Dropshot bait/color choice

[Finessegenics]

Even though I mainly fish for smallmouth I’m not the most proficient dropshotter. I’ve had some success with the technique (on split tail minnow baits) but this coming season I’m looking to drastically improve my dropshotting game. I’ve picked out some new baits and colors I think would work best. I have the berkley MaxScent flat worm in blue shiner and goby as well the Zman TrickShotz in The Deal and Goby (which is basically green pumpkin with gold and purple flake). 

 

I wanted to get a third bait (or color) that might offer something different. My main question is, is it worth throwing a straight black dropshot bait? Some of the spots I fish have a foot of visibility and others 2-3 foot. Not much clearer than that. I’m having some doubts about black cause it won’t imitate much. Maybe a leech? Not sure if there even are any in my rivers. So if I’d stick with the same baits what colors would you guys recommend or should I go with more of a swimbait-type bait (like the mega bass hazedong) or anything else? Thanks 

[Bird]

Black is actually a great color for stained water no matter what the bait is.

 

About all the lakes I fish are gin clear and all I've been throwing is Roboworms in morning glory, Aaron's magic and people's worm when I drop shot. 

[BoatSquirrel]

I fish water about the same color as yours.  For smallmouth, if I could not have some variety of green pumpkin, black would be #2.  Its not always about imitating a certain forage, but being seen.  

[Finessegenics]

1 hour ago, BoatSquirrel said:

I fish water about the same color as yours.  For smallmouth, if I could not have some variety of green pumpkin, black would be #2.  Its not always about imitating a certain forage, but being seen.  

What baits do you use? Just wanna try out some different things and see what works. 

[BoatSquirrel]

The lakes in my area are full of either wood or grass so its almost always a texas rigged Netbait finesse worm.  Caught my PB spotted bass and my best dropshot largie on it, plenty of smallies as well.  Unfortunately they quit making it in black but their GP is actually green as opposed to brown like some manufacturers.  That little worm is not super sexy but it flat catches em.  If I can get away with a nose hook, Jackal Crosstail shad or Yum Warning Shot work well.  Hope that helps bro!

[Spankey]

Drop shot, Split Shot and Lite T-Rigging is my favorite way to fish. I fish the most common colors but I like to pick up a slight variation Of them and fish it hard and get some type of positive results. 
 

Then at times I like fishing Shad, Bluegill and baitfish patterns. Admittedly I am not into reds. A color I just do real well with. Have a developed a phobia about them. 

[Finessegenics]

1 hour ago, Spankey said:

Drop shot, Split Shot and Lite T-Rigging is my favorite way to fish. I fish the most common colors but I like to pick up a slight variation Of them and fish it hard and get some type of positive results. 
 

Then at times I like fishing Shad, Bluegill and baitfish patterns. Admittedly I am not into reds. A color I just do real well with. Have a developed a phobia about them. 

What’s your most productive drop shot bait? 

[Spankey]

RoboWorm and Berkley Power Worm. Power Worm is gonna be a Curly Tail these days. Their straight tail finesse and flat small paddle days are long gone. I still have some but have not seen them in years. RoboWorm puts out a nice straight tail and curly tail. I do use a variety of colors but I don’t think color that important. Again I stay away from red. It just does not work for me. Other will swear by it. Don’t over look Don Ivo brand, YUM stuff, GY and others. There are a few BPS branded worms I like also. 

[J Francho]

16 hours ago, Bird said:

Black is actually a great color for stained water no matter what the bait is.

Also an excellent color for gin clear water.  Something short and leech shaped.

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

15 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Also an excellent color for gin clear water.  Something short and leech shaped.

Like half of a big/giant TRD?

[Finessegenics]

46 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Also an excellent color for gin clear water.  Something short and leech shaped.

I have some Northland soft plastic leeches. I think I’ll use those instead of buying another bait in black. 

Edited January 22, 2020 by Finessegenics

[TnRiver46]

Zoom finesse worm, zoom dead ringer, and any Small paddle tail Bait are my favorites for drop shot, although I’m fairly new to the technique . If your lake had zero leeches for thousands of years and all of a sudden a leech fell out of the sky into the water, a bass would eat it anyway. 

[roadwarrior]

Hmm...

My #1 artificial is a Rage Tail Menace...Pick your color.

 

[PourMyOwn]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Zoom finesse worm, zoom dead ringer, and any Small paddle tail Bait are my favorites for drop shot, although I’m fairly new to the technique . If your lake had zero leeches for thousands of years and all of a sudden a leech fell out of the sky into the water, a bass would eat it anyway. 

Yep. Had a guy tell me it was stupid to throw a jig and pig in my home lake years ago since there were no crawdads there. 

I may not be Mexican, but I know that carnitas are food.

[J Francho]

4 hours ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

Like half of a big/giant TRD?

I wouldn't pick that for a DS bait, but go for it.  Gulp! leeches work well for brown fish up here.

[waymont]

Yum Warning Shot or Kill Shot nose hooked are my two most productive baits. Colors: bold bluegill, Green Pumpkin, and oxblood.

[Bluebasser86]

Zoom shakyhead worm in green pumpkin was head and shoulders above everything else for me as a drop shot bait. I'm not the best with a dropshot either but I had a ton of confidence with that bait on it. A Zoom Meathead in green weenie would be a distant second.

[ww2farmer]

For a long time Gulp leeches in black were my go-to DS bait...but the panfish absolutely will not leave them alone, and it's infuriating to go through a tub of them during an outing to catch several nice smallmouth, but loose 3/4 of them to bluegills/rockbass/perch biting them in half or just plain eating them off the hook with their evil witchcraft.

 

Then I switched to Yum Warning shot's....slathered in megastrike, I caught just as many quality fish as I did with Gulp, no panfish frustration, but the QC is soo soo bad with them, often entire packs would have bent tails. For $2.99 a bag, I looked past it for a while, but then grew tired of it.

 

Now I'm on to baits with better packaging to ensure straight tails. I am smitten with the Xzone slammers, and Zman trickshotz the past few years.

 

Boring old green pumpkin works all the time, anywhere. I fine tune my color selection based on conditions by using green pumpkin based stuff with some orange, gold, purple, or chart. accents (either flakes, laminates with those colors, or tails dipped/colored with dye) and have great success.

[roadwarrior]

11 minutes ago, ww2farmer said:

Boring old green pumpkin works all the time, anywhere. 

[Finessegenics]

6 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

For a long time Gulp leeches in black were my go-to DS bait...but the panfish absolutely will not leave them alone, and it's infuriating to go through a tub of them during an outing to catch several nice smallmouth, but loose 3/4 of them to bluegills/rockbass/perch biting them in half or just plain eating them off the hook with their evil witchcraft.

 

Then I switched to Yum Warning shot's....slathered in megastrike, I caught just as many quality fish as I did with Gulp, no panfish frustration, but the QC is soo soo bad with them, often entire packs would have bent tails. For $2.99 a bag, I looked past it for a while, but then grew tired of it.

 

Now I'm on to baits with better packaging to ensure straight tails. I am smitten with the Xzone slammers, and Zman trickshotz the past few years.

 

Boring old green pumpkin works all the time, anywhere. I fine tune my color selection based on conditions by using green pumpkin based stuff with some orange, gold, purple, or chart. accents (either flakes, laminates with those colors, or tails dipped/colored with dye) and have great success.

I was interested in Xzone Slammers. Think I might give those a shot too, they have some great color choices too. I think I’ll go with 309, green pumpkin top, with a iridescent blue belly.