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Something I have really leaned on throughout my career, especially those times I'm on a body of water that is a little bit tougher: on days where I've got a couple of good fish and I just need to fill out my limit, I pick up a shaky head. I'll throw one of these around anywhere in the country, on any body of water. If I had one bait to throw to just put a limit in the box, it's going to be a shaky head. I've caught some really big ones on it as well. Just because you're throwing a shaky head does not mean you're fishing for a little bitty fish. So, let's go ahead and throw that myth out the window right now.
I want to share the particular shaky head that I like, but I'm not talking about which brand. I'm talking about which type. There are two types of shaky heads: ones that include a screw lock and ones that don't. Frankly, I'm not even sure why I have both of these types in my tackle box, because I only ever choose one of them over the other. Put simply, I'm not a fan of the screw lock.
On the screw lock variety of shaky head, that screw lock is sticking out of the head and it's directly in line with the hook point. If I were to Texas rig a soft stickbait on both the screw lock and non-screw lock versions, they would look pretty much the same at first glance. The difference is that, inside the stickbait, the screw lock has closed that gap where the worm is soft and unsupported. That means the fish has a smaller section of the worm to bite down on where the hook can most easily push through the worm and into the fish's mouth.
I have friends who get in my boat, and they miss fish on those screw-lock shaky heads. I tell them I know when you rig your worm up on a screw lock shaky head, it looks beautiful. It's perfectly straight. But when it comes to hooking fish, you will absolutely miss more fish with a screw lock. I have gone 100% to a non-screw lock shaky head, and it's just better. So, try a non-screw lock shaky head. You can find them right here at MidwayUSA.
For a visual demonstration and a bit more detail on this topic, be sure to check out the video above.
Good luck on the water, guys,
--Pro Angler, Brandon Lester
