Fishing a Shaky Head Worm Tips

You know, fishing a shaky head worm is a deadly way of catching a lot of fish, pretty much year round. And I want to give you a couple tips on how I like to shaky head fish.

You know, one of the misconceptions with the word shaky head is that you need to shake it the whole time. And yes, I do shake it a little bit and pop it along and hop it along. But really, to be honest with you, I don't shake it as much as you think. I really want to drag that bait like I'm doing right now. It's on the bottom, I'm dragging it to me. I’ll stop it, shake it a little bit. But then drag it again. I'm not shaking it the entire time. At least I don't.

I like to just move it along. And the reason I like to pull it along like that is that I start to feel what's down there. I start to feel a little bit more rocks or maybe if there's a little bit of grass down there, I feel a little mushy feeling.

So, I’ll move it along, drag it, drag it, drag it, kind of stop it, shake it a little bit. But I'm doing probably more dragging than I am shaking.

What is a shaky head? A shaky head is basically a jig head with a straight tail worm on it. That's basically what we have right there. That's a standard shaky head.

When I fish a shaky head, most of the time, the size weight that I like is up to a quarter ounce is about as heavy as I'll ever fish. And three-sixteenths, three-sixteenths and a quarter is what I fish mostly. Now, if I'm fishing around docks, and I'm actually trying to skip this bait up underneath the docks a lot of times, I'll fish like an eighth ounce. An eight ounce skips a lot better than the three-sixteenths and a quarter. But if I'm just standard casting like we are here going down the shoreline, a quarter ounce or a three-sixteenths is really, really good.

The other thing I like to do is I like to rig it up. For me, I like braid, I like the P-line X-braid. This is 10 pound P-line X-braid, very sensitive, low stretch. It's just a fantastic line. And I'll match it up with a fluorocarbon leader. This is 100% fluorocarbon P-line, 10 pound test. I'll tie a double uni-knot, maybe about a 5, 6 foot piece of leader and rig that up on my favorite little straight tailed worm. That's a little bruiser straight tailed worm, a little watermelon seed color.

When I'm shaky head fishing, most of the time, I'm fishing in clear water. I like natural colors, your green pumpkins, you watermelons, things like that. I don't fish black and blues too much, unless I'm down in Lake Okeechobee or maybe a little bit stained water. But that's basically my shaky head setup.

The other thing is, you don't have to throw it on a spinning rod. I throw a shaky head a lot of times, believe it or not, because I feel good with a baitcaster, I like it on a baitcaster. The trick is, when I'm fishing on a bait caster, I'll fish it with straight fluorocarbon, 10 pound test. That's a little quarter ounce head. Smaller little finesse form, that's about a 4 1/2 inch. The other one was about a 6 inch. So 4 1/2 to 6 inch straight tailed worm.

And again, the trick is, shaky head, don't shake it the entire time. Make those casts out there and just drag it a little bit and shake it, drag it a little bit and shake it.

I like to target anywhere from the shoreline out to maybe 10 or 15 foot of water. You get too deep it's hard to fish it that deep.

The other little tip I like to do. Now this is a really good one here. This will help you catch a lot more fish. On my shaky head hooks, okay, I like to take that hook and I like to open it up just a hair. I'll bend it just a little bit. Look at that, I just bent it just a little bit. Now what that does, when I put that hook back in there, allows that hook point to be more coming out. If it's flat and if it's closed in a little bit, it's not coming out of the worm as much. Opening it up just a little bit gets that point at the right angle coming out of that worm so you don't have to set the hook as hard. You're gonna catch more fish that way.

So again, next time you're out, shaky head seems like the thing you need to be doing, fish it, you'll catch a lot of fish. Again, drag it, shake it a little bit, try it on a spinning rod, and don't be afraid to try it on a baitcaster. We'll see you guys.