When would you choose Shakey head over TR?

[Bird]

Was going through all my tackle and realized that I rarely throw a shakey head. 

My craw imitations, mainly speed craws and brush hogs I almost entirely throw TR.

Under what circumstances would you throw a shakey head over TR?

And or do you even prefer shakey head over TR?

Just curious 

[EWREX]

i'd fish a shaky head in open water on more hard bottom over a texas rig

[Finessegenics]

Interesting question, I've asked others similar things but there's never a real response. When there are no constraints like snags or things like that and both rigs could be fished effectively, it's just a feeling to throw one over the other. I guess we all have our preferences and reach towards a certain technique more than the other.

 

That being said, I'll use the TR around wood/grass and the shakyhead around rock. I don't throw a TR much since I'm usually fishing a rocky river but I do branch out at times. Bullet weights around rock have not done well for me, they tend to wedge themselves in crevices between rocks. So if I'd want to present a craw/creature in rocks I'd go with a shakyhead or a football head over the TR. 

[Deleted account]

This is an over simplification of course, but I prefer a t-rig when my bait lives on the bottom and occasionally lifts off it. I prefer a shakey head when my bait lives in the water and occasionally settles to the bottom

[PhishLI]

I'll throw a T-rig anywhere. Bottom composition determines when I'll throw a shakey. Sometimes there's just no way on a slop bottom using a horizontal presentation.

[fishwizzard]

A t-rig is for dragging or swimming, a shakeyhead/neko is for hopping and shaking. 

[Log Catcher]

I go to a shaky head when I want to downsize my baits. I will use it for small finesse type worms. I don't throw any of the bigger baits on a shaky head that would normally be used on a Texas rig.

[Jig Man]

When would I choose Shaky over Texas Rig, almost all of the time.  I get way more bites and catch more on Shaky than TR.  However I don’t fish the same kind of baits on shaky that I do on TR.  For example, I would never fish a craw on a shaky jig.

[DitchPanda]

I prefer a shaky head in rock and also in colder water. I prefer a T rig in wood or grass.

[Scott804]

For me a shakeyhead usually stays on a spinning rod and a texas rig stays on a casting rod. Sometimes they will switch over to the other type of rod depending on what I am trying to do. I fish them both very differently though, if I am trying to power fish I am going to use a texas rig to pitch it and cast it to hop it around or work it through the cover I am fishing. If I am using a shakeyhead I am probably finesse fishing and either going to slowly drag it along the bottom or over rocks or I am casting it into a laydown and shaking it lightly on barely slack line. My shakeyhead plastics are also very different than my T-rig plastics. I fish a lot of creature/craw stuff and occasionally a worm on a texas rig whereas shakeyhead is almost exclusively floating worms, with an occasional craw thrown in. 

[scaleface]

^ this

[Bluebasser86]

Shakyhead in rock and when I'm in fairly open water.

[Luke Barnes]

Ive been pondering things like this lately.

 

Let's take the actual lure out of the equation and say for both rigs its a craw. I can fish them the exact same way so what advantage does a shakey head with a craw rigged weedless have over a craw on an EWG with a bullet weight? I don't really know. One the hook and weight are all in one. The other the hook and weight are separate. Do they look different under water? Do they react different when given a small hop? Do they perform different when you just drag it? Again I don't really know. So I tend to stick with the T rig because of confidence and all my spinning rods are used for other things and I don't feel the need to tie on a shakey head when I can fish the exact same plastic on a T Rig. 

[Bird]

1 hour ago, Luke Barnes said:

Ive been pondering things like this lately.

 

Let's take the actual lure out of the equation and say for both rigs its a craw. I can fish them the exact same way so what advantage does a shakey head with a craw rigged weedless have over a craw on an EWG with a bullet weight? I don't really know. One the hook and weight are all in one. The other the hook and weight are separate. Do they look different under water? Do they react different when given a small hop? Do they perform different when you just drag it? Again I don't really know. So I tend to stick with the T rig because of confidence and all my spinning rods are used for other things and I don't feel the need to tie on a shakey head when I can fish the exact same plastic on a T Rig. 

Well, I think the same way, it's why I asked the question to begin with. 

T-rig has always been a go to with just about every plastic under the sun until you start venturing into more finesse stuff like Neds and drop shot.

 

Perhaps I'll give shakey head more time this year.

Already devote quite a bit of time to weightless, wacky and Neko so why not. Lol

[Jig Man]

41 minutes ago, Bird said:

Well, I think the same way, it's why I asked the question to begin with. 

T-rig has always been a go to with just about every plastic under the sun until you start venturing into more finesse stuff like Neds and drop shot.

 

Perhaps I'll give shakey head more time this year.

