Shakey head fishing ?

[QUOTE=mhall;310290]O.K. I fancy myself as a pretty good finesse fisherman. I have caught a few fish on the shakey head but never get bit on it like I hear others just wacking'em with this lure. I've used the football heads, spot remover heads, round heads and all weight sizes also. Plastics of all kinds and colors, depths from shallow to 30 feet. Light line and flouro or low-viz mono's. What am I doing wrong and how can I gain confidence in this bait because I have none right now. I know guys that fish the big C that tell me if they could only take one bait with them on their fishing trips it would be the shakey head. I fish other finesse baits with good success at times. Alright, nough said, School me.[/QUOTE]

Just keep fishing it. Just like SS says, if you are in an area that you know you should get bit throw it. I caught two over 5lbs on back to back casts Friday. Yesterday on the same spot I caught two over 4. The funny thing is I have never caught a fish at this spot on a jig.

For me I use a 1/4oz round ball head I pour myself with a Gamakatsu lite wire 5/0 hook. For the line I use Stren original 8 to 10lb clear. You can't beat a Zoom trick worm. Cut about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch off the nose. I just make a cast let it settle to the bottom and gently shake it, drag a foot or two and shake. 90% of the hits I get the line just gets heavy. I fish this bait at any depth.
Good Luck,
rustedhook

Hey MHall, funny story about fishing the shaky head down at Dale. Elnut and I were down there prefishing a tourny and I had only fished a shaky a time or two at Ky Lake. I think I had an 1/8 ounce on(way too light for the water depth). Anyway, I make a cast out and wait and wait for my blamed lure to sink; finally, Elnut says are you gonna catch that fish! I don't know, I guess I thought I'd thrown into a dang sinkhole. Sure enough a nice two pound spot on the other end. We proceeded to tear em up on that bank and I don't think a single one let it hit the bottom.
That's the only time I had a numbers day with the shaky. Most of the time I throw it is under tough conditions which don't lend itself well to big numbers. Later, Cliff

Hey Cliff, good to see on the board. Make sure you take care of Elnut for us.

[QUOTE=mhall;310290]O.K. I fancy myself as a pretty good finesse fisherman. I have caught a few fish on the shakey head but never get bit on it like I hear others just wacking'em with this lure. I've used the football heads, spot remover heads, round heads and all weight sizes also. Plastics of all kinds and colors, depths from shallow to 30 feet. Light line and flouro or low-viz mono's. What am I doing wrong and how can I gain confidence in this bait because I have none right now. I know guys that fish the big C that tell me if they could only take one bait with them on their fishing trips it would be the shakey head. I fish other finesse baits with good success at times. Alright, nough said, School me.[/QUOTE]

How you holding your mouth?

[QUOTE=Bonefish;310348]Hey Cliff, good to see on the board. Make sure you take care of Elnut for us.[/QUOTE]

Ditto....

[QUOTE=stoner;310349]How you holding your mouth?[/QUOTE]

Usually wrong. LAMOL.

Lots of good info here these guys have posted for you. Typically I use a 6.5 ft medium or medium/heavy spinning rod, 8lb gamma copolymer and a spot remover (1/8 to 5/16). I use a lot of zoom trick worms, Berkley shakey head worms, River Bottom shakey head worms and Robo Worms. Have taken fish on Sweet Beavers, 4" lizards and Baby Brush Hounds on this technique also.

We have taken fish in 2ft of water to 40 ft of water here on Ky/Barkley with it. I have had some clients win tourneys on it over the past couple of years.

All that said, it is a very good technique for post frontal, post spawn and ledge fishing. Like all techniques...it is not a magic bullet but when it is on it works.

You might find it interesting that some of my friends and myself caught a lot of good fish on the ledges this past summer on a heavy shakey head...that is a 1/2 and 3/4 ounce shakey head fished with 10 - 12 inch worms. One of my friends won two tournaments with big bags doing this. It worked very well in June and early July but the bite on it slowed up after that but then again with no current and record heat vs drought all summer, the ledges were not real productive during late summer on anything.

