very broad question

[TonkaBass]

why do you guys use drop shots rigs?

[Central Bassman]

I don’t have the confidence to use one yet, but most will say because it catches fish!!! Its also gives the fish something different to look at then the traditional presentations. It also works well for fish that are suspended in the water.

[tritonman]

My short answer would be... it puts a bait right in there face and makes them eat it. They can't take it!

[hhguide]

If your fishing in weeds alot of jigs and stuff just fall into the sand grass but when you dropshot your weight does and the bait stays up above allow the bass to get a better and longer look!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Why?. Can you think of any other lure presentation that allows the bait to Suspend... not sink, not rise, just sit right in their mug and say..."EAT ME" like a drop shot rig.. .

I use it deep, I use it shallow... I can sink it slow when I want, I can make it rise slow when I want... Or just hold it in one place when I want...

And most of all.... I do it because I believe very few others are doing it well... Sure there are a few out there that drop shot in MN.. but very few who I believe do it well and put the time in to learn how to do it well.

[Central Bassman]

 Originally Posted By: Deitz Dittrich

And most of all.... I do it because I believe very few others are doing it well... Sure there are a few out there that drop shot in MN.. but very few who I believe do it well and put the time in to learn how to do it well.

Thanks Me

We need to hit the lake and have you show me a thing or to about it!!! Please

[tritonman]

Hey Deitz- That was my long answer!

[new_kid]

I would take any help someone would offer to teach me how to drop shot as i believe it would be very efective but i have no idea how to do it correctly

[Deitz Dittrich]

ROTF, LMAO @ Tritonman--- too dang funny!

I really dont think drop shotting is that hard, if it is hard, its because bass fisherman are so strung up on fishing fast...patience is a key in the drop shot.............but you need to know the fish are there.

CB- We shall try and hook up this summer.

[tritonman]

I thought you'd get a kick out of that Deitz. I agree 100% that people fish too fast and you can very easily over fish a drop shot.

[TonkaBass]

Deitz-

That is exactly what I was getting at! To do a technique well. I fell my strong suites are cranks and power fishing, but overall finese (like drop shotting) I feel is my number one fear in a competitor.

I agree that dropshotting is an underutilzed method in the area. Everyone seems to do it, yet I have rarely seen this used in competition. Is this because anglers have fish "dialed in" so well on other patterns? If this has worked so well in the high pressured lakes in Japan and throughout the national tournaments, why aren't we utilizing this simple way of fishing more often?

I plan on using drop shots a lot this summer. It will be a big personal challenge for me to let go of some of my stand by's that I grew up on. I think it is time that everyone takes a more serious look at this proven fish catcher in thier everyday arsenal!

[hhguide]

it all comes down to confidence people want to start a tournament out firing away and running and gunning and its hard for people to take there time, slow down and fish! Much like bobber fishing in walleye tournaments its a hard way to fish slow and methodical but it does have big pay-offs!

[Sproguy]

Tonka,

If you fear a finesse fisherman in a tournament then you might be the only guy in the world that I could scare! LOL After the results I saw with this technique over the past three seasons I will have 5 rods all set with a drop shot in 2008! I will answer your original question this way. I use a drop shot because I can catch fish 10 out of 10 days! If you find fish and prefer to fish with a 1/2 oz jig, great! But you will only be able to catch fish 4 maybe up to 6 days out of 10. Same with other techniques. Nothing against the others I use them all the time. A jig will often catch bigger fish but it has days it won't work. I have never found a day I can't catch fish on a drop shot, never! It catches fish every day you fish. I'm sure if you fished in 40 degree super muddy water you might not catch them but in MN, I've never found a day I can't catch fish on a drop shot. That is why I fish a drop shot. Scared yet! LOL

[BassProAddict]

How far forward do you all cast a dropshot rig?

[st.crioxfishin]

I usually pitch the rig out to a specific area. I don't make a sweeping long cast, maybe a 15yds, but most times shorter than that. However, you can cast it far and fish it however you want, their isn't a rule book in fishing! At times I will also drop it straight down if thats what the situation call for.

[RK]

Hiya -

I guess I use them for several reasons. (My usual disclaimer applies: mainly talking smallies here though some carries over to LMB certainly...)

