Drop Shot Components

[Craigums]

Whats are every ones favorite Drop Shot components?

1.Plastics

2.Hooks

3.Weights

4.Line

[RK]

Hiya -

My list.

1.) When I first started experimenting with DS I picked up a bunch of different plastics to try. I'm now down to a small handful. I do use different things for SMB and LMB somewhat though:

SMB

- 3" Yum Dingers. I could stop here, really. I use them 90% of the time.

- Persuader American paddle tail. My wife's favorite, and she's been known to outfish me with them...

- 4" Zoom Fluke or Lunker City Fin-S-Fish- Love 'em when drop shotting for suspended fish.

- Gulp Leeches. Gulp is like crack to smallies sometimes...

LMB

- 3" Dingers.

- Zoom Tiny Flukes

- Northland Shakey Worms - the Bluegill color rocks.

- Berkley Hand Pours

2.) Owner Mosquito Hooks, size 1 or 1/0. I do use Owner Down Shot Offset hooks once in a while if I think I need to Texas Rig, which I rarely do.

3.) Lunker City Skinny Bakudan drop shot weights. These are cylindrical weights that are snag resistant as all get out, in rocks and weeds. Used to use Owner drop shot weights until they quit putting the swivel in them. Water Gremlin Bull Shot works fine too. Mash 'em flat with a pliers around rocks. Really though - anything will work. I carry everything from 1/16 oz to 3/8 oz, but I bet I use 3/16 oz 90% of the time.

4.) 6# Triple Fish fluorocarbon. Sometimes wish I had 8# around weeds, but I get away with 6 just fine.

HTH

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Craigums]

I'll start...

1. Reaction Innovations Flirt Worm

2. Gamakatsu Drop Shot Hook (size 2 I believe)

3. BPS Drop shot weights (Lightest I can get away with while still making bottom contact

4. 8lb clear copoly (Ive heard flouro may be better, but ive been hesitant to use it with a spinning reel)

[Craigums]

Ooops... RK you beat me to it

[TurnUpTheFishing]

So many different worms but gulp leeches or roboworms most often.

Owner mosquito hooks

Right now I use the round sinker with the swivel not sure on brand. I think once they are gone Ill probably just use the large split shots. that way when I get snagged I only lose the weight and not my whole rig.

8lb. gamma fluoro

[kg2]

RK, how high in the water column will you drop shot for suspended fish? (It would be difficult to cast when the hook is more than a few feet above the sinker.)

[RK]

kg2 -

For a while there last summer, I was drop shotting for fish 12-14 feet down over 25 to 35 FOW.

Most of the time I'd basically just lift a garden variety drop shot set up to the level the fish were at. Maybe a little longer dropper than typical - 18" or so. Fish right below the transducer on the bow mount and you can see the bait, sinker, and fish - it's a lot like ice fishing. Gotta be careful though, especially if it's windy, or you'll get The Big Bite once in a while. (The Big Bite = getting your line in the trolling motor...). I've caught fish pitching it out, letting it fall through the school and then reeling it up slowly, but most of the time it's purely vertical.

The other thing you can do is tie a super long dropper - however long it needs to be to get the bait at the level you're marking fish at. I tie a regular dropper length of a foot or so, then just tie on extra line - 10, 12 feet or whatever - with a surgeon's knot. Hangs the bait right where it needs to be without having to constantly watch the depth finder. When you hook a fish and land it, you just let the long dropper dangle over the side of the boat. Not any more difficult than a regular rig - just can't cast it is all. But if you're fishing open water you don't really need to cast anyhow. FWIW, I don't do it this way very often, but tried it a few times to see if it worked after talking to a friend who drop shots like this for Spotted Bass down south, and it works fine...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[katoguy]

Interesting, Rob, but why not just use a jigworm or spoon then?

[TonkaBass]

I like the walleye wide gap gammys, seagaur floro 8lb., Berkely hand pours and panic minnows, I love my 6'9"med extra fast legend tournament.

[Cecil]

Walleye wide gap hook, Vanish 8#, Kinami cut tail or any Gulp Alive, and a 7-6 ML Croix Legend Tournament.

[Deitz Dittrich]

For a sinker I use Bull shots, often times I use 2 of them back to back maybe 1/4 oz total maybe a little more.

For a hook I really like Stand Out hooks. but I like the black ones, I dont like the red, which turn gold after one fish.

For the plastic.. I will keep my little secret(which isnt so all that secret if you have seen a rod on the deck of my boat.)

[ikeslayer]

deitz you are such a little naughty bug.

[RK]

Interesting, Rob, but why not just use a jigworm or spoon then?

I use a drop shot for open water smallies for the same reasons you'd use them for fish related to structure - it's a great technique when the fish aren't actively feeding. Especially when they're over open water it really seems like smallies like to have something suspended and stationary. Drop shotting does that in such a subtle way. Lots of times it seems like smallies are just milling around over the tops of humps or deep flats when they're not really feeding, and they won't chase down anything moving very fast. I can catch some using a fluke on a jighead and swimming it, swimming grubs, or letting a tube on a light jighead fall through them, but drop shotting is the most precise when you have them located.

When they're more aggressive, I catch them strolling a jigworm, on jerkbaits, and even on topwaters. Haven't tried a spoon on them, which is dumb now that I think about it since I catch them on jigging spoons and blade baits in the fall...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[bklimek]

How do you hook the yum dingers on a drop shot hook...wacky?

[RK]

How do you hook the yum dingers on a drop shot hook...wacky?

You know, I almost never rig them wacky style. If I want to fish a wacky rig deeper I'm a lot more likely to put it on a jighead or weighted hook. It might be just in my head, but I think my hooking percentage goes down somewhat when I wacky rig and drop shot. That having been said, I know tons of guys that do it.

When I rig a Dinger, I nose hook it. Start 1/16 of an inch down from the nose of the bait, run the point in and directly out the nose of the bait. Cuts down on line twist a lot compared to just going through the bait like you'd hook a minnow...

cheers,

Rob Kimm

[riverrat63]

stand out hook, roboworm or gulp ,6-8 floro, 7' g-lomis rod and a swival

[YUM]

1) roboworms, gulp, any small hand-poured plastic

2) number 1 or 2 Mosquito

3) 3/16 90% of the time

4) 8lb Vanish

[Stratosman]

I like the Dingers as well, great for largies as well as smallies. Creature baits, ect. Depends on the mood of the fish that particular day, but more than likely if I'm drop shotting, it's nuetral and negative fish anyway....

I use 8lb flouro on a 7'2" Gander Drop shot rod.

As far as hooks. Has anyone noticed that when using the stand-out type hooks that thier hooking percentage goes down or the rate of fish that come unbuttoned goes up? I was using them strictly this weekend and noticed that I lost alot of fish and alot of misses as well..... Normally use the owner mosquito hooks as well, but ran out and I had a bunch of the stand outs in the boat. Any one else notice this or is it just me?