Drop Shot Q's and A's for Mr. Deitz (and others)

[Slyster]

From reading some topics, it sounds like drop shotting is hot right now (Deitz)! Could you (or anyone experienced) throw us a few bones?

What kind of weight, hook, plastic?

Length of line from hook to weight?

How to fish it? (Straight down mostly I presume)

Hey.. wouldn't fishing straight down be under the boat? (doh!...) and wouldn't that spook the bass silly? Or are you talking REALLY deep water? I know some good deep 12-16 foot weededges on WBL I'd love to try drop shotting on tomorrow.

[Fluker]

Won a clubber this past weekend with 19 lbs, most of which was caught on the DS.

I use 10# Fluro, 1/4 oz drop shot weight, #2 to 1/0 DS hook, and small finesse worm. I usually fish a 10-14" tag line.

My fish came from 16-22 foot of water. The more active the fish, the more you shake the worm, and vice versa. You want it to be a vertical presentation, but that doesn't necessarily mean directly under the boat. The boat was in 22 to 26 foot all day and I was casting to 16-22, so a medium distance cast.

The hookset is a major thing if you're using the DS hooks. Don't set the hook, simple as that. It's more of a rod tip up and start reeling approach. If you set the hook like a normal jig / t-rig, you'll pull the hook from there mouth often.

The one detriment to fishing the smaller DS hooks is losing big fish. If the fish is large enough you can't get the hook around there lip, sometime is goes into the lip and can be shaken out. I lost a VERY good fish tourney day. 2 big head shakes, 2 big runs pulling drag, and "pop". Likely it could have been a northern, but would have been the first and only of the day, and it sure didn't feel like one.

Hope this helps.

Chuck

[MNBassGuy]

Now we are on a subject near and dear to my heart! DS'ing in one of my absolute favorite ways to catch bass.

First off, I want a rod that has a good backbone, but has some good action. I want to be able to feel the slightest little nick on the line. I prefer to use a light spinning reel (Quantum Energy PTi-20). I set my drag a bit looser for DS'ing as well. This will help you not break off on the hook set. Also, a light line is key. I use 8lb Gamma Flourocarbon. I've tried other lines, but you can't beat Gamma Flouro for DS'ing.

Moving on...tie your hook, I usually use a Gamagatsu or Daichii red Octopus hook, facing upwards on your line using a palomar knot (or the Dietz knot that I read about the other day looks like a good one as well). I like to leave 18" or so below the hook to serve as your leader. You won't use all of that, but it will ensure that you have enough line to make an adjustments you need. The length of the leader varies on the fish. I usually find that 14-16" works best for me.

Next, attach a drop shot weight to the end of the leader. I always make sure to have anywhere from 1/8 oz. to 1/2oz. available. You will need to experiement with this based on wind conditions and the fall rate that the fish seem to react to.

Now for the bait choice. This is the best part of a drop shot rig...you can use just about anything! My two favorites are a Senko rigged wacky, or a Roboworm rigged through the tip. I have also had good success with Gulp Leeches at times.

The most important part of DS'ing is hooking and fighting the fish. The bite can be anything from a tap and run to just pressure on the line. Keep a close eye and a finger on your line to detect any subbtle nicks. Remember that you are using light line, so don't horse the fish in! Make sure you play it out and let it have a few runs.

Like anything else, it can be perfected with practice, and can be useful in many different scenarios. Don't limit yourself to 15-20' break points. Try them out around docks, beds, and other types of structure!

Good luck!

[rangerforme]

I use a 7 ML Fenwick Techna, its a sweet rod for drop shotting, that 7 foot length really lets you play out fish on lighter line. I use 8 lb seagur flourocarbon. And for me the best worm to use it he roboworm, its boyant so the worm stands straight out on your hook, get the Aaron's magic color, looks like a bluegill. I rarely cast more than 10 yards out when fishing this rig. I use the Gammy drop shot hooks and the owner drop shot hooks and nose hook my baits for the most part, the owner hook the fish sets the hook on itself its such a fine wire hook.

[RK]

Hiya -

Good posts from Fluker and MN Bass Guy... They covered a lot of it.