Already devote quite a bit of time to weightless, wacky and Neko so why not. Lol

If you try it, I highly recommend that you get some Zeros.

[Fishin Dad]

I use my shaky heads as more of a finesse technique on a spinning rod fishing it very slowly.  I like that a shaky head will stand up a little better than a t-rig.  That is a difference I see.  I most often fish them with a floating finesse worm.  I do have some heavier shaky heads jigs with EWG hooks that I throw on casting gear.  I mostly use a texas rig with heavier hook, line, rod, and cover.  

[Scott804]

I think the advantage the shakeyhead holds over other baits/rigs is that you can stay in one place and impart action onto the bait without it moving. You can shake a texas rig like you do a shakeyhead, but it isn't going to look nearly the same. Being able to toss a shakeyhead into a laydown where you think a fish might be and let it sit there and wiggle the tail of the worm in his face without the base of the worm moving very much is a great tool to have. Not to mention it is relatively versatile when fishing rocks, open water, and other situations so you don't have to retie if you are going down the bank and there isn't anymore wood/rocks. Pressured bass are probably used to seeing lures enter and leave the brushpile/laydown over and over but if something comes in and just sits there standing up shaking for 4-8x longer than a texas rig being worked through the cover then it might entice a bite where a t-rig won't. Just food for thought. 

[Sam]

1.  Confidence. Which set up gives you them most confidence that you will find and catch the fish?

2.  Snags. Which setup has the best results when it comes to snagging on the bottom or in the grass, wood, rock, etc., on your body of water?

3.  Fish's activity.  For some unknown reason, the bass will hit a shaky head after you have tried a Texas Rig in the same vicinity. Don't know why, but it happens.

 

Overall, I give #1 my vote. It boils down to confidence.

[BrianMDTX]

What style/weight shakeyhead is recommended for ponds no deeper than 8’, with leaves and other detritus on the bottom? And what baits? 
 

I’ve tried them with Zoom Tricks on a 3/16 oz. shakeyhead with no luck, other than getting piles of junk on it. 

[Mike L]

I wouldn’t 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[AManWearingAHat]

Okay not to be a contrarian, but someone honestly tell me the functional difference between these three (besides the color , nice try smart guys).

All weedless, all approximately the same size hook all in the same weight range. Ones a "Ned Rig", one's a "Shaky Head", and one's a "Texas Rig". Unpegging the T-rig can give a more fluttery fall on the plastic, Ill submit that one. But pegged, the three fish pretty similarly in my eyes.

[Bird]

2 hours ago, AManWearingAHat said:

Okay not to be a contrarian, but someone honestly tell me the functional difference between these three (besides the color , nice try smart guys).

All weedless, all approximately the same size hook all in the same weight range. Ones a "Ned Rig", one's a "Shaky Head", and one's a "Texas Rig". Unpegging the T-rig can give a more fluttery fall on the plastic, Ill submit that one. But pegged, the three fish pretty similarly in my eyes.

The difference? You'll need a different rod to accommodate each presentation. Lol

[Fishin Dad]

4 hours ago, AManWearingAHat said:

Okay not to be a contrarian, but someone honestly tell me the functional difference between these three (besides the color , nice try smart guys).

All weedless, all approximately the same size hook all in the same weight range. Ones a "Ned Rig", one's a "Shaky Head", and one's a "Texas Rig". Unpegging the T-rig can give a more fluttery fall on the plastic, Ill submit that one. But pegged, the three fish pretty similarly in my eyes.

For me, a Ned head is light wire and meant to be swam in the water column maybe touching bottom but not sitting there with the line tie at 90*.   The shaky head is a medium wire hook with a head design that sits the bait upright and on the bottom and a 30 or 60 * line tie.  This bait is to stay on the bottom.   A Texas rig is a heavier wire hook with a larger variety of weight sizes and typically a casting rod.   This is meant to be more hopped off the bottom.   I use them differently and in different cover with different movements.  

[Munkin]

Trig is for fishing cover and a shakeyhead is for fishing open water. This is as simple as I can make it without going into 500 different scenarios. 

 

Allen

[CrashVector]

Less vegetation/grass/snags = shakey head.

 

More grass/limbs/etc = Texas rig 

 

I tend to throw shakey head in ponds more often.  In bayous/canals/etc where I'm looking for structure, I'd choose the Texas rig for its ability to come through that more easily.

On 2/10/2022 at 6:45 PM, Jig Man said:

When would I choose Shaky over Texas Rig, almost all of the time.  I get way more bites and catch more on Shaky than TR.  However I don’t fish the same kind of baits on shaky that I do on TR.  For example, I would never fish a craw on a shaky jig.

 

A sweet beaver on a shakey head is money.