Where and when to dropshot?

[RealtreeByGod]

I generally prefer finesse fishing, but this is the one obvious technique I've never tried out. What time and what kind of structure / cover / bottom composition should I be using it around? 

[Fishin' Fool]

I would consider myself a finesse fisherman also and this is absolutely one of my favorite ways to fish. You can fish that way anytime from spring to fall. It seems to work better when the fish are less active or not actively chasing moving lures because the lure stays in the strike zone for longer. Sandy and rocky bottoms are ideal. Weeds that extend high off the bottom is not best for this technique. Get yourself some size 1 Gamakatsu split shot/drop shot hooks and some Yamamoto shad shape worms, some Roboworms, some Poor Boys DS darters and go to it. Very easy way to catch fish.

[Fishes in trees]

You can drop shot anywhere.  There is a lot of literature out there with various suggestions on where to start.  Put yourself together a rig and go start fishing it.  Me - I've done better the last 5 years or so with a "Bubba" drop shot approach, which consists of a 7 1/2" flipping stick, small bait casting reel and 20 lb fluorocarbon line.  I will drop this down amongst tree roots, edge of weediness, on the shady side of stumps, whatever.   For me it seems to work best in more than 3 feet and not much more than 10 feet of water.   I know guys at Table Rock Lake and other clear deep water reservoirs fish the drop shot, in a much more finesse style, much deeper than that, but none of that kind of water is closer than 4 hours or so from me, so I don't have hardly any experience doing that.

When I tried the traditional finesse drop shot style on the lakes I commonly fish at, I got broke off ALOT.

[BigAngus752]

90% of the lakes I fish are man-made and almost entirely weed/wood bottom.  I'll sit in 6-10ft of water pitching at shade and laydowns on the bank and my wife will put a small plastic (or a live red worm) on a drop shot and fish off the back.  She has caught bass, channel cats, bluegill, and warmouth.  Don't be afraid to fish the drop shot anywhere there's structure that could hold fish and try whatever plastic you have laying around.  You can catch all sorts of stuff.  Some people find it boring but it's just as interesting as properly fishing a Ned rig.  I'm not bored if I'm catching.  

[Hammer 4]

You can drop shot, anywhere, and any time of the year.

[Dens228]

I fish a lot of quarries from a kayak.  Dropshot is going to be next years new technique to add.  I'm hoping for some success!

 

[Hook2Jaw]

11 hours ago, RealtreeByGod said:

I generally prefer finesse fishing, but this is the one obvious technique I've never tried out. What time and what kind of structure / cover / bottom composition should I be using it around? 

I'm better at finesse than power, and only have a tad amount of drop shot experience, probably 50 fish or so.  Some of my favorite baits for it are YUM Kill Shots(these guys are a slayer.  2.99 a pack and they get bit.), the YUM Sharpshooter, both sizes, and the YUM 4" Dinger, wacky rigged.

 

I pretty much exclusively use Lunkerhunt Dropshot Hooks, and don't knock them before you try them.  They are sticky and pin fish.  Water Gremlin Dipsey Sinkers because man, tungsten is expensive and I'm not willing to take a dollar hit everytime I lose one.

 

Dropshotting is a less is more technique.  Allowing slack into my line to allow my bait to slowly fall has gotten me most of my bites.  Shaking it lightly also gets bit.

 

I use these finesse approaches for shallow and deep water, and keep it away from grass and laydowns.

 

Alternatively I use a 7' MHF with trick worms, full size stick worms, and paddle tail swimbaits.  The tricks and sticks are worked like previously mentioned.  The swimbait is slow reeled along the bottom.  This is done on a 1/0 EWG, rigged weedless, with 3/8 to 1/2oz weights near and in cover.  12-14# fluoro for this one, personally.

 

Dropshotting can be as finesse or power as you want it to be, and can work at any time of the year.  It seems to be the Ned rig of the past.  It gets bit.  Good luck! 

[Tim Kelly]

Reins 4" bubbling shaker is my absolute confidence bait. Just flat out works, and scuppernong my favorite colour. About the only alternative I occasionally use if the fish are on larger baitfish is a superfluke. So nice to have a confidence technique simplified to a point where I don't worry about bait selection. Makes where and how I fish the bait the total focus.

[Troy85]

I throw it usually in dog days of summer, or the colder day of winter depending on where I'm fishing. If I'm fishing the more shallow and weed filled marsh, I throw it more in the winter holes after the grass has mostly died off.  If I'm fishing more of a man made lake that doesn't have as much grass or more of a hard bottom I throw it more in the heat of the summer around docks.

[Choporoz]

I'll mention first that I've always disliked drop shotting....I always felt the technique is boring to me and the fish seemed to run small.  I have little patience for do-nothing presentations.

 

But, I put a fair amount of work into it this year and there's certainly a time and place for it.

 

If the bite is slow, but I'm marking fish in trees and brush piles, then I'm probably going to try a drop shot.  I still like jigs, cranks and shaky heads in brush, but admit that I have had some really slow days turn around by parking on top of brush with a drop shot.  It might be my imagination, but it seems that pulling fish off a pile with a drop shot is less disruptive to the community there.  If I'm banging jigs and cranks, I find that time between bites is a lot longer than with a drop shot which can get bit every time you put it in a pile for 5 or more fish.

[fishwizzard]

I use a drop shot a ton when fishing soft/muck bottomed ponds.  A DS rig with a short leader keeps my plastic just off the bottom without getting covered with debris the same way a t-rig or small jig will.  I use 3" Easy Shiners nose hooked and retrieve them with more-or-less constant movement so they are swimming along just of the bottom.  For spots with more cover/bottom structure I use a t-rigged 6" Robos and while I still cast-n-crank a lot, I will pause and deadstick/shake whenever I feel the weight bump something on the bottom.  

