Keitech's Easy Shaker

In years past, we have published several gear guides about Kei Hayashi’s soft-plastic creations.

Until his death in 2016, he was a much-heralded lure designer from Yamanashi, Japan, and proprietor of Keitech, which he created in 1996. He was also a talented largemouth bass angler.

In the eyes of several of his Midwest finesse admirers, he created an array of intricate piscatorial masterpieces that have inveigled incalculable numbers of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass.

Now, Hayashi’s longtime assistant Hisashi Maji is the president of Keitech, and he has become the driving and creative force behind this tackle company’s products.

And when Keitech created the 3.5-inch Easy Shaker, they announced that this finesse worm is “the ultimate” drop-shot bait, and it “has excelled when NED rigged.” This announcement caught the attention of a veteran Midwest finesse angler who suggested that we should publish a gear guide about it.

We agreed with that angler’s notions and contacted Mike Czaplinski of Branchville, New Jersey, who is the proprietor of KeitechUSA.

Czsplinski sent us some samples to work with and describe, And here is what we discovered about the 3.5-inch Easy Shaker.

It is 3 11/16-inches long.

It is graced with a dome-shaped head. It is about three-sixteenths of an inch long with a width of a quarter of an inch at its widest spot and a circumference of about seven-eighths of an inch. The tip of it is embellished with a slight indentation that is about an eighth of an inch wide, and it is where Midwest finesse anglers will insert the hook and bait keeper of a small mushroom-style jig. And the hook will be exposed. Except for that indentation, the head’s epidermis is smooth.

Its torso is embellished with 51 ribs or rings. The first 16 ribs have a hook slot on its dorsal and ventral sections. The ribs enhance the Easy Shaker’s profile, and the torso’s thinner core allows the Easy Shaker to exhibit a lot of undulations and alluring gyrations. From its junction with the head to the junction with its tail, the width and circumference of the torso diminishes measurably. Consequently, the size of the ribs become significantly smaller. Near the junction with the head, the torso is a quarter of an inch wide with a circumference of about seven-eighths of an inch. At the junction with the tail, the torso has a width of one-eighth of an inch and a circumference of seven-sixteenths of an inch.

The tip of the tail tappers to a miniscule point. It is devoid of ribs, and its epidermis is smooth.

It is manufactured in the following hues: Ayu, Bluegill Flash, Bold Bluegill, Electric Bluegill, Electric Shad, Goby, Green Pumpkin, Morning Dawn, Pro Blue Red Pearl, Sexy Shad, and Shad. According to a Keitech press statement, these hues exhibit a unique brightness and transparency.

It is impregnated with a squid scent. It is extremely buoyant and made from what Keitech calls a high-flotation plastic compound.

A package of 12 3.5-inch Easy Shakers costs $4.99.

They also make a 4.5-inch and 5.5-inch Easy Shaker.

From Czaplinski’s perspective, Keitech does a better job of manufacturing its baits than other tackle manufacturers do. Thus, in his eyes, the 3.5-inch Easy Shaker is not a traditional finesse worm; it is a state-of-the-art finesse worm.

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