Bassdozer's Custom Shakey Swimming Jigs

by Russ Bassdozer

This shows and tells product photos, product descriptions and information for the lure models and colors that are (or have been) available at BassdozerStore.com. Not all models and colors shown are currently available, and exact specifications are subject to change.

Note: Some of the following configurations may not all be currently in stock. Some may be sold out at this time. Please check online at www.BassdozerStore.com for current availability of specific items below. Thank you for your business.

Bassdozer's Shakey Swimming Jigs ~ Boon Companions to My Wisconsin Swimming Jigs

1/8 oz (5/0) Shakey Swimming Jigs ~ Green Pumpkin ~ Qty: 5 per pack

3/16 oz (5/0) Shakey Swimming Jigs ~ Green Pumpkin ~ Qty: 5 per pack

1/8 oz (5/0) Shakey Swimming Jigs ~ Black ~ Qty: 5 per pack

I first designed and developed my Wisconsin Swimming Jig, which is typically used with a skirt and a grub trailer. It also works great without a skirt, just with a hula grub or single tail grub body.

My Wisconsin Swimming Jig is typically bulky, with a weedguard, skirt and trailer.

So there I had a Wisconsin swimming jig (with skirt and grub) which is a semi-bulky presentation. I also wanted the same kind of swimming jig concept expressed in a finesse worm application. What I perceived a need for, and designed next was my shakey swimming jig in order to use it with a shakey worm - as the boon companion to my Wisconsin swimming jig.

Both the Wisconsin Swimming Jig and Shakey Swimming Jig incorporate the same model and size (5/0) Mustad UltraPoint hook. The diff is, the shakey swimming jig is designed for swimming long, slim soft baits to entice fish that pass up or don't want the bulkier Wisconsin swimming jig.

So you may go down a bank swimming the Wisconsin jig, and whenever you miss a fish, or whenever you want to slow down and deadstick a worm, you basically have a companion presentation in the shakey swimming jig.

Another way to think of it is to use the Wisconsin Swimming Jig in cover - and to use the shakey swimming jig in open areas where there's little of no cover.

So there you have a good example of the difference between a shakey jig (my shakey swimming jig) versus a jig jig (my Wisconsin swimming jig).

Many customers have had fantastic results with my Wisconsin swimming jig, but since I am the only vendor I know who has a shakey swimming jig companion to be used in partnership with a skirted swimming jig, I think maybe many persons are unfamiliar with this "one-two" approach. No one really uses a Wisconsin swimming jig and a companion shakey swimming jig in concert as two parts of a combined presentation.  Read on, however, and you may discover it makes a lot of sense!

As you go down a stretch of fish-holding water, use the skirted Wisconsin swimming jig in shallow, thick cover. Anytime you miss a strike on the Wisconsin swimming jig, toss back in on the fish with the shakey swimming jig.

Also, any time you get away from shallow, thick cover and move into relatively open flats or deeper structure, where fish may be more wary or in open water, that's the domain of the shakey swimming jig.

Use my skirted Wisconsin swimming jigs with trailer baits in thick, shallow cover. Follow up every missed strike on the Wisconsin swimming jig by throwing back with the shakey swimming jig, and use the shakey swimming jigs on open flats, in mid-water and on deeper structure. It's that simple to catch many more fish by using both jig styles together rather than using either one alone.

So you may probe shallow, thick cover with the Wisconsin swimming jig and can prospect more open flats, mid-water and deeper structure with the shakey swimming jig - and you'll catch more fish with this double-barreled approach than with either one alone.

My Wisconsin swimming jig and shakey swimming jig share the same 5/0 Mustad hook.

The shakey swimming jig comes in 1/8 and 3/16 oz sizes, both 5/0.

My 1/8 and 3/16 Shakey Swimming Jig and my 1/4 and 3/8 Wisconsin Swimming Jig all share the same 5/0 Mustad Ultra Point long shank hook. This is a medium/heavy strength hook.

The hook has an extremely low angle eye positioned to shed weeds and debris as the jig swims through cover.

