Drop Shot

[Mr. Pike1]

Dietz and others I have seen many posts from the Bass guys on what is termed a "dropshot rig". My question is what differentiates a dropshot shot rig from what a walleye guy would simply term a "Lindy/Roach Rig" Both are for the most part a weighted rig with a leader and in the case of dropshot you add the plastic of you choice versus a crawler or minnow and you leave it more or less motionless vs the lindy/roach rig in which you usually troll plain or with a little spinner for flash.

I personally like to fish the Lindy rig style with a plastic and troll it outside a weed edge or deep structure. I can of course add a live crawler or artificial minnow if I decide I would like to land an eye as well.

I am just curious as to what you all see as the primary difference in what I would see as a simple deviation of the old Lindy rig.

[Deitz Dittrich]

M.Pike.. totally diff from a lindy rig.. if we were talking a rig similar to a lindy rig.. a caolina rig is about the same as a lindy rig.. If you start at the rod, its line, sinker, hook... While a drop shot is.... Line, hook, sinker... A carolina rig is cast a long distance, while a drop shot is worked more verticle...

I hope you get picts.. here is a carolina rig (again very similar to a lindy rig)

Drop shot rig.

So, if thinking about it, a carpilina rig/lindy rig is crawled along the bottom.. while a drop shot rig is fluttered above the bottom..... suspending plastics is what the drop shot is all about.

[RK]

Hiya -

Deitz is right on. A Carolina rig is much closer to a walleye live bait rig. I think the functional difference is where the bait is. In illustrations of Carolina rigs, you always see the bait floating up behind the sinker, but in reality, unless you're using a high flotation plastic and moving it VERY slowly, the bait behind a C-rig is pretty much right on the bottom. Every time you move the bait forward, it gets pulled downward, and unless it has a lot of buoyancy and a lot of time to float back up, it pretty much stays there. With a drop-shot on the other hand, the bait is suspended up off the bottom. It's a pretty potent combination - very visible but very subtle (unless you're really moving the boat a lot.) You also have a lot more control over what the bait does with a drop-shot - whether you move it a lot, hold it still, lift and drop it, which you can do in place without ever moving the sinker if you want... Just a whole different set of options with a drop shot. Not to say one's better than the other, because they each have their time and place (I dont' use C-rigs as often as I should probably)...they're just different.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Muddog]

To add to what others have said. At times Bass just can't help but hit somthing that is falling slowly. Like a wacky worm or a fluke. When you get to deep water, 12 foot or so, it is hard to tell how close to the bottom you are with there slow sink rate and vary light weight in the water. Plus it takes a while. With a drop shot you can get these light baits down quickly to the strike zone and still have the slow sink once you get there. Plus the shaking in one spot off the bottom like a shaky head.

That is what I think you should keep in mind every time you try a drop shot rig.

[bull_head]

What's the benefit of drop shotting. Why not suspend the bait below a bobber?

[Craigums]

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What's the benefit of drop shotting. Why not suspend the bait below a bobber?

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you can get the plastic to the desired depth faster, and have more control over the action, also you can keep the plastic at a more horizontal presentation

[Deitz Dittrich]

well stated craigums.... I also feel that a dropshot is better than a bobber as you can keep the lure off the bottom by a set depth. IF fishing a drop off area and have your bobber set at 10 foot down... you may be 6" off the bottom in on area.. and 10 feet off the bottom in another... while a dropshot.. your always your set depth IE about 12" off the bottom at all times. I also feel you can put more action into a dropshot than a bobber.

[ikeslayer]

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Why not suspend the bait below a bobber?

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Plus a bass fisherman would never admit to using a bobber. Could we resort to such a task? Although if i had to i believe i would use my daughters barbie one or my personal favorite Snoopy.

ike

[katoguy]

A bobber keeps a fixed distance from the surface down to the lure. A drop-shot keeps a fixed distance from the lake bottom up to the lure.

