What's This New Rig Called The Drop Shot?

[J Francho]

Not at all. I use a much heavier weight than most recommend when deep drop for smallies. In fact, that's pretty much the same rig they used on the party boats fishing saltwater wrecks.

[LunkerFisher]

Don't forget to check your state's regulations on this rig too. In Michigan, it's illegal to drop shot in rivers.

[Todd2]

Don't forget to check your state's regulations on this rig too. In Michigan, it's illegal to drop shot in rivers.

Any reason why?

[LunkerFisher]

Any reason why?

DNR says so.

[J Francho]

It's to prevent snagging trout and salmon.

[reason162]

Not at all. I use a much heavier weight than most recommend when deep drop for smallies. In fact, that's pretty much the same rig they used on the party boats fishing saltwater wrecks.

 

Thank you. 

 

Friend told me how in Korea all they use for Olive Flounder (very close cousin to "fluke" on the east coast and california halibut on the west) are DS rigs. They're fishing 60-80 ft in the ocean, with 2-5 oz sinkers. 

 

[Dredd]

Noobie question - how do you attach the dropshot sinker to your line? Do you tie a overhand knot and wedge it between the V?

[ib_of_the_damned]

Noobie question - how do you attach the dropshot sinker to your line? Do you tie a overhand knot and wedge it between the V?

The weight does not need a knot. You just "wedge" the line in the clip and friction takes over. Also the reason being that you don't need a knot is that if the weight gets hung up you can just pull and it will pop off and you just attach another weight the same way.

[MrBigFishSC]

Ok, finally got the boat out this evening and only had about 2 hours after work. I went to a little trolling motor only lake close to my house. My goal...catch my first drop shot fish. I went to the dam area where I usually do good on other stuff. I tried to force feed them a drop shot worm for about an hour and half before I gave up and picked up my jig rod. It took all of one cast to hook up with a nice one and backed it up with two more smaller ones. This is in the same spot I had wore out with the drop shot. So...either I don't know how to fish a drop shot (very likely) or you can't force feed bass something they don't want even if it is a drop shot. Looking forward to getting back out and trying again.

I use drop shotting as a counter punch when other techniques aren't working. Example: we recently had several days of low pressure with clouds and spotty rain. Before the front the bite was good (as usual) but it slowed way down after a couple of days. Nothing was working so I switched to drop shotting in deeper water and found some good fish. Aaron Martens fishes this on TV most of the time but he gets beat a lot too byguys throwing something else.

[Shanes7614]

Ok, finally got the boat out this evening and only had about 2 hours after work. I went to a little trolling motor only lake close to my house. My goal...catch my first drop shot fish. I went to the dam area where I usually do good on other stuff. I tried to force feed them a drop shot worm for about an hour and half before I gave up and picked up my jig rod. It took all of one cast to hook up with a nice one and backed it up with two more smaller ones. This is in the same spot I had wore out with the drop shot. So...either I don't know how to fish a drop shot (very likely) or you can't force feed bass something they don't want even if it is a drop shot. Looking forward to getting back out and trying again.

Your covering a lot more bottom with your jig presentation then while drop shotting. It's a killer technique for bedding bass in the super clear and deep lakes out in Cali and other similar places.

[RoLo]

The concept of dropshotting is well over a hundred years old, which sprang from various saltwater rigs

such as Dropper rigs, Three-Way rigs, Hi-Lo rigs & Xmas Tree rigs.

 

The dropshot rig added two welcome modifications to the saltwater dropper rig:

1) It eliminated the dropper loops & dropper lines by attaching the hook directly to the main line (improved depth control)

2) The desired suspension above bottom is easily adjusted by sliding the dropshot sinker without any retying.

 

Roger

[J Francho]

You also have an uninterrupted connection between the rod tip and the hook.

[SirSnookalot]

Thank you. 

 

Friend told me how in Korea all they use for Olive Flounder (very close cousin to "fluke" on the east coast and california halibut on the west) are DS rigs. They're fishing 60-80 ft in the ocean, with 2-5 oz sinkers. 

 

I agree.  The DS is different in saltwater, generally speaking boats are drifting with depths over 60 or 80'.  Even a moderate 2.5 mph drift your going to need 2-5 oz or more depending depth to hold bottom.  Even at drift with that kind of weight as Francho said there is no slack in the line.  

Metal jig fish (butterfly jigging) is one of the hotter tickets these days over wrecks. 

[blckshirt98]

I'm out on Cali, fish 100% from shore, and use a dropshot 90% of the time.  A big part of that is because it's a technique I picked up early when starting to fish freshwater, and had a lot of success with it, so I never bothered to learn other techniques when I knew I'd get bit on a dropshot.

 

I always use a size 4 or 6 hook, a 1/4 or 3/8 bakudan weight, and small plastics (3.5-5") nose hooked for better movement in the water.  Whatever plastic you use be sure to drop it right in front of you and see how the bait reacts in the water based on how you impart action.  When nose hooked you really don't need more than a light tap of a fingertip or tiny flick of the wrist to get the plastic to move.  It's really easy to work it aggressively like say a c-rig or t-rig bait but that'll give the plastic unnatural movement.

 

You really want to keep the bait out in the depth zones you want to check for as long as possible - after casting I'll spend 2-3 minutes at that depth lightly tapping the rod every so often, reel in a bit, fish that depth, reel in a bit, fish that depth, repeat, until I find where the fish are.  Little fish will aggressively hit the bait, the larger fish will be very subtle where you may not even feel a tick, but a light pull on your line that will get heavier.

 

The hardest part is being patient with working the plastic.  I've started to fish more reaction type baits like swimbaits/squarebills/vibrating jigs and noticed that once I fish those, and go back to the dropshot, it's really difficult to be patient.

[MrBigFishSC]

Blckshirt98,

I agree with you. What is your setup? Mine is a 6'9" Dobyn's M/L with a Symetre 2500 spooled with 8 lb fluoro. I usually have 3/16 or 1/4 oz weight tied on and a #4 spinshot hook. I also use small baits. Have caught many nice fish this way.

[blckshirt98]

Blckshirt98,

I agree with you. What is your setup? Mine is a 6'9" Dobyn's M/L with a Symetre 2500 spooled with 8 lb fluoro. I usually have 3/16 or 1/4 oz weight tied on and a #4 spinshot hook. I also use small baits. Have caught many nice fish this way.

 

I'll use either a Phenix Elixir FX802-1X with a Diawa Fuego 1000A spooled with 8lb Nanofil with a 6lb leader, or, a Phenix M1 MX-S72M with a 2500 sized Shimano spooled with 15lb PowerPro with a 7lb leader.  I'll use the lighter setup on places where i know there aren't as many hangups or when I know all I'll be doing is dropshotting.  The other setup I'll bring if I want to do other things because I can also throw other plastics (c-rig, t-rig, senkos) and smaller crankbaits/spinnerbaits on it.