Recommended Gear: This strong wire hook matches well with 10 to 16 lb test mono, fluoro or braided line. Many big bass, including several over ten pounds have been caught by customers on these jigs, so they can land big fish when fought properly on medium to medium/heavy baitcasting or spinning gear - but note this is not a heavy flipping hook for heavy tackle or heavy braided line.

Whenever you tie on one of my Wisconsin swimming jigs, don't neglect to also tie one of my shakey swimming jigs onto a second rod. You will catch many more fish by using both in a one-two approach versus using either one alone.

You may use either medium to medium/heavy spinning or baitcasting with the Wisconsin swimming jig, and the same gear will work as well with the shakey swimming jig too. A good medium to medium/heavy spinning rod goes best with the shakey swimming jig - but, based on the identical hook, they really are comparable in terms of the rod, reel, line for either.

I am sure that if you already like my skirted Wisconsin swimming jigs, then you'll love using my shakey swimming jigs together with them. Best of all, you'll catch many more fish by using the two jigs at once (on different rods) rather than using the Wisconsin swimming jig solo. Even if you have only one rod however, you will still catch more fish by first going through an area with the Wisconsin swimming jig, and consider that as the "power" half of your presentation. Then, tie on the shakey swimming jig, circle back and refish the same area more slowly with a more finesse approach. Revisit anywhere you had seen a fish, caught a fish or missed a strike. In this way, you will catch more fish on the second pass with the shakey swimming jig - and basically they are the same lure concept, same hook, same rod, reel, line for both, except a more subtle finesse presentation (shakey) versus a bulkier power presentation (Wisconsin).

Rigging Methods

5/0 with Yamamoto 5" Pro Senko (9P series) and 5-3/4" Kut Tail (7C series)

5/0 with Yamamoto 4" Senko (9S series) and 4" Swim Senko.

Adjust the way you rig a bait, to make the hook more or less weedless and snagless depending on the thickness of the cover.

• Exposed. For open water or light cover
• Tex-exposed. For moderate cover.
• Texas rigged. For heavy cover.

Don't screw the bait down too tightly too close to the jig head. There are more than enough turns on the screw wire so that just a few turns will attach a soft bait more securely than most any other means of attachment including glue. So don't screw the bait on too tightly. In fact, try to "suspend" the bait relatively set back from the jig head on the wire coil.

Shakey Swimming Jigs ~ A Different Concept

Shakey jigs were virtually unheard of across much of the USA until top pro anglers started to use them approximately five seasons ago. Since then, due to top pros demonstrated success with shakey jigs, it is an incredibly popular tactic across the USA today.

Shakey jigs are associated with long, slender finesse worms and with 6, 8 or 10 pound test finesse spinning gear (or 10-15 lb braid).

It's hard to find a top pro today who isn't using such spinning gear as one of his winning methods today. Consider however, that such spinning gear was relatively unused by top pros until a few seasons ago. You rarely if ever saw light spinning rods used by pros - but they use them now, mainly due to shakey jig success.

Starting Out at the Bottom

Shakey jigs are not originally geared toward shallow water or the bank. One original way to use a shakey jig is to let it hit bottom in moderately deep water, say in the 10 to 30 foot range. Many anglers believe the shakey jig design will stand a finesse worm upright on its nose (which actually isn't the case much of the time). As the name implies, many anglers then shake the line to make the worm quiver and shake on the bottom. Keep in mind however, it's often the initial fall and touchdown - or it is a lackluster pause in the shaking process, when most bites occur.

On left and right: Two shakey jigs for bottom contact. In center: Two shakey swimming jigs.

The Shakey Swimming Jig's Special Purpose

Like most other shakey jigs, the shakey swimming jig works ideally with long, slender finesse worms and with 6, 8 or 10 pound test finesse spinning gear. Yes, you can fish bottom with it - but you can swim it at any water level too.

Swimming soft baits is what the shakey swimming jig is all about.

The shakey swimming jig is optimized for swimming soft baits like Gary Yamamoto's Swimming Senko, long worms with straight or action tails, or any other brand or model of soft plastic able to be used with a swimming technique. It will work swell with straight-tail worms, small craw worms or any other soft baits that can be rigged on it. It is not designed to bounce bottom, although it can do that perfectly. It's true purpose is to swim soft baits anywhere from just below the surface to just above the bottom, and all mid-level depths in between:

• Sub-Surface. Use near the surface, and just keep it coming at you in open water. It can be swam through weeds emerging close to the surface - or swam through the tops of deeper weed beds growing closer to the bottom.
   
