowered the tip. The rod cracked upward and bowed as he stuck that big hog. He told me the Shakey style was dynamite on Nolin River Lake. He wasn’t lying.
The Shakey style of fishing is the latest of the rages that burn through the bass fishing world every couple of years. Bass anglers well remember the Sluggo, drop shotting, the rise of creature baits, Carolina rigs, stroking a jig and the float and fly.
The reason these techniques move from a local quirk to nationwide rage is they catch a lot of bass. Many of these new lures or new fishing presentations are just variations on the tried and true. Shakey-style fishing is an improvement on an older technique.
“It is very similar to the old dead-sticking technique,” said Miles, development coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Once I became confident with the Shakey, I went from throwing a baitcaster 80 percent of the time to throwing spinning gear 80 percent of the time. I have a ton of confidence with that presentation when it is tough.”
The Shakey style is power fishing with a finesse presentation. A special jig allows the plastic bait to stand up from the bottom while the angler gently jiggles the handle to give the lure some action.
A Shakey rig consists of a leadhead jig with a large hook designed to hold 4- to 9-inch long, straight-tailed soft plastic worms. Some manufactures add a corkscrew or nub to the head to hold the soft plastic bait, while others have just a ball or football head.
“With the Shakey, most think it is just a worm presentation,” Miles explained. “It doesn’t have to be, you can be just as effective with a crawfish or creature bait.”
Toss the Shakey rig onto a main lake or secondary point, preferably one with a mixture of rocks and mud. Let it hit bottom and slowly crawl the rig a few feet while shaking the rod tip side to side. You may also let the lure sit still and gently shake the tip to make the soft plastic bait quiver in place. This is especially effective on spotted and smallmouth bass.
“I use as light a weight as I can get away with,” Miles said. “With the lighter weight, it has a slower, more appealing fall and you don’t get hung as often. I’ll use a jig as light as 1/16-ounce if there is no wind. If don’t have constant contact with the bait, go up in weight until you do.”
Try sloping banks near the channel with stumps, boulders or chip rock as well as channel drop-offs with the Shakey rig. The flats near those channel drops are excellent spots as well. Fishing channel drop-offs and the adjacent flats with this rig works extremely well on Kentucky Lake, Lake Barkley, Barren River Lake, Nolin River Lake and Yatesville Lake.
Although he does throw creature baits, crawfish and other soft plastics, Miles usually uses a worm 4 to 5 inches long. “I catch as many good ones on the shorter worms,” he said. “If you fish a 7- to 8-inch worm with an 1½- to 2-inch long head like most Shakey’s are, there’s a lot more worm exposed without a hook. I miss more. The bass move the bait without a hook-up with the longer worms, but this doesn’t happen nearly as much with the shorter worms.”
Miles uses 8- to -10 pound fluorocarbon line on his spinning reels for this technique. “Fluorocarbon line sinks so I can use a lighter head,” he said. “The sinking is more important than less visibility. Don’t go crazy on your hookset with fluorocarbon. It will break because it doesn’t stretch.”
He ties this to a 7 1/2 –foot, medium power, fast action spinning rod. “You get a better hookset and you don’t get hung as often with the longer rod,” Miles said. “It allows you to lift it straight up and avoid snags while working it slower.”
Get out and try Shakey fishing this summer. You can fit all the tackle you need in one small box and catch bass.

Author Lee McClellan is an award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.


KDFWR

Great article, thanks for sharing that with all of us.

I like it, I like it a lot!
Thanks, Good infor.

Chad is very good at what he does and I have had the great fortune to fish with him and what he does is something I can never do (fish the entire day slow) but he stays consistent with his technique and is extremely successful... Thanks for the post..

Thanks for the great article. Shakey head fishing rocks.

Great article. How fitting that while hanging out with "The Guru" Stephen Headrick of [url]www.punisherlures.com/[/url], he showed me his new Shaky Heads.

[url]http://www.dalehollowfishing.com/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,195/catid,25/func,view/id,3091/#3091[/url]

They are not in stores yet or on his site so you'll need to give them a buzz to get some.
[url]http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh83/thebassman30/NewPunisherShakyHeads.jpg[/url]

Like the looks of those heads.

[QUOTE=Bobby Headrick;366123]Like the looks of those heads.[/QUOTE]

Me too!

looks alot like a spot remover