Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

It all started with the plastic worm and has now mutated into a huge array of specialized offerings. Whose is the best and which one is your favorite? Come share your thoughts and opinions here.
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BlaineFred
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Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by BlaineFred » Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:19 pm

Some worms float and some don't.

Seems to that floaters would be preferred.

I would appreciate your views and opinions.

Thanks.

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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by smalljaw » Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:18 am

I make my own shaky heads and really like floating style worms but I'm not sure they are always better. I found an awesome worm to use on a shaky head when it the bite is tough, the Trigger X 5" spadetail worm, it dooesn't float but it catches fish when it is slow going but if the fish are in a more aggressive mood the floating style worms outproduce the non floaters. I did a compaison with 3 of us fishing an area using different worms, we use a powerbait shakey worm, a Big Bite Squirrel tail worm, a Basstrix Locomotion worm, and the trigger X Spade tail worm. Over the course of 11 hours we had results that you could measure, the Trigger X caught the least amount of fish but they were biting pretty good, the powerbait and Squirrel tail worm were withing 4 fish of each other and the Locomotion worm was the clear winner and it was also the one that floated higher as the powerbait and Big Bite worms only have the tail portions of the worm float. Now after more outing I found that the Locomotion worm doesn't work in off colored water very well, it seems to perform best when the water has more than 2' of visibility. Another thing was like I said, it the fishing is slow the Trigger X seem to work better than all others. So I think it is safe to assume that you need a few different kinds and have both floaters and non floaters in your arsenal.
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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by Casca » Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:43 am

1. roboworm fat straight tail 6"
2. zoom trick worm 6"
3. zipper shakin' worm 6"
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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by BlaineFred » Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:59 am

smalljaw...thanks for the extensive and very detailed report...

Were all of the worms the same color?

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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by smalljaw » Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:43 am

BlaineFred wrote:smalljaw...thanks for the extensive and very detailed report...

Were all of the worms the same color?
They weren't exact but they were close, we basically used black but some worms didn't have a plain black color so we used the variations like black with red flake on one and I believe the Squirrel tail had a grey tail but all pretty close and also totally different colors too just to verify if there were any colors that were getting bites more than others. My little testing session proved that you do need more than one type of worm and it also helped me now make a clear choice in what worm I choose in different situations.
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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by facelessnewsouth » Mon Mar 05, 2012 10:29 am

X2 on the roboworm straight tail 6", fat or regular. Great colors, great tail up presentation, and my go to presentation when the bite is slow. Been killing them on Aarons Magic R&B in clear water with lots of grass/weeds at the bottom.

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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by Snyder Rods » Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:02 am

I'm in the camp that believes floating worms are better.
Last edited by Snyder Rods on Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by BlaineFred » Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:47 am

Snyder Rods wrote:I'm in the camp that believes floating worms are better when the weight is placed at the head of the worm, particularly for shaky head.
I'm not clear on what you're saying. The head is the larger part of the worm, and that is where the shaky head "screw" goes into.

Do you rig yours the opposite way? That is screw into the thin part of the worm so there will be more buoyoncy?

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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by facelessnewsouth » Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:25 pm

I believe hes saying "the weight placed at the head of the worm" as opposed to further up the line. Not as opposed to the tail of the worm.

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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by Snyder Rods » Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:24 pm

I meant any rig where the weight is at the head of the worm, including Texas rigs.

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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by smalljaw » Mon Mar 05, 2012 4:36 pm

The floating worms rigged on the shaky head worked better than the normal worms that just fall to the bottom but there was one exception like I said, that was the Trigger X spade tail worm, it out performed the floating worms when the bite was off. Cold front came through and left high blue skies and it was tough, we caught 7 fish that day, the Trigger X caught 6 the other one took a Powerbait shaky worm but that was the only time and so I always keep them for those days when it is tough.
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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by Heronimo » Tue Mar 06, 2012 4:32 am

If you want a true floating tail worm, try the squirrel tail by big bite. I throw those or T-Mac's when shakey fishing. T-Mac is a little more on the buoyant side rather than a true floating worm.

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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by John Puckett » Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:05 pm

95% of my shakeyhead worm fishing is done with a NetBait T-Mac. I use 3 or 4 colors depending on water clarity. BamaBug, Paca Melon, Texas Red, and Key Lime Pie are by far my most used colors. I'm not sure about the floating vs not but I would tend to think the floaters would be better.

On a side note the other worms I've used on a shakeyhead are the Zoom shakeyhead worm, V&M Pork Pin I think is what it's called, and the Berkley hand poured finesse worms. I'm not even sure if Berkley still makes those, I haven't fished them in a couple years now. I just have so much confidence in the T-Mac worms if I don't have one on my shakeyhead jig then I'm constantly thinking I should switch to one :oops: :mrgreen: .

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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by mike304 » Thu Mar 08, 2012 2:05 pm

Never hear anything about these(small company) but I've been using them for a few years now and they work great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LkdA4u6tNg
http://www.e2baits.com/Needle%20Worm.htm
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Re: Preferred Shaky Head Worm? Is Floating Necessary?

Post by crankmaniac » Fri Mar 09, 2012 7:10 pm

By far my favorite finess worm is the strike king 3x elaztech in both size(4" and 7") and it is a floating worm :-# .I use those worm for shakey head,drop shot,flick shake,t-rigs.The elazteh material is so durable, i could catch over 20 smallie on one worm on shakey head and this dam worm continiue to ROCK! :shock: =D>

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