• Mid-Strolling. Means to swim through suspended bass at any mid depth in the water column (called "mid-strolling" in Japan). This is a term coined and tactic practiced in Japan whereby an angler will cast out and will softly shake the rod tip ever-so-gently little by little and have the lure swim back to the angler anywhere from 3 to 15 feet deep in the middle range of the water column - slowly. The retrieve speed can be from zero (just letting the lure pendulum fall back toward you with no reeling) to whatever reeling pace is needed to maintain your target depth level. That is, you should reel slower to maintain a 15 foot depth level, often requiring momentary pauses in the retrieve. Brief pauses in the reeling not only help the jig counter its ever-present tendency to ride up higher in the water, but the brief pauses are also high percentage strike moments. During the pause, the jig will reverse its tendency to rise and it will instead turn to settle lower. When reeling is resumed, the jig will again want to ride up again. The overall up-down-up effect of a brief pause is a natural strike trigger.
   
  So you will need to reel slower (often requiring pauses) with rod tip low to maintain a deeper strolling level. You will need to reel a little quicker (with the rod tip up) to maintain a higher (say a five foot) strolling level through the water column.
   
  What anglers in Japan do during the retrieve, they shake it maybe 75% of the time. The other 25% will be equally-spaced, short intervals of no rod action during which the jig falls or glides slowly. Think of three slow turns of the reel (75%) while lightly shaking, then one slower, steady turn (25%) with noshaking.
   
  The mid-strolling technique excels under tough conditions, or whenever bass are suspended at mid-levels in the water column.
   
• Swimming Deep and Slow. There are many times when bottom-hugging bass will not rise much above the bottom, and then, the painstakingly slow method of swimming shakey jigs slowly barely above bottom often gets them when mid-strolling or sub-surface presentations fail. Swimming soft baits deep and slow close to the bottom can be done with the same tactics as mid-strolling, except touching bottom occasionally to make sure you are still near bottom, still in the strike zone.

One common theory with jigs is to incorporate the jig head as a part of the bait presentation. An example is a jig head shaped like a fish face with eyes, realistically etch gills, etched fins, etc. With the swimming shakey jig here, it is not part of the bait presentation. Don't try to incorporate it as the head of the worm or bait. It is only a shot of ballast strategically suspended on the hook wire in order to aid casting distance, accuracy and most importantly, to govern proper swimming balance of a soft swimming bait. With some colors, such as the red-painted jigs, they also add a small spot of color flash, but it would be wrong to think of the jig head as imitating a worm's or bait's head. It's just a strategic blob of balance weight put there to help make soft swimming baits swim at their very best. You'll see this in action when you start swimming a few baits with this jig.

This jig is so nicely balanced that even an ordinary Senko (can one call the Senko ordinary?) on the shakey swimming jig will swagger and sway, squirm and squiggle like a live earthworm that's fallen into the water. Just keep a semi-tight line fall, and the Senko will vibrate both its tips, undulate its body in an oscillating S movement as it falls on a semi-tight line. A Senko makes somewhat the same famous shimmy and shake on the swimming shakey jig as when a Senko is fished weightless. It take's a little study and practice to perfect this shimmying fall with the swimming shakey jig, but it is worthwhile to master it.

With the jig of course, it's a faster fall and gets deeper than a weightless Senko, yet has the very same tip movement and body vibration. The jig head lets you fish a Senko faster and deeper than possible weightless, without any loss of squirm or squiggle as it falls on a semi-tight line. Once it reaches bottom, wait a spell and then start a series of slow lifts followed by pauses. The lifts will raise the Senko above bottom, attracting attention. On the pauses (with a semi-tight line) the Senko will wriggle and squirm like alive as it glides forward and toward the bottom again. Repeat the lifts and pauses is all you need to do. It's too simple and devastating in its effectiveness. There's no better way I know to fish a weighted Texas-rigged Senko.