Tapered shape
This is probably the most popular shape for vertical fishing. It comes in several versions depending on the manufacturer, but the concept of splitting the water and offering the minimum resistance is the same. It offers little resistance to the water, so you can accelerate your fishing speed without having to increase the weight of the sinker. Indeed, most of the time, I try to use the lowest possible weight, which will allow me to do what I want, depending on my speed of advance, the fishing depth or the strength of the current... This desire to use the lightest sinker is motivated by: the ease for a predator to suck up the lure + sinker head assembly, the fact of having a soft approach, not hitting the bottom hard and keeping a gliding side during the lure's descent, if I practice animations.
Soccer shape
Football-type heads are my preferred choice when I want to reduce my feed speed. Also, when I'm alternating between vertical and linear casting/hauling, this is the type of head I'll prioritize, as they're better suited to linear fishing. In fact, one trick that gets me fish is that when I've passed over an area with fish, rather than passing over it again vertically, I'll cast over the area and explore it linearly. In this way, I can change the color of my lure and quickly represent something different, just after I've gone vertical.
Clog and round shape
Although sabot heads had their heyday a few years ago, for vertical fishing, I prefer to use tapered heads, which are more consistent with the shape of a lure, and a little more aerodynamic. I reserve this sabot shape for use from the shore, scraping the bottom.
Like the clogs, I don't use the round shapes for the vertical, and reserve them for fishing between two waters. The soccer shape, which is the closest to the round one, has the advantage of standing up straight when placed on the ground, whereas the round one falls sideways, which is not what we're looking for.
