Drop Shoting help

Hire a guide for the specific purpose of learning to drop shot. Sure, you can learn yourself....read, experiment, fish...
All those will work, but, if you want to save alot of time and really learn...find somebody that's known to be good at it and get them to show you.

What I learned? You can watch a 4" worm and a little bity sinker on your depth finder 40ft below the boat.
Forget those "arches" they say are fish. You will be fishing/looking for "streaks".
Your lure will make a "streak" on it's way down. The fish will be a "streak" headed toward (or away) from your lure.
A horizontal "streak" right on the bottom of your graph is probably a fish. Drop your lure and watch the streak heading down....many times that "streak" on the bottom will look like a line (streak) headed upward to meet your lure.
I never saw an fish arch on the screen....just lines/streaks.

Your right. If you see arches, your either moving too fast with the boat in which case you'll not be able to drop shot or your scroll speed on the graph is too slow, turn it up (the scroll speed)all the way. This will enable you to see the streaks not arches. Works the same way with vertical jigging of a spoon. Usually in my experience when I'm on the active fish, it will appear like a bunch of blue clouds (Lowrance color unit)with streaks around it, feeding/busting shad or your rig.

80 feet of water? I'd be willing to bet you don't catch many bass in 80 feet of water. And if you do 100% of them die.

I fish the DS more than anyone I know and catch more fish on it around here than anyone I know (though I don't know everyone! LOL!!). I use it around docks, weed edges, and just about any other cover from 1' deep to around 25' deep. Here in Michigan there are VERY few bass in more than 25 feet of water... very few. The O2 level below 25' generally drops off to the point that bass will avoid water deeper than that. This is not true of all lakes of course... but most for sure.

If casting it near or under docks I try to keep it there as long as I can stand it!! Gently shaking it, then letting it dead stick a few seconds before shaking it again... usually the strike comes when you start shaking it again. At a recent tournament my partner and I boated 6 keepers off ONE dock, all on the DS.

If fishing weed edges or sharp drop offs I will cast it out along the edge and often bring it back to me slowly... shaking it the whole time. If fishing is slow I will at times cast it out and then slowly, VERY slowly move the boat towards the bait keeping the bait in that one spot the entire time.

I usually use it vertical but have also drug it slowly in coldwater looking for active fish. It is also a good technique for coldwater eyes with a 3" power minnow. For bass I usually use a 4" handpour but have tried just about everything in a pinch. If your looking to upsize try smaller creature baits or beaver baits.