All shaky heads are the same. Right? I’ve figured the same thing for a long time. I caught more bass than I could count on Beaver Lake on a straight ball head shaky head with a worm threaded up on an collar. It worked great but I tired of the worm heads splitting after just a few fish.
Last year I got several packs of the Gamakatsu Skip Gap Shakey Head in green pumpkin and that burnt orange color. Immediately several things stood out to me but more was uncovered about the shaky heads when I took them fishing. Since our Berkley Powerbait Rib Snake review, we’ve had a lot of questions about the shaky head and figured we’d share our thoughts on it.
Several elements make the Skip Gap Shakey Head a stand out in the shaky head market, including the following things:
- no collar or spiral to tear worms
- a bit larger head size
- cross-eye line tie
- compact profile
- super sharp hook point
- great holding power
The obvious and most notable element of the shaky head is its simple yet amazingly effective “skip gap” kink in the wire. That small and seemingly simple design does a lot to make this a great shaky head. If you take about 1/8 inch pinch of worm and slide it up and over the skip gap and up to the head, it locks into place. It will stay rigged well the whole time. You can fish the same worm for a long time with this head.
The design also seems to make the hook actually stronger. The bends seem to help alleviate the flex you have with a lot of shaky heads. The straight portion of the shank is now shorter and adds very good holding power on a hooked fish. We’ve landed bass weighing more than 6 pounds on the head with 20 pound braid and 8-pound fluorocarbon leaders. Pretty impressive power.
The cross eye seems to be a point of contention with some anglers. But in our experience the shaky head fishes really well over rocks because of that cross eye hook. Some guys like a straight eye shaky head and at times I tend to agree. But we’ve caught a lot of bass in a lot of situations over the course of the last 10 months and we’ve been very pleased with its fishability, snagless profile and hooking power.
The paint jobs displayed durability and a unique matte finish that gives them a more natural look in our opinion. The brown color and green pumpkin colors are unique and look good rigged up next to a variety of soft plastics. The heads are a little larger but that’s because there is no lead on the shank of the hook like most other shaky heads.
We’ve fished everything from craws to long straight-tail worms on them and like the design, finish and overall way they fish. The Gamakatsu Skip Gap Shakey Heads come 4 to a pack. They are premium hooks with premium design and paint jobs. Give them a try and let us know if you share our same thoughts or have other evaluations of them. You can find them at Tacklewarehouse.com and other major retailers that carry Gamakatsu products.
