If I was to build a rod for a Shaky Head technique, could it double as a light football head jig rod too? My gut is telling me yes.......or would I have to build a second rod? :-)

Shaky Head = 8-10 lb line / 1/8oz - 3/8oz shaky head weight

Football Head = 10-14 lb line / 1/4oz - 1/2oz football weight

Thoughts?

Tony Wilson
Cincinnati Ohio

For myself, when throwing a shaky head rig, I am mostly using spinning tackle. If I am throwing a football jig that size, I will be using casting tackle. But I am sure you could easily come up with a rod that would work for both.

I doubt I would actually use anything bigger than 1/4oz for the football head.

Would a SJ843 - MHX work for the football head and a SB812 - Blend work for the shaky head? They are both MHX blanks.

I am open to suggestions too. These will be my first rod building attempt. :)

Tony Wilson
Cincinnati Ohio

Tony;
To be honest if you are only going to use ft. ball jigs up to ¼ oz there is not enough difference between the ft. ball and shaky head designs at those weights to even mater which head you use. Let alone worrying about using different rods.

Ft ball heads don’t really become effective over a shaky heads until you start getting into the ½ to 1 oz ranges.
And while you could definitely use one rod for both techniques at the heavier weights, the rod needed to handle the heavier lures would loose its effectiveness of use with the lighter shaky head stuff.

I see what you are saying, Steve. Very good point. However, what I wanted to hear was I needed two rods. Now, I need to find another rod to build. :-)

Maybe a 7ft casting rod for those larger football heads and carolina rig applications. LOL

Tony, I think you need two rods. If you want to stay with MHX I'd say go with the SJ842 for the shaky head blank. It's a very fast blank with good backbone.

Just getting started in building your own rods? Just wait until you realize that you really really really need twenty two rods, and spares :)

If you are going to really fish heavy football head jigs and Carolina rigs deep the way they work best you need something long and strong like a 7’6” flipping stick. In the MHX lineup the FS904 works great, but I like the CastAway BB1 even better since it is a fair bit lighter. If you want to stick with a 7 foot rod look at the MB844.

why would you make an excuse not to build another rod?

Tony looking at the two techniques:
Shaky heads are generally light line technique, mostly fished throwing them out and letting settle to the bottom (if they get that far). Then slightly shaking the rod’s tip so it wiggles back and forth, with out really moving the lure from it location. What you are looking to do is cause the bait to kind of quiver in place like a wounded bait fish, small subtle actions.

Foot Ball jigs is mostly a heavier line heavier rod lager weight technique, used in deeper water around rocks and substructures and more crawled/dragged along the bottom the ft. ball design in larger weights will better allow the bait to come through rocky areas with less hang ups and flip the back end of the jig upwards as you pull the bait against a piece of cover like a craw fish raising his pinchers in a defensive passion.
For this a heavier rod is used to facilitate the heavier bait and for pulling the bait over, around and through stuff. The lighter rod used for shaky fishing is not that good a choice for this lacking a little in backbone.
Based on those uses of the two techniques described I use two different rods.

Personally for shaky head I use the CTS 161026 blank. The best blank I have found for this!

For a foot ball jig I’d use the RX8+C843 7'0" Medium Hvy Fast 10-17 1/4-3/4oz 2.46oz. Which also doubles as a good Carolina rig setup.

The conventional shaky head is built in a spinning configuration. Line coming off spinning reels provide a free lure vertical drop. Newer versions of light weight casting reels will work quite well for free fall of most lures. Using new build techniques and micro guides will result in an extremely light weight shaky head or drop shot baitcasting rod wich will be quite effective. A custom builder has the advantage of building a very special rod that is not available from production builders.

Many southern bassin Bubbas find the use of spinning equipment quite challenging. If you are working heavy cover most of the time with baitcasting rods spot use of a spinning reel can be very clumsy. Many can use newer light weight reels for drop shot and shaky head when the bite gets tough. A fast action soft tipped blanks allows the "quivering " appearance to the lure. A spiral wrapped bait casting rod which has the light line on the bottom removes all "blank drag" during bounce back line slack periods. The fast action provided quick hook penetration and the blank requires a solid back end.

This is more of the "out of the box thinking" - give it a try and you might like what you find!

Try the Castaway XP3 842 for Shaky cut to 82 inches - Drop Shot XP3 813

[www.swamplandtackle.com]

Tony

When I get the 14 blanks built that I have sitting and waiting for my attention, I will have about 30 rods or so! You can never have too many!

Go for it!

Rog

St. Croix 5C68MXF-B Blank is my choice in both spinning and as a casting rod. I built one as a spinning rod with 16-10-6-3.5's to tip. Diawa SS700 / 10# Power Pro /!0# Fluoro leader / uni-uni.
Same blank built as a casting rod with micro's. Shimano Mg50 same line system as above. I use shaky heads from 3/32oz to 3/8oz and footballs to 3/8oz. My footballs are made with light wire Gama hooks. I fish both rods from very shallow presentations ( current conditions this time of the year ) to 25' to 30'' ledge fishing here on Kentucky Lake with excellent results. This blank has a very sensitive tip for this technique along with the backbone to handle good fish. I would not recommend this blank for large football jigs with heavy hooks.
I threw the 3/32oz shakyhead / 4" lizard on this casting rod very comfortably and with good distance this past week and caught a number of fish doing it. Shakyhead's can be fished on both spin and casting rods with the right setups in my opinion.

I built a St. Croix 3cmlxf 6'9" set up as a spinning rod and primarily used for drop shot and shaky head. I did test it with a 1/4 oz football jig and was able to hook and land a 3lb smallmouth out of 18' of water with no problems.

Tom O.,
Do you have any problems with the line going through the micros with the uni-uni knot? I have been getting a mixed bag of opinions on that.

Tony

Tony Wilson
Cincinnati Ohio

Sorrry for late reply Tony. I have no problems with the uni-uni knot passing through the micro's. Multiple test casts with 10# Power Pro / 12# Fluoro Leader averaged 100' with 1/8oz Shaky head and 110' with a 1/4oz head. These are actual measured distances done in my yard with the following setup:

St. Croix 5C68MXF-B
YSG 16-12-7-4's to tip with the #16 buttguide 21" from Diawa SS700 spool face.
Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon leader @ 4' long. Fluoro leader far more durable than mono from my experience. I can hear the knot pass through the guides sometimes but my distance is more than enough for my fishing style. Tried fishing braid without leader here some deep (25') ledge largemouth schools this past summer and braid without leader definitely resulted in fewer fish. Water visibility was between 2' to 3' at the time which is about normal here in the summer. Hope this helps.