[WRB]

Only use the drop shot rig when I know bass are holding on specific structure or breaks and know what depth they are at. To me drop shot is a verticle presentation. If I feel the  need to cast and drag a rig along the bottom The slip shot is my choice. Both work very well as finesse presentations. 

Drop shot is the ideal bed presentation, small area where you know the bass is and that how I fish it outside of the spawn by target small areas I know where the bass are located.

Tom

[mc6524]

My approach to dropshotting may be different.  For me, I use it once I find fish.  It’s definitely not a search bait technique.

 

You can sit in 60 feet of water and jig in 30-40 foot trees for suspended bass (this is a popular summer pattern at Tablerock lake).

 

You cal also use it for shallow fish casting it up shallow and working it back, but here again the key marking fish or have confidence that fish are in the area.

[Glenn]

 

[Boomstick]

You can use a drop shot basically any time and any where as long as it's not in some thick weeds where it'll get snagged, but drop shots work well along grass lines. And drop shots remain effective at times where other lures do not like on a hot summers day or in colder water.

[ChrisD46]

On 12/15/2019 at 8:59 PM, Fishes in trees said:

You can drop shot anywhere.  There is a lot of literature out there with various suggestions on where to start.  Put yourself together a rig and go start fishing it.  Me - I've done better the last 5 years or so with a "Bubba" drop shot approach, which consists of a 7 1/2" flipping stick, small bait casting reel and 20 lb fluorocarbon line.  I will drop this down amongst tree roots, edge of weediness, on the shady side of stumps, whatever.   For me it seems to work best in more than 3 feet and not much more than 10 feet of water.   I know guys at Table Rock Lake and other clear deep water reservoirs fish the drop shot, in a much more finesse style, much deeper than that, but none of that kind of water is closer than 4 hours or so from me, so I don't have hardly any experience doing that.

When I tried the traditional finesse drop shot style on the lakes I commonly fish at, I got broke off ALOT.

The "Bubba Shot" or power fishing a drop shot on a MH 7'3" bait cast rod + a 7:1 bait cast reel with #20 lb. FC line , a stout 4/0 flipping hook or EWG hook with a larger creature style bait or large soft plastic minnow / fluke , or paddle tail swim bait can be very effective ... I'm sure there are Bubba Shot specialists in Florida or the Cali Delta who have forgotten more than I'll ever know about the technique !

[Mr. Aquarium]

Try flipping a drop shot. I’ve done well doing that near blow downs

[Choporoz]

11 minutes ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Try flipping a drop shot. I’ve done well doing that near blow downs

Please elaborate. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

6 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Please elaborate. 

Like you would a jig. Beef up the line like 10 12lb line.  Flip it to piece of cover like wood, rocks or docks.  Give it a few jiggles. Think about it. Everyone flips a jigs a Texas rig or has a crank bounce off the cover but what if they are inactive fish. That bait in front of them slowly twitching will get them to bite. I just watched a video on YouTube by a well know bass company that said punch a drop shot through thick weeds.

[Choporoz]

Thanks. 

 

I'm not optimistic I could effectively work a drop shot in heavy cover unless it's very nearly vertical.  But, could be worth a try, I suppose.  10# line doesn't sound like anything but lost fish.

[Mr. Aquarium]

1 hour ago, Choporoz said:

Thanks. 

 

I'm not optimistic I could effectively work a drop shot in heavy cover unless it's very nearly vertical.  But, could be worth a try, I suppose.  10# line doesn't sound like anything but lost fish.

I haven’t done this in super thick cover. Look up the video Matt Allen posted on YouTube about flipping and punching. 

[Glenn]

It's called the Bubba Shot, and here's how you do it:

 

 

[Leo Vann]

Many people will tell you that grass isn’t a good place to drop shot, but that’s an incredibly ignorant thing to say. If you use a smaller EWG or worm hook, (2/0), you will do GREAT in grass. A texas rigged dropshot will catch you gobs and gobs of fish. If you worry about action, throw a slightly larger bait, (instead of a 4.5 inch bait, throw a 6.5 inch). If you really want to throw a drop shot in heavy cover, check out the Bubba Shot. Bassresource has a video on the Bubba Shot rig. 

[NeroXyn]

On 12/16/2019 at 10:05 AM, WRB said:

Only use the drop shot rig when I know bass are holding on specific structure or breaks and know what depth they are at. To me drop shot is a verticle presentation. If I feel the  need to cast and drag a rig along the bottom The slip shot is my choice. Both work very well as finesse presentations. 

Drop shot is the ideal bed presentation, small area where you know the bass is and that how I fish it outside of the spawn by target small areas I know where the bass are located.

Tom

@WRB Is there any difference between mojo, split, and slip shot? All of them seems to revolve the same concept: putting weight in between the reel and the bait. Carolina rig seems similar, too, except with extra components.

 

Thx.

[WRB]

Mojo rig pegs the cylinder weight onto the main line, no leader.

Split shot rig crimps a round lead split shot onto the main line, no leader.                                                                             Slip Shot rig lets the cylinder weight slide on the main line using a weight stopper or pegged glass bead to stop the weight above the hook, no leader.

Carolina rig uses a swivel with a glass bead to stop the sliding egg weight and uses a leader tied to the swivel.

I prefer the slip shot rig that lets the cylinder weight slide for better strike detection, ease of changing the stopper length,  the bass doesn’t feel the weight and no leader as the main line is tied direct to the hook.

Tom