I DS mainly for smallies. Do use them for LMB once in a while too, especially later in the summer when the moss outside the weedline on some of the lakes I fish starts to get thick. It'll foul up any jig or T-rig that gets near it, but with a DS, who cares if the sinker picks up some moss...

For gear, I like a 6'6"-7' medium-light fast action spinning rod. Right now, Keith Terlinden from Professional Edge Rods is making me a custom DS rod on a Diamondback blank (6'9" ML, split rear grip, 2" foregrip, sinker keeper on the butt...man I can't wait to get it ). I use a smaller reel (1500 size) just to keep the weight down, and light line - usually 8# Triple Fish Fluorocarbon, but 6# Berkley Sensation works well too. My wife, on the other hand, prefers baitcasting gear - a ML 6'6" rod, a reel with a flipping switch and 8# fluoro. She says the flipping switch makes it easier to adjust depth than a spinning reel. She's probably right, but I still prefer spinning gear. To each their own.

One thing that hasn't been talked about much is the weights. I'm around rocks a lot, so snagging up is pretty common. I use either Water Gremlin Bull Shot (a bullet-shaped pinch-on sinker) or a Lunker City Skinny Bakudan weight most of the time, although the Northland Sling Shot sinkers are awesome too... the Skinny Bakudan weights are cylinder shaped, and really come through weeds well along with not jamming in rocks too bad. If I'm around really sticky rocks (jagged chunk rock), I take a plain old 'bass casting' bell sinker and mash it flat with a needle nose. Jams up in the rocks a lot less. Sandbag or 'slinky' sinkers and pencil lead work really well around rocks too. Or Lindy No Snag sinkers. Or split shot, bullet sinkers, Mojo sinkers, egg sinkers, staplers, lug nuts - anything will work for a weight...

Most of the time I try to use as light a weight as I can get away with. In shallow water, it's 1/16 oz sometimes, but more commonly it's a 1/8, 3/16, or 1/4 oz unless it's really windy. I will use a heavier weight than I really need when smallies are aggressive and will respond to the sound. Sometimes you can use a heavy weight or even a brass Carolina Rig sinker and just bang it off the bottom. Smallies are so curious, they'll come over to see what the racket is. I suppose Tungsten would work great for this, but as many sinkers as you lose in rocks, who'd want to spend that much $$$... The other time I use a heavy weight is to do what a friend of mine calls “Bubba shotting.” More on that in a minute…

For hooks, I like Owner Drop Shot hooks in 2 to 1/0 or so most of the time. If I’m around weeds, I have some Diachii Finesse Texas Rig hooks I use once in a while, but any smaller (1/0 or so) light wire wide gap worm hook will work. I tie them on with a Palomar knot, although a San Diego Jam seems to work as well, and it’s less fussy to tie with a long dropper. With a Palomar, run the tag end back through the eye of the hook from the top before you attach the weight. Helps the hook standout from the line better. Most of my droppers are between 8 and 12" in length, although I've gone up to 4 feet or so when I see fishing cruising high on my camera or graph.

For baits, when I was first experimenting with DSing I tried all sorts of stuff. Turns out most anything works frankly. These days as I burn through some of the ones I've used in the past I'm not replacing them. For smallies, I'm more or less down to 2 or 3 baits: Persuader Paddle Tail grubs (smallies love the things), 3" Yum Dingers, and 4" Bait Rigs Reaper tails. I will on occasion use 3" Tiny Flukes or 4" Power Minnows, but 90% of the time it's either a Dinger or a Paddle Tail. For colors, in the Paddle Tails I like Honey Dew (sort of a translucent green/yellow), green smoke, or Albino Shad (clear with very fine black pepper). In the Dingers, in dirty water it's Chartreuse/black pepper (smallies just plain like chart.), in clear water either green pumpkin/purple flake, or Ozark Smoke, which is smoke with purple flake. If they'll bite on anything they'll bite on Ozark Smoke. For LMB, especially along weed edges where I want more bulk to stand out, I'll use bigger baits like a Baby Brush Hawg or Sabertail Bug, or a tube.

I don't really like heavily-salted baits for drop shotting. They're so dense they tend to drag down to the bottom too much, which to me kind of defeats the purpose. The YUM Dingers and Persuader grubs are a little more buoyant. I also rarely wacky rig baits. Hooking percentage for me with wacky rigs on a DS is lower than I like.

