Drop shot question

[bigtimfish]

I have fished this rig a few times. Not much. I have had a little success,but I have never hooked into a sowbelly doing this(about 2 lbs is the biggest). I was just wondering if I am tying the correct knot. I use a palomar and leave a really long tag end off the hook to tie the sinker. I know my dad has a prerigged one. Is this the correct knot for this or should I buy the prerigged kind?

[SammyLee]

For a quite awhile, drop shot was the only way I could fish for LMB.  I just did not know how to fish plastics or cranks so I did a lot of drop shot.

Yes, a polamar knot is the knot to use.  How long the tag line is based on conditions.  If the bottom is weedy or deep mud then I use a shorter tag line to the drop shot weight, maybe 10 to 12 inches.  If the bottom is mostly clean then I may make the tag line 18 to 20 inches.  I always tie with a long tag line and then just trim to where I want the sinker to be.

I also put the tag line end back through the front of the hook eye to make the hook stand more erect from the main line.

[bigtimfish]

Thank you

[Raul]

I have fished this rig a few times. Not much. I have had a little success,but I have never hooked into a sowbelly doing this(about 2 lbs is the biggest). I was just wondering if I am tying the correct knot. I use a palomar and leave a really long tag end off the hook to tie the sinker. I know my dad has a prerigged one. Is this the correct knot for this or should I buy the prerigged kind?

My friend, success depends upon many factors not just one, choosing the right rig and bait at the right time in the right location is part of what makes you succesful.

Like in every single other rig you can tie the way you rig it, how much weight you add and in the case of the DS rig, how far you tie your hook from the weight ( "leader" length ) also determine how succesful you can be.

For example: Your dad may be using a 12 inch leader and whupping them while you are using an 8 inch leader, the same bait and you are getting skunked. Those 4 inches difference in the leader length can be the difference between catching fish and getting skunked.

You see, there are no "rules", nowhere it 's written on stone that the leader in a DS rig has to be "X", it 's only a suggestion and from there you adapt to your needs.

[J Francho]

Look up Rich Zaleski Drop Shot, and you'll find one of the best articles on the subject.

Here's what I use a drop shot rig for:

Deep water.  Instead of waiting for an unweighted plastic to get down to the fish, the DS rig expedites the bait through the dead water.

Dragging.  This keeps your bait out of the slime, or away from the zebra and quagga mussels that will tear it up, or worse, nick the line between the hook and your rod.  The weight and tag line are sacrificial.  This also works in current, very similar to the bottom bouncing drift techniques used by trout fisherman in the Pac. Northwest and Great Lakes tribs.

Pinning a bait.  This allows you to keep a bait in action, yet still in one place.  Absolutely deadly for spawning bass (see below).  A similar method is to use magnum gear for mat crashing.  The weight of the sinker pulls the weedless bait through the canopy, while leaving weightless, once settled.

You can pretty much use any rod, reel, line, hook, and bait with this, though most application involve finesse plastics.

Here is the 2nd biggest SMB I caught with a drop shot 4" Power Worm:

[roadwarrior]

I don't recall that particular pic. She's a beauty!

;D ;D ;D

[The Yankee Fist]

Wow! Nice fish! :)

[J Francho]

I don't recall that particular pic. She's a beauty!

;D ;D ;D

Yes you have, LOL.....I post it all the time.  It was also up here (yes, I'm bragging!)

http://www.versuscountry.com/bassspawnmap.aspx?rid=3986 (scroll down)

[The Yankee Fist]

Love them GL fish.....I go to my buddy's cabin up above the Georgian Bay area and man, the smallmouth are huge, angry and teeming.

[J Francho]

Yep, I love them too.  Its funny, we've been using various rigs very similar to the modern drop shot for decades.  The only real difference is the length of the drop line, better hooks and sinkers, and the trick with running the tag end through the eye.  My grampa called it a "tightline" rig.  If you used a snelled hook dangling off the mainline, it was a "catfish" or "bottom" rig.

The newer hooks and weights make it a very versatile terminal rig.  If you fish the Great Lakes, and don't use it at least some of the time, you are missing fish.

I forgot to mention one more method, probably because I'm not so good at it.  The Dangle.  I know of guys that use this to catch suspended smallies feeding on schooling bait.  They locate the bait with their graph, and using the narrow beam, "fish in the cone,"  dropping their bait near the edge of the bait ball, in the middle of the water column, like 17' down over 40 FOW.  This is a tough one for me, and all I've caught with it is a little pike, LOL.