Drop Shotting Casting Distance And Retrieve

[iceintheveins]

I am new to drop shotting. Most of the lakes I fish, the deepest water is 17 - 18 feet. I have tried drop shotting briefly when conditions were really tough and have landed one small 11" bass. My question is, since I am mostly fishing flat bottoms in the deepest water during tough conditions, how far should I cast out from the boat? How should I retrieve the bait too?

[ww2farmer]

If your not catching fish drop shotting, casting it further won't put more in the boat, your not around fish.......simple as that. LEss is more when drop shotting. Put it in the area where there are fish and sit still. I see far too many people shaking, hopping, there stuff while dropshotting, and NOT catching fish. Then proclaim dropsshotting don't work. I like to pitch my rig out a short distance to the are aI want to fish, tighten the line and let it sit. the most movement I might give it is gently "bouncing" the the line, but without moving the sinker off the bottom. Other times I cast the drop shot out, keeping my line tight and sinker on the bottom, and just let the wind drift the boat while the rig drags across the bottom. Some time If there is no wind I slowly drag it back to me just using the reel, without any exagerated line or rod movement. And the third way I like to fish is is straight down in the sonar cone. See fish on graph, drop to fish on graph, reel fish up, and repeat.

[mikey5string]

Dont fish deep flat bottoms. You wont find many fish there. Look for areas of change like ridges, humps, weedlines, drop offs etc. You can drop shot in submerged weeds by rigging the bait weedless. The pencil weights dont hang up very much.

In a boat, I wouldnt cast a DS. Just let it drop down vertically. You can drift to cover water. When casting a drop shot, make the leader longer than you would if you were fishing vertical as the angle will make the bait lower. Just drag it a foot or two and shake it, then deadstick the bait. Wait for as long as you can and pull it a few more feet and repeat.

[Quillback]

I was out drop shotting on Table Rock today, did OK, maybe got a dozen or so on the DS, and a half dozen on topwater. Mostly Spotted bass with a couple of LM. I was getting them in 25-30 FOW. Mostly off long points and gravel flats near deep water channel swings. I'll fish the DS a couple of different ways, first off I'm always watching the sonar, if I see fish and/or bait I'll drop it vetrtically down and gently shake it, with a little dragging as the boat moves. If I'm not seeing anything on the sonar I'll move around, fan casting, relativeliy short casts, letting it reach bottom (sometimes they'll pick it up on the fall, they were doing that a lot today), then I'll slowly drag it back.

Got a double header, put down the drop shot with the bait on the bottom, cast a topwater at some busting fish, got a fish on the TW, look down and see my DS rod tip getting yanked, set the hook on the DS, put the rod down (with my foot on it), landed the TW fish, then landed the DS fish.