Float and fly (bobber / hair or feather jig) has been used by smallie fisherman for many years.

[RK]

I'll admit to it

Not so much for largemouths, but for smallies, bobbers can kick butt.

Smallies just have different triggers than largemouths - LMB seem to bite on the drop a lot more than smallies do, for example - and especially if they're neutral to negative (cold front, for example) hanging something suspended in front of them is about the best way there is to get smallies to bite. I've watched post cold front smallies in clear water sort of slide up to something, and observe it. If it doesn't do anything to get away, they'll just swim up and eat it. On the other hand, if it moves around too much, they'll just follow it, or leave altogether. Turned off smallies get flaky sometimes. They'll ignore a dead sticked bait on the bottom, do nothign but follow jerkbaits or tubes, but then swim up 10 feet to grab a bait suspended below a float.

Lots of situations where a float works very well. Around shallow rocks, over the tops of sandgrass flats, around cabbage beds, over rocks with a lot of moss where anything that gets to the bottom gets slimed, for probing the nooks and crannies of a jumble of big boulders, craggy rock where everything snags up, suspended fish in cold water...bobber time. Rivers? Definitely bobber time.

Doesn't have to be live bait either (although a big mudflap leech on a 1/16 oz jig under a slip bobber almost isn't fair...). Wacky rigging a 3-4" stickbait under a slip float or Adjust-A-Bubble is awesome for over the tops of shallow rocks, or drifting through riffles in a river. A light drop shot rig under a slip float is better yet in a river...the thing will sort of bump along in the current until it finds slack water then just sit there. With a senko or a 3" Fluke, it looks exactly like a minnow moving downstream then finding a spot behind a rock to sit... Hair jigs, tubes, finesse worms...all work under a bobber.

On some of the Western lakes with smallies and spots, a lot of winter tourneys are won by guys using bobbers (Float-N-Fly kind of stuff).

I have no problems at all using bobbers for bass. Watching the bobber go down never gets old

cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Muddog]

As a Fly Fisherman would say, It's not a bobber, it's a Strike indicator.

[mojoputter]

So when you are DS fishing how do you keep your boat steady, do you anchor or do you use the trolling motor to hover over a certain spot?

[Deitz Dittrich]

I have anchord.. but I woudl say that 98% of the time I hover with the t-mot.

[Central Bassman]

Do you guys always keep you line tight?? or how do you work it?

[Craigums]

I always keep my line tight so i can feel the bottom weight and any strikes

[RK]

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As a Fly Fisherman would say, It's not a bobber, it's a Strike indicator.

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Hahaha... or it's a "float." More sophisticated. Sounds a lot like the logic of my friend who calls a tourney a "derby" instead of a tournament, because "if you say you fished a little derby and didn't catch much, it doesn't sound as bad as saying you fished a tournament and zeroed..."

To a couple of the other posts: I usually hover with the trolling motor, and a lot of the time fish right under the TM so I can see the drop shot and fish on the bow graph.

CB -

I fish them on a tight line quite a bit of the time, but especially when I'm either pitching it or if fishing's tough, I'll try to keep the weight in place, but let the bait drop on a slack line, then very carefully lift it again and feel for the weight of a fish.

Moreso with smallmouth than largemouths maybe, but it's really really easy to move a ds rigged bait too much, and sometimes a bait moving all over will turn them off it. It takes very little line movement to really move the bait a lot, so I really concentrate on keeping the rodtip still and have minimal line movement between lifts to move the rig along. Watch a DS rig in shallow water and you'll see how little rod tip movement it takes to really get the bait flying all over...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Central Bassman]

Thanks RK

[bassNspear]

Its a tough thing to do when you have no clue how to do it. Its a tactic that dietz still has not shown me. Someday he was going to take me out and shoe me how to get the job done. Hopefully when he gets his boat back we will go out. Stupid rig, now that is a different story.