Maryland's Who's who!

[fishwizzard]

I keep meeting guys around here who swear by dropshoting from the bank, but I have no confidence in it and the few times I have tried have been a total bust.  

 

 

[fishangdood]

1 hour ago, Bunnielab said:

I keep meeting guys around here who swear by dropshoting from the bank, but I have no confidence in it and the few times I have tried have been a total bust.  

 

 

I was in the same boat last season.  It definitely is the go to technique for the mid-day.   I pretty much keep the rod tip elevated between 12 and 2 o clock and add more height to the presentation with my elbows at least chest height when the line's out 15+ yards.  I was once a firm believer in that it was only a boater's technique.  Man was I wrong. 

 

Second to that, for a mid-day bait, would have to go to the shakyhead with a zman finesse worm or an aertail.

[Joshua Vandamm]

Thanks for the input y'all. 

Shakey head w a cut tail and weightless jelly worm got it done ok. I thinks there an overabundance of smaller bass there. Same with centennial. 

Drop shot works from the bank about as well as Carolina rigs. Maybe a little better. I go their rarely tho. Last resort. 

[fishwizzard]

What size Jelly Worm were you using?  I have used the 6" on shakyheads or neko rigs and while I have have tried the 12" ones weighless, I have never gotten a hit. 

[Joshua Vandamm]

8" is sweet-spot. out performs senkos for me. In black grape. 

Ive used 12" with not too much luck. Only hogs will go for it. Use only when I'm sick of catching small fish. 

Also 8" and up no weight required with the heavy nose, but a splitshot right at/above the hook eye helps with the action. 

[fishwizzard]

Interesting, I has assumed the 8" would still float to much to do anything other than twitch on the surface.  Right now I use Producto Tournament worms for my 8" worms and they are really high floaters.  

[Joshua Vandamm]

They actually sink pretty quickly, like 1ft/s or so because of the hard nose. They stand up off the bottom on thier own also. 

[fishwizzard]

Oh, you have the Hardnose ones, I have the regular ones and they suspend/very very slowly sink.  I have always wanted to try their hardnose flukes, but have never remembered to order them. 

[Joshua Vandamm]

On 8/12/2017 at 6:35 AM, Bunnielab said:

Oh, you have the Hardnose ones, I have the regular ones and they suspend/very very slowly sink.  I have always wanted to try their hardnose flukes, but have never remembered to order them. 

There's only 1 kind as far as I know. I'm talking the original jelly worm. The head is just denser plastic. 

 

This guy:

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Manns_Jelly_Worm/descpage-MJW.html

[Junger]

Hey MD bass anglers, I new to the forum and here's my quick intro.

Anywho, my first contribution:  Went to Lake Whetstone on Sunday afternoon with my dad and fished from 1-3PM, water was stained, and wind was gusting at times. I wasn't expecting to catch anything, and was really scouting it out to take my kids one day. I'm kind of new to bass fishing and trying to refine some techniques, so I wanted to try out a wacky rigged senko that I've seen a lot of people use on youtube. I put on a 5" watermelon with red flakes on a 2/0 octopus hook and started roaming the banks. Got one small 9" LMB in about 30 minutes, and 1 hit about 30 mins later. My dad was throwing a small jig with a spinner on light tackle. He saw my bass and snuck into my tackle bag, where I had 5" pink senkos that I told him I've seen a ton of people catch fish with...on youtube of course. He texas rigged it and casted out in the middle of the lake...which seems like would catch nothing. Next I see him walking across the dock as if he's snagged, but then a fish jumps out of the water. He wasn't snagged, he had a fish on...it took him about what seems like 15 minutes to reel that fish in on his light rod, 10lb mono test. It actually ran under the pavilion and I thought it was going to rub loose against the wood pylons, but I managed to reach down and grab it in the mouth. It was just barely gullet hooked and I got the 2/0 out pretty clean and wanted to revive it a little before taking a picture. Of course it shook off as soon as it hit the water. I estimate about a 3.5-4lber, it had a large brown spot on one side of the head, not surprised since that lake is basically a large run off. The kid at the boat dock said it was the biggest one all year so far.  Anyways, sorry for the wall of text. Hope to gain some more fishing knowledge from some local guys and maybe meet up with a few of you.

[fishwizzard]

On 8/12/2017 at 11:40 AM, Jvanda1 said:

There's only 1 kind as far as I know. I'm talking the original jelly worm. The head is just denser plastic. 

 

This guy:

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Manns_Jelly_Worm/descpage-MJW.html

 

I think they have both hardnose and normal worms in the 8" size.  

http://i.imgur.com/9NqDUPf.png

[Joshua Vandamm]

Nope. Thats the original. It has a "hard nose". Lol

[fishwizzard]

Went out this morning and gave the dropshot a good try.

 

About 10-12 casts in, this guy grabbed it and ran hard.

I don't have any long spinning rods, so I was fishing it on a L/MF casting rod with a PX68 spooled with 20lb braid to a 8lb flouro leader.  Not ideal, but it was what I had at hand this morning.  The first bass was a blast, it took a bit of doing to land her as the hook was had just barely caught the corner of her mouth.  I got a drink soon after, then had, almost back to back, two good hits where the bass ran with the lure for a dozen seconds but when I tried to get a good hookset the rig came flying back to be both times.  I was using an Owner #1 wacky hook and a 6" Robo, rigged like this;

It came through muck and branches really well, but I felt like I was missing fish and switched over to throwing the Robos weightless on a 1/0 worm hook and managed three more bass, but nothing over a pound.  

 

I am going to stick with bank dropshotting as I feel like it works a ton better then a t-rig on muck-bottoms.  I think I am going to try and use my 1/0 worm hooks for dropshot so I can keep the rig weedless but give the bass a little more hook to stick themselves on.  

[Lendiesel22]

Bulking everything up bubba shot style works well with less than desirable bottoms as well...it may help get bigger bites too. 

[fishwizzard]

2 hours ago, Lendiesel22 said:

Bulking everything up bubba shot style works well with less than desirable bottoms as well...it may help get bigger bites too. 

 

Yea, I have some hooks that I now think are too big for finesse drop shotting, so I want to try upsizing it a bit at some