Fishing a rubber worm or a similar rubber bait for largemouth bass or other bass is classic.

Not long ago, fishing the rubber bait with a split shot, barrel weight or jighead was the only way to sink it.

I remember thinking then that if somehow I could float the tail of my rubber worm, it would look like it was grubbing along bottom.

I was 10.

If shaky heads existed then, I was unaware.

Techniques probably existed that today would be called shaky-heading.

Then someone invented a way to make the bait look like it was grubbing.

That’s called the shaky-head jig.

The Nail Jig, from Frenzy Baits, introduced this past year, is a latest version.

It's a better version, the company says.

Shaky jigs today come in many varieties.

But all are jigheads that position the rubber bait upward, away from bottom.

That's mainly what makes a shaky a shaky.

What's different about the Nail Jig is that it has no spring, spike or similar “lure keeper” on the head that many shaky-head jigs do to keep the bait attached.

The absence of that increases hook-ups, because the bass can chomp down on the bait with nothing in the way, the company says.

The head of the worm is instead threaded down the hook and over a barb that keeps the worm on the jig.

More details. The Nail Jig's got a hook angled upward, like all shakies do, and an eyelet, for tying on the line, that's at a 45-degree angle to the bottom, like some do.

Some have a flat bottom, and the Nail Jig actually has a wide, flat bottom.

The head is a unique, good-looking shape to boot.

Some jigs are named shaky heads that aren’t actually.

If the jig allows the worm to flop along bottom like a wet noodle, one angler said, that’s not a shaky head.

The Nail Jig is shaky all the way, the real McCoy.

The "shaky" in the name is because the jigs were originally fished with a shaking of the rod tip to shake the bait.

Shakies are still fished like that, but also in other ways, all a version of shaking, dragging, hopping or swimming, or a combo.

All rubber baits always suspended or partially floated in water, at least.

Then floating rubber baits were also invented and became popular.

I think that also happened sometime after I was 10.

But maybe that happened before – who knows?

I do know that if I had seen the Nail Jig when I was a boy looking for the biggest largemouth in the lake, I would’ve been excited.

For more info on the Nail Jig, visit the Frenzy Baits website.