Epiphany– Shot Worms vs Shaky Worms

With anticipation of an approaching open water season, I’ve been going through tackle, and getting rods rigged up for spring, As I’m sure many others have been doing too. At the beginning of the season, as well as the end, Both my spinning rods almost always have a drop shot on one and a shaky head on the other…That said, Last fall I noticed that certain worms were really producing on a drop shot, but not the shaky head, and vise versa.
So this year instead of just putting on what looks good, I decided to conduct a little experiment in a water filled sink, because I have been suspecting that whether the worm floats or sinks plays a huge role in its success on either a drop shot or shakey head. What I found was not surprising. My overall favorite shakey head worm, a reaction innovations flirt, floated high and dry. At the same time, My stand by drop shot worm, a venom due drop worm sank quickly to the bottom of the sink.
The reason I find this vital is because when you are fishing a drop shot, you are usually targeting a specific small area with finicky fish in it, and you want to keep the bait active without moving the bait far from the original target. A sinking worm allows you to repeatedly “pump” the same area until you intrigue a fish into biting. Using a floating worm for this technique not only depletes the action because of tense line, but you are forced to move the bait out of the strike zone to keep the worm wiggling.
On the other side of the spectrum, I believe a sinking worm on a shaky head distracts from the goal of the presentation. A shaky head is a more interactive presentation with a series of pulls, drags, and hops, followed by a good pause or two. On that pause it is absolutely vital for the tail of the worm to float above the head in my opinion. It gives the fish a target and piques their curiosity. also, when the jig head bumps a rock or stick, this causes the worm to pulsate temporarily before slowly rising back above the head. This little motion i believe really triggers finicky bass into biting.

so for these reasons..

Drop shot= sinker
shakey head= floater

First one= floating, reaction innovations flirt

2nd one= sinking, venom due drop worm

Any opinions out there? Also feel free to share your favorite finesse worms for the different techniques. I don’t think it is possible to have too many finesse worms in the boat!!!

Nice theory Cade! I will have to see what mine do.

FDR

I’ve never seen that Venom worm anywhere. Is the tail really twitchy?

Here’s some other good floaters- Zoom finesse worm, Powerbait finesse worms, Chompers shaky worm, Roboworm straight tails, and the 3X Strike King stuff. I have video of most of that stuff on my youtube channel.

Interesting theory…but I use and find success with the same worm, both drop and shakey. Yamamoto Kut tail

Thanks for the theory Mr. Martens

Interesting theory. My experience with drop shot is you don’t want to actively move or jig the bait. In the clear Ozark reservoirs we try to hold as still as possible. Just the wave movement and slight rocking of the boat gives the bait plenty of action. I think you are right on with your shaky head presentation. I think the whole hey to the presentation is to have the tail of the worm floating off of the bottom. Have you tried a Venom Hot Rod for your shaky head? I rig mine on a Chomper standup jighead with the hook exposed. The Hot Rod is basically and uncut tube. I haven’t found anything that will stand up any better under water. Most of my hits come while I let it rest on the bottom. It is a finesse presentation with a slightly larger profile bait and the bass seem to love it.

Jason

HEY, STAY AWAY FROM THAT ZOOM WORM. it will make you sick and cause warts and the runs, and flat tires.

don’t use it any more, just leave them all to me, so that I can be a good “citizen’ and “dispose of them” in a proper manner.

hey cade.. Do you cast your drop shot or just vertical jig it?
curious minds want to know.

I think your theory is very sound on the shakey head. Floating is a big plus.

Not sure it matters on the dropshot. Other factors, such as shape, softness of material, ease of making the worm move, likely matter more than float/sink with the drop shot.

Thanks Cade!
P.S. Quit using big words that you learned at church, they confuse me. LOL. LOL.

Cade,

Well though through and I agree. However, dense products like Gulp seem to work well on both presentations. I look at some of the Linder footage of a Gulp sinking worm on a shaky head flat on the bottom and wonder, why but they catch lots of fish.

John

thanks, I am fairly new to the drop shot so I’m definitely not disagreeing with you guys at this point. I guess it depends on how the drop shot is fished, I just like to let the worm sink back down and use the slack between the worm and the weight to keep it in the same general area..I move the weight every once in a while, but a lot less than say a shakey head or texas rigged bait.
old rat- I usually am casting the drop shot. I’ve had some success fishing it right under the boat but most areas of the river are a little shallow for that I did have success with a drop shot one day, when I spotted fish in a clear slough cruising back and forth, and they would not hit a texas rig or hardly anything else. The drop shot, with the worm kept up off the bottom got their attention. It was pretty cool.

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It was pretty cool.

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what I think is pretty cool is listening to folks discuss the why’s and how’s of techniques over the ‘what’s’…

Good questions, great observations…

well what I know about a drop shot, you can put in a thimble and have lots of room. That being said, one day I was fooling around up by the dam and cast that drop shot. I fished it on a totally slack line. and caught a 3lb smallie, which was my big fish for that year. and of course, I thought it was a fluke situation and stopped doing it immediately. which shows exactly what I know about the drop shot. but I was catching other fish on a texas rig finesse worm. Just not the size of the drop shot fish.

Its hard to put down something that you are catching fish on,al bet small fish, to catch bigger ones.

its a deal where you have to know that you have no cares and just time to really learn a new method. and when I was limited to only 3 to 7 days total fishing for a whole year, numbers were more important the methods.

last year and this year should be a lot different. since we are going to start right from the GET GO.

I am a big fan of the venom worm. It is very soft and has good action. They also have a new drop shot minnow that looks really cool. I have not tried it yet, but will be this year. I think they sell some venom at the ACE in LAX? Otherwise, check out their web site. Well worth the look. I think their plastics are some of the best out there.

Darin

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thanks, I am fairly new to the drop shot so I’m definitely not disagreeing with you guys at this point. I guess it depends on how the drop shot is fished, I just like to let the worm sink back down and use the slack between the worm and the weight to keep it in the same general area..I move the weight every once in a while, but a lot less than say a shakey head or texas rigged bait.
old rat- I usually am casting the drop shot. I’ve had some success fishing it right under the boat but most areas of the river are a little shallow for that I did have success with a drop shot one day, when I spotted fish in a clear slough cruising back and forth, and they would not hit a texas rig or hardly anything else. The drop shot, with the worm kept up off the bottom got their attention. It was pretty cool.

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Hell, I’m no drop shot expert by any means, just a dabbler in the technique. When I work the bait as you describe, I usually use a Senko as the bait. When I want to basically hold it it place and gently shake the rod tip to gie it a little wiggle, the shape and taper of the bait and tail, and the softness of the plastic IMO make a bigger difference than it’s density or sink rate. That was kinda what I was trying to say. I do like using a Senko on a drop shot working it as you describe. And since a Senko is basically a kind of worm with a fast sink, I guess you are right.

I’ve got a bunch of the Venom Drop Shot Minnows. They look really good. Plan to put them to work next week. It would be great to win a tournament on them.

Jason