Drop shot

[Eric B]

Need some help with the drop shot rig how to tie? how to work? what baits? Any info would be great. Thanks.

[flathead266]

I asked this question awhile ago. Here are the sites that I went too. All have good info.

http://insideline.net/2001/battisti-0102-01.html
http://www.aaronmartens.com/featured.shtml
And their are a couple on http://www.bassresource.com

I have two rods for it personally. A Shimano Crucial 7' casting dropshot/shakeyhead rod, and a Shimano Crucial 6' 3" spinning. I usually use a Yamamoto Flattail or kut tail. Another good bait is a dropshot worm made by poor boys. I use 6 and 8 lb P-Line Floroclear. I usually fish it around areas where I would normally work a texas rig, it gives the fish something different. Alot of people use it as a vertical presentation, but my home lake is only 20ft deep average. I often fish it around humps and other off shore structure, with pretty good results. If you can find concentrations or schools of fish, this is a killer technique, especially with more than one hook tied on. I just throw it out, let it sink to the bottom, and start my retrieve. I keep the rod tip up, keeping the line taunt, keeping steady pressure on the rig. I fish is very SLOWLY. Twitching it in place and then hoping it, and then repeat until it is in.

[Trapman]

i fish a drop shot a lot here for deep fish both casting and verticle. the best bait i have found for it is zoom flukes. but any plastic will work with the right size hook.

[Eric B]

Thanks guys.

[Bass Hawk 87]

I rig mine with a #2 or #4 circle hook. I use the Sugoi Split Shot hooks but there are many that are good choices.

I use a 6 1/2 - 7' spinning rod. Medium light action with a fast tip. 6-10# test depending on water clarity, and I prefer P-line as it is very strong.

I tie the hook on using a palomar knot. Make sure you leave a long tag line below the hook. If the hook is pointing down instead of up (a common mistake at first) just slip the tag end back through the top of the eye and it will turn the hook over.

Add a weight to the bottom of the tag. I like to fish the dropshot around 18-24" above the weight.

Normally I nose hook a small worm. I like the Yamamoto Kuttail, Flattail, Zoom Finesse, Meathead, Charlie Brewer's Slider worm, Roboworm Sculpin, and many others. The object is to choose a straight bodied bait.

Cast the rig out, but lob it like a c-rig so as not to throw the worm off the hook. Picture it as live bait and you will do fine.

Allow the bait to settle and then tighten the line, and just start to lift the tip slowly while shaking the rod tip. In essence, you are shaking the worm slowly and making appear to quiver and flutter like a dying or injured shad or other baitfish.

Then drop the rod take up slack and repeat.

This rig can be worked in water as shallow as a couple of feet or as deep as 50 or 60' and it is effective everywhere.

As an alternative, if you are targeting bigger fish, try using a 4" or 5" Senko type bait wacky rigged through the eggsack, and use the same retrieve.

One more thing, when you get a bite, DO NOT SET THE HOOK!!!!!

This is important. Instead just lift the rod tip and start reeling steadily. The fish will pull back and set the hook itself. If you jerk you will miss them everytime.

[Ouachita]

I've read the articles and notice little said about fishing the drop shot other than on bottom. I used the rig like most fishermen growing up, using earthworms. The rig described above is the way we did it, minus artificial baits. We always held the rig at whatever depth fish were at, often not on bottom unless going after catfish, and those don't always stay on bottom, often feeding on baitfish. Not having sounders then, we started on bottom then brought it up in 5 foot increments to find fish. The sinker holds the line tight enough to detect a bite. It can be cast out and fished back in a descending arc to the boat, never reaching bottom. Some impressive tournament creels have come that way casting to bridge supports, letting the rig swim through fish. In shallow clear water where fishing vertically the rig was held on bottom a distance away to prevent spooking of fish, knowing they move away from under a boat soon enough. In deeper water vertical fishing worked fine. The rule then and now was keep the line wet. Exposure of bait is directly related to the bite, so patience in keeping a bait presented is the object, sometimes far better than having a swimming bait in a strike zone a fraction of the time you are casting and reeling. The drop shot excels where bass are stacked up, not spread out. If spread out the C-rig works better.

When vertical fishing the drop shot and I know bass are not near bottom but suspended above it, instead of using a sinker on the tag end I use a small jig, giving them two choices. The rig is held just above the fish. In clear water I don't give it motion, while in tinted to stained water I'll work it in circles. When suspended, bass generally are not in a biting mood, but if you can tease one into biting it can excite others into biting. That jig sinker can result in occasional hooking of two bass. Another twist is to put a small suspending jerkbait on instead of hook and plastic finesse worm, using a short leader to reduce hook fouling of the main line. Few bass have seen a 2" jerkbait messing around 50 feet down. Sometimes it works when nothing else will.

Jim

[TMike]

Another article for ya to read about Spot Shottin that might help :)

http://www.tritonmike.com/flattail.html

T Mike

[Ouachita]

GOOD reading, there, Mike. Thanks for passing that along.

Jim

[Eric B]

Thanks

[Ouachita]

It just occured to me Mike you wrote about using that rig off bottom! Did ya get any negative feedback about that? I caught hell over that over on Bassmaster forum. "It ain't a drop shot fished off bottom."

Jim

[herbertrhudy]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ouachita &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It just occured to me Mike you wrote about using that rig off bottom! Did ya get any negative feedback about that? I caught hell over that over on Bassmaster forum. "It ain't a drop shot fished off bottom."

Jim</TD></TR></TABLE>not asked of me but Id tell them to kiss my arse!!!it doesnt matter how its fished its still a dropshot just like a C-rig is with a Crankbait instead of a worm on it(yeah I do that too)as long as it catches fish it dont matter(wander if they ever tied the hook of a dropshot 12 feet above the weight before)same thing just differant way!!!!!!!!sounds to me they fish one way and think its the only way and thats all they will do and if it doesnt catch fish owell!!but somedays I cant buy a bite and try the craziest things and catch good quality fish(ever put a worm or grub on a buzzbait instead of a skirt?)

[Ouachita]

It finally settled down. I sure wish I'd have found Mike's article for backup. Their articles stressed only holding the sinker on bottom even though some top pro I read about got a victory "pendulum" fishing a drop shot under a bridge, not touching bottom, but couldn't find the article.

Yes, I've put the plastic minnows, grubs, anythng that woud fit on a buzzbait hook minus skirt, and that works sometimes.

I started bassing in 1959 and not being able to afford even a bag of Creme worms when they became available locally resorted to making my own out of tire inner tubes on home-made bucktail jigs. It worked very well and probably still would. Back then people laughed over their first sight of the Creme, nobody knowing how to use it and wouldn't be caught trying. Well, nowadays I'm doing weird things with the drop shot and C-rig, dabbling with floating and suspending jerkbaits on both instead of soft plastics all the time. It gets healthy laughs when folks see that rig dangling from a rod, and lately I've been stowing the rig away out of sight. Heck, it works. I always want to be fishing a little differently from anyone else.

Jim

[herbertrhudy]

you got that right

[Bass Hawk 87]

Yep,

Every new technique was new sometime when someone tried it the first time. Never be afraid to be innovative.

[borderbasser]

I tie mine with a cinch knot and use a small octopus hook when finesse fishing with powerpro braid. and i work in on a slack line.

[TMike]

Is this the article you are thinking of? My friend Marc Marcantonio wrote about the dropswimming techinque which is a suspending dropshot similiar to a split shot rig but rigged like a dropshot with a smalllll quickdrop weight.

http://espn.go.com/outdoors/ti....html

T Mike