I fish them vertically or near-vertical a lot of the time, even in fairly shallow water. Last weekend I was DSing in 7 feet of water along rock edges, in water clear enough that I saw most of the fish hit (hard to keep your act together then a 19" smallie cruises up to your bait and stares it down...). They were there, but tucked tight to the rocks not chasing grubs or tubes even. Even lifting the sinker off the bottom would turn them off. But they'd hit a Dinger hung in their face, even directly below the boat in 7 feet of clear water. It was a vertical drop or a short (10 foot) pitch to the rocks... Especially when fish are off a little, you have to be careful how much you move the bait. Watch a DS in clear water and you'll see how little line movement it takes to move the bait a lot. Sometimes when fish are really aggressive that's good, but then you're usually able to catch them on something else anyhow. When times are tough and it takes a DS to get them to bite, too much movement can spook them off.

What's great about a DS is how well you can feel what's down there below you. Last weekend I was on a point that had scattered clumps of boulders with sand and gravel between them. The bigger smallies were tight ot the rock piles, and I could work along the point and feel when I was moving from sand to gravel to rock. As soon as I felt the sinker thunking on rocks I could slow down and hover on the rock pile until I got bit.

One variation on a finesse drop shot is what my friend Rich calls Bubba Shotting - as in a big dude named Bubba's version of the technique... He uses 25# fluoro and a flipping stick, with a heavy (1/2 to 1 oz.) weight (a big bell sinker or a Lunker City Magnum Bakudan DS weight)on a short (6"-8") dropper, with a tube, craw, or Senko on a 5/0 Wide Gap t-rig hook. The heavy weight punches through matted weeds, then he can hover the bait in place under the mat. Works great when fish are backed up into inside weed edges or in coontail mats after a cold front. Punches through the matted weeds as well as a heavy jig or Texas rig, but when you keep the line tight, the bait hangs a few inches off the bottom right in their face.

One other thought on drop shots. If you have kids and want to catch some big gills, rig up drop shot rig with a 12" dropper, a #4 aberdeen or baitholder hook, and some Gulp! maggots, and go find a hump in 12-16 feet of water. Hard to find a better way to keep a rod bent...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Juan Grande]

Awesome post RK, thanks for all the info!

[Slyster]

Awesome thanks guys. Excited to try it out!

[ikeslayer]

Quote:

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Right now, Keith Terlinden from Professional Edge Rods is making me a custom DS rod on a Diamondback blank (6'9" ML, split rear grip, 2" foregrip, sinker keeper on the butt

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Rob i make rods and i was just wondering what this sinker keeper looks like. Always looking to make another specialty rod. Got a picture- worth 1000 words. ike

[EBass]

Thank you for all of this info. We are reading and will apply, er die trying

Tried the DS last night - sunnies slammed it, but no bites for bass. Will keep at it though

[RK]

Hiya -

It's nothing revolutionary - just a fly rod guide tie right above the butt cap with the bottom foot clipped off close to the blank. All I want to be able to do is get the line under it and jam the sinker up to it so I don't have the sinker flopping all over like you do if you attach the hook to a guide or hook keeper. Run across rough water with it like that and you end up with 6 rods tied in a knot...heh.

When he gets it done I'll try and remember to post a pic...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Hotspotter]

Rob:

Thanks for taking the time to make such a detailed post! Rock-solid information.

Joel

[OLY]

When my dad started to get into drop shotting alot a few years ago we always had the problem of the weights getting all tangled and what not so he came up with a very simple solution. You just take a strip of velcro and wrap it around the handle, and it holds the weight against the butt of your rod, like so

[ocf1]

So what do you look do dropshot at?

[Deitz Dittrich]

Wow, looks like I dont need to be a part of this post.. LOL.. ya'all got it coverd.. great posts above. We did discuss this at quite a bit of length back in 05.. some good posts here in this post as well.. Plus an article I wrote on drop-shotting about 7 years ago.

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB57&Number=495733&Forum=f57&Words=dropshot&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=495620&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=&daterange=1&newerval=5&newertype=w&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post495733]Old post with Article