Shakeyhead technique question

[Rolltide09]

 Went out to the lake yesterday morning and after exhausting all efforts I grabbed a 3/16oz. shakeyhead out of the box and put a Zoom finesse worm on and went at it. I have little experience with these type of finesse techniques but the few times I have tried it I have always had to work an area fairly slow to get bit. Not this time. As I was getting a bad sun burn and the bass were not cooperating with my usual styles so I became very impatient. I ended up fan casting areas I knew that held fish and would hop the bait off the bottom really fast almost in a constant retrieve with small pauses every now and then. Ended up with somewhere around 45 bass like this including a 7.11, 7.7 and a 5.8. I was having blast to say the least.  Is this a normal technique for shakeyhead fishing or some odd phenomenon? I was just under the impression it was supposed to be work slow and what not.  

[Raul]

28 minutes ago, Rolltide09 said:

 Went out to the lake yesterday morning and after exhausting all efforts I grabbed a 3/16oz. shakeyhead out of the box and put a Zoom finesse worm on and went at it. I have little experience with these type of finesse techniques but the few times I have tried it I have always had to work an area fairly slow to get bit. Not this time. As I was getting a bad sun burn and the bass were not cooperating with my usual styles so I became very impatient. I ended up fan casting areas I knew that held fish and would hop the bait off the bottom really fast almost in a constant retrieve with small pauses every now and then. Ended up with somewhere around 45 bass like this including a 7.11, 7.7 and a 5.8. I was having blast to say the least.  Is this a normal technique for shakeyhead fishing or some odd phenomenon? I was just under the impression it was supposed to be work slow and what not.  

There are days that I simply annihilate them with a spinnerbait reeled in steadily at high speed, other days I don´t catch even a cold with it, there are days I annihilate them yo-yoing a lipless crank, other days I don´t catch even a cold with it and so on, you get the idea.

[Nitrofreak]

There are sometimes techniques within a technique, there is also a proven baseline within each as well, a baseline is thought and also proven to be simply shaking your rod tip with a shakey head which is very effective but, you can also slowly drag it across the structural area as well and be just as effective, same for another technique, jig fishing or example,  just because a football head type jig performs very well when slowly dragged over structure and cover does not mean that it is it's only means of attracting attention, sometimes you have a pattern the fish like better, one hop, drag, two hops, pause and so on, you simply found what the fish wanted from your presentation, good job !!!

Keep this experience in the back of your mind and store it for similar outings and conditions that you used on that day, it may repeate itself.

[A-Jay]

That's quite a day, especially on a shakey head ~ Congrats

Interesting presentation too.  Did the efforts you exhausted before the shakey head deal include other moving baits ?

And I'm still looking at hard water here so how about a few pics of those beauties ?

A-Jay

[buzzed bait]

sounds like they wanted it "fast food" style....

[papajoe222]

If you remember that first and foremost, a shakey head is a JIG. It can be hopped,dragged, dead sticked, yo-yoed, swam.....you get the idea.  There are times when you accidentally figure out how the fish want it, but more often than not, you need to experiment with different retrieves.  Glad to hear you had an awesome outing, sunburn not withstanding. 

[Rolltide09]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

That's quite a day, especially on a shakey head ~ Congrats

Interesting presentation too.  Did the efforts you exhausted before the shakey head deal include other moving baits ?

And I'm still looking at hard water here so how about a few pics of those beauties ?

A-Jay

I caught all previous bass (15) with an a-rig, spinnerbait, crankbait, weightless worm and trigs. Nothing stayed consistent. I noticed most bass I was catching had lots of ripped lips and and what not. Looked around and everyone was either throwing spinnerbaits or texas rigs. Decided to switch to the shakeyhead to try something different. I adapted to the fast presentation when I noticed I was getting slammed on the fall more than anything and when I started to pop it off the bottom in sequences of three/four pause they started killing it. 

[MIbassyaker]

"Shakyhead" fishing is just one particular kind of jigworm (jighead + worm) technique. Folks have been catching fish with worms on jigheads for years, doing every possible presentation you could think of at every possible speed, hopping, dragging, swimming, whatever. Is it still "finesse" if you're moving it fast? Who knows, who cares -- the right technique is whatever they bite!