Smallies, especially neutral to negative ones, really like stuff suspended in the water column. It's also pretty common to find smallies that aren't actively chasing forage suspended anywhere from 1 to 6 feet off the bottom along the edges of rock bars or points, over gravel flats, or just outside weedlines. So you have suspended fish that respond best to stuff that's hanging stationary at or just above their level. That's sort of a tall order from a presentation standpoint. Drop shotting lets you put a bait at their level and keep it there with a great deal of precision. It also puts the angler in total control of where in relation to structure the bait is placed. I can target individual boulders anywhere from 2 feet to 40 feet down. You can use a combination of feel and electronics to tell you where your bait is. You can tell if you're on sand, gravel, weeds, or rock. One morning last June, for example, I found smallies scattered across a flat that had a mix of sandgrass and bare patches of sand that covered a large point coming off an island. By pitching the DS rig out I could feel my way through the sandgrass until I found a patch of bare sand, then hold the bait there... The fish were pretty turned off - post cold front and they were so skittish lifting the sinker off the bottom would spook them - but by keeping the bait right there in their face, they'd eventually swim over and bite.

I think Deitz and Tritonman are right on about guys struggling with DS rigging because they tend to get too jumpy. With a DS rig every move your rod tip makes is transferred right to your bait. It's VERY easy to move the bait way too much. That's especially true I think with smallmouth. When they're off they REALLY want something sitting still. Sometimes moving it very erratically is the ticket, but to me that's usually an indication that the fish are active enough to be using something else that's faster. To get an idea of how much (or how little) rod movement it takes to make a DS rigged plastic move, try it in shallow clear water or a pool sometime. Most of the time when I am drop shotting I am concentrating on keeping the rod tip completely still.

Someone asked about casting drop shot rigs. I fish them vertically over deeper water probably 75% of the time, but I will at times pitch them to shallow rocks or other cover. It's usually a fairly short (30 feet or so) underhand toss more than an actual cast. I do it when I want to park a bait on a very specific spot, or work an edge very carefully. One spot I fish is a near vertical boulder wall that drops from 3 feet to about 9 feet, and I often pitch a DS to it to fish the deep edge very precisely.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[EBass]

So what kinda weights are used? A spiltshot would work depending on keeping the boat in position (calm day) or small bell sinkers or lindy no-snags or...?

For the knot is it just a polomar then loop the tag end through the eye of the hook and attach said weight? Any trick on keeping the hook straight instead of leaning to one side.

I bought some Robo worms, but they are really soft and fall apart and I dunno - looked stupid to me so I didn't use them or the DS. I tried it for about 10mins then went back to the frog and/or jig.

[TonkaBass]

Sproguy-

It's true. In my mind I feel that my other techniques are pretty well developed. I no longer just cast a crankbait and hope a fish bites. I don't sit there all day and flip jigs into vegetation waiting for the fish to turn on when they never do. I feel I am good enough to compete with a jigworm, carolina rig, t-rig, and many other presenations. With all this bragging aside (I still have a lot to learn), if the fish really want a dropshot rig, I am not the guy that will be able to get it done right now. After I put this to test in some proven spots to gain confidence, I will start trying to master it and have it as another tool I can use to catch some fish. I cant wait for the day I start using it more in competition. (I think that will be soon!)

[Juan Grande]

I'm sure I've said this before on similar drop shot posts, but I can't really remember a time when I knew there were fish there.

The lakes I primarily fish don't have any deep rock piles or trees (at least not that I've found) and I'm not that good at reading my electronics. I guess maybe a camera would help.

What I'm saying is that I can't see drop shotting as a very good search tool since you work it so slow. I really want to try drop shotting, but I guess I need to learn how to find fish first.

Anybody else have this problem?

[Craig Plummer]

some lakes simply are not good drop shot candidates.

[Wayne Ek]

Here is an article from FM in June 2007 on drop-shot fishing.

Smorgasbord Fishing

A Simple Rig To Use

By Wayne Ek

During a season of guiding, 40% of our trips are what we call smorgasbord trips. In other words, my clients want to catch fish, but they really don’t care what kind. They would be happy catching bass, walleye, northern or panfish, just as long as it pulls on their line. These are probably the easiest and most enjoyable trips to take out, as everyone catches fish and everyone is happy.

