spinning rod question

[Doop]

Hey guys,

I am thinking about getting a spinning rod specifically for shakey head worm fishing. What would you guys suggest? Rod, reel, line. Thanks guys!

[Matt Johnson]

I like the Shimano Crucial myself. Depending on length preference, I would go with a 6'6" or possibly even a 6'10". A medium action would work, but I like a little more power so I would go with the medium-heavy. If you're fishing mainly open water (no weeds), then you can get by with a lighter rod, but toy around in the weeds and you're going to want a tougher stick.

And as far as a reel goes, I would rig it up with a Shimano Stradic, probably a 2500 just for ease of casting. The Stradic MG would be another excellent choice, also in the 2500.

And for line, 35 pound black/white Tough Line is good. Very limp and small diameter. Or else I would go with a 10-12 pound Gamma copolymer...

[Central Bassman]

I love to fish with a shaky head... The rod I like is a St Croix Legend Tournament.. It a 6’8” Medium Power Fast Action Rod. It has a really soft tip for great feel and has a good back bone for driving the hook home.

I pair that rod with a Quantum Energy Pti 20… This reel is so smooth and has worked great for me over the years. I went with the little bigger reel to have more weight on the hand and have more line composite. The Energy Pti 10 would also work great.

This year I have started using Gamma 6 and 8 pound Copolymer, I like to use as light of line as I can

[Cabela10]

Reel - Energy PTi20

Rod - Medium power, fast action 6'6"-6'8" Falcon Cara

Line - 6lb Sufix Elite

[Deitz Dittrich]

Get out to the stores and see what feels right for you.. I have 2 combos I use for shakey worm/dropshot(I use the exact same rod for both applications...)

7'2" Shimano Crucial Med Extra Fast Shimano StradicMG 6 lb Gamma Edge(florocarbon)

6'8" Shimano Crucial Med Extra Fast Shimano Stradic 8lb Gamma Copoly

I would say most often I use the 7'2" for droppin, and the 6'8" for shaking!

[DinkADunk]

Well I'm just finishing up building a Shaky Head rod bases on a G. Loomis SB811 blank. It took a little longer to get the grip right than I thought. I'm wrapping the titanium guides on tonight which will keep it very, very light and responsive.

[Central Bassman]

Looks like a nice rod DinkADunk

[RK]

Hiya -

For the life of me I can't find a distinction between 'shakey head' fishing and the jigworming that's been going on around the Midwest for 25 years other than some fairly cosmetic differences in jighead shape, so here's what I use for that

For most of my jigworming, I use a 6'6" Medium-heavy, fast action rod (happens to be a custom Diamondback) with 8# mono (I like Trilene Sensation, but copolymers work too) and a 2500 series size reel. It's either a Shimano (I forget which flavor exactly) or a Pfluger President depending on which rod I grab...

When the bite really goes down the tubes and I have to use 4" finesse worms to get bit, I use a 7' Medium-Light fast action rod (also a custom Diamondback) with 6# Triple Fish fluoro. The fluoro here has less to do with visibility than the fact that it sinks. Bad fishing often = wind and a cold front, and with a 1/16 oz jig, sinking line cuts down the bow in the line from the wind and makes it a lot easier to keep in contact with the jig.

Day in and day out though the 6'6" gets the most use.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Deitz Dittrich]

RK- Your totally right... I do fish a jig worm and a shakey worm slightly different though. I fish a jig worm the same way I would a texas rig, hopping it along the bottom. I do my darndest to keep a shakey worm on the bottom and crawl it trying to keep the standup jig in contact with the bottom. The rod however, I use is the exact same.