[QUOTE=DaveStewart;310358]Lots of good info here these guys have posted for you. Typically I use a 6.5 ft medium or medium/heavy spinning rod, 8lb gamma copolymer and a spot remover (1/8 to 5/6). I use a lot of zoom trick worms, Berkley shakey head worms, River Bottom shakey head worms and Robo Worms. Have taken fish on Sweet Beavers, 4" lizards and Baby Brush Hounds on this technique also.

We have taken fish in 2ft of water to 40 ft of water here on Ky/Barkley with it. I have had some clients win tourneys on it over the past couple of years.

All that said, it is a very good technique for post frontal, post spawn and ledge fishing. Like all techniques...it is not a magic bullet but when it is on it works.

You might find it interesting that some of my friends and myself caught a lot of good fish on the ledges this past summer on a heavy shakey head...that is a 1/2 and 3/4 ounce shakey head fished with 10 - 12 inch worms. One of my friends won two tournaments with big bags doing this. It worked very well in June and early July but the bite on it slowed up after that but then again with no current and record heat vs drought all summer, the ledges were not real productive during late summer on anything.[/QUOTE]

Excellent info. I usually fish it on a 1/4 oz., Spot remover jig head. I did catch a 21 1/2 inch brown bass in Oct., about 8 foot using a Gambler Beaver plastic on it. That particular day they were eating it. Went back five days later and struggled in same area and the fish were still there. I'll keep at it, and Dave I'm gonna try to book a trip with you this year as a treat to myself. This all hinges on the wardens O.K. though, LOL. She says I spend way to much on the fishing thing, LOL.

Hope the warden lets you make that trip this year...I know how that is...my warden still looks at me with that look when I come back from the local tackle shop and I do it for a living and get my lures at cost...lol.

Funny story that happened this past spring. Had two clients and took them to a stump field near the back of a bay here where I had been getting a few good fish on crankbaits earlier that week. Got there and there was another boat on the spot throwing crankbaits and spinnerbaits. I moved off to the other side of the bay and while my clients fished there I watched these other guys. They stayed on that spot for almost an hour and never did put a fish in the boat...they finally moved off about 100 yards to another spot so I moved over to where they had been. Now a cold front had come thru the night before and I knew the fish would be there but not active. I put these guys on shakey heads with finesse worms and they caught a big number of 2 and 4lb fish. They caught fish on virtually every cast for about 45 minutes. The guys that had been there started tearing their boat up looking for some worms...the best they could come up with was some 10 inch big worms....lol. I have been on the receiving end of that type thing before and I knew how those guys felt but I couldn't help but smile a little.

HA HA!!!!!!!!!! My warden gave me a trip, LOL:p :p

[QUOTE=DaveStewart;310377]Hope the warden lets you make that trip this year...I know how that is...my warden still looks at me with that look when I come back from the local tackle shop and I do it for a living and get my lures at cost...lol.

Funny story that happened this past spring. Had two clients and took them to a stump field near the back of a bay here where I had been getting a few good fish on crankbaits earlier that week. Got there and there was another boat on the spot throwing crankbaits and spinnerbaits. I moved off to the other side of the bay and while my clients fished there I watched these other guys. They stayed on that spot for almost an hour and never did put a fish in the boat...they finally moved off about 100 yards to another spot so I moved over to where they had been. Now a cold front had come thru the night before and I knew the fish would be there but not active. I put these guys on shakey heads with finesse worms and they caught a big number of 2 and 4lb fish. They caught fish on virtually every cast for about 45 minutes. The guys that had been there started tearing their boat up looking for some worms...the best they could come up with was some 10 inch big worms....lol. I have been on the receiving end of that type thing before and I knew how those guys felt but I couldn't help but smile a little.[/QUOTE]

Great story Dave, man that one made you look good didn't it, LOL.

Yep...I was lookin' good for sure...lol. Too bad I can't do that every day...lol