Most smorgasbord trips involve novice anglers. For guiding novice anglers I’ve found one rig that is trouble free to use and flat out catches fish; the drop-shot rig.

So what is a drop-shot rig? It’s basically a dropper rig, not unlike the wolf-river rigs used for trolling, but without the 3-way swivel. Or it’s similar to the old style catfish rigs made up of a heavy sinker and a short dropper-line. That’s the basic concept behind the drop-shot rig, only with a little more finesse. On a drop-shot rig you have a weight on the very end of your line where you would normally expect to find the hook, then above the weight you find the hook. Although a drop-shot rig can literally be fished anywhere, it excels when used as a deep-water finesse rig.

One of the first things you learn about drop-shot fishing is the importance of using a quality rod. Since all bites are detected via the rod and fishing line, you will just detect more bites by using a quality rod. I like to use a 7-foot rod for this presentation for a couple of reasons. First, drop-shot fishing is primarily a vertical presentation and a 7-foot rod just moves the presentation a little farther away from the boat. Second, a longer rod is more forgiving when fighting a fish, which is a big plus for novice anglers or young children. I use the same size spinning reels that you would use when rigging for walleyes when drop-shot fishing.

I like a quality super-braid as the main line on drop-shot rods for a couple of reasons. First, remember all bites are detected via the rod and fishing line and a super-braid transmits those bites up the line and to the rod better than any other line on the market. And second, a quality super-braid handles line twist better than monofilament or fluorocarbon lines. I like to add 6-feet of fluorocarbon to the super-braid as a leader. Remember, this is all about detecting the bite and the combination of a super-braid main line with a fluorocarbon leader does this better than any other thing I’ve tried.

Try to keep your terminal tackle simple. For hooks I stay with black/bronze size 4 and 6 hooks. For weights I will use the thin pencil style drop-shot weights in weeds or the round drop-shot weights on deep weed lines or rocks.

We don’t use live bait when drop-shot fishing; we use all plastics. I think you’re only limited by your imagination in the choice of plastics to use, but I have my choice narrowed down to just a few. In order of preference, Bungee Twin Tail Grub, Gulp leech, Tiny Fluke and Drop-shot worm.

So where are you going to use this simple rig? How about any deep water structure, coontail covered humps, bare rock bars or deep cabbage weed lines. Any deep structure where you can effectively fish a vertical presentation is a perfect place to try the drop-shot rig. If I had to pick one place where the drop-shot really shines it would be on a deep cabbage weed line. On a couple of our area lakes fishing the drop-shot at 22 to 28 feet is not at all uncommon.

The drop-shot is generally fished vertical, not unlike a jigging spoon or live bait rig. Just lower it to the bottom, take up a little slack line and hold it there. With clients I tell them to jiggle the rig less and lift it more. Finesse plastics wiggle and shake with the slightest rod movement. Drop-shot rigging is not a power fishing technique, you have to fish it slowly, very slowly, ever so slowly… are you following the theme here? It’s not at all uncommon to move along for 15 or 20 minutes fishing a piece of structure and then look up to find that you’ve only moved the boat 50 or 60 feet from your starting point.

Hopefully, I’ve piqued your interest in this simple but productive technique. As always, stay safe and we hope to see you on the water.

[BassProAddict]

How close to the boat have y'all caught a fish with everything turned off? What I'm trying to gather is how close do bass get to the boat and still actually want to feed.

[TonkaBass]

In deep water I have caught many fish right under the boat. In shallow water I have caught fish (by sight), right under the boat. by saying "everything turned off", you mean locators, I have turned them off before to get more bites.

[BassProAddict]

Is it possible to over work a drop shot? Wouldn't a lure hanging on a d-shot rig, not being worked, look limp and "way too dead"?

[slipperybob]

You have to choose the appropriate plastics for drop shoting. The intention of working your lure is to only lift the lure and not the weight. Depending on hook and plastic combo you want to achieve a slow sink. The sinker weight not only gets you into the strike zone faster but keeps your presentation in place by acting like an anchor. In part you may not want boat drift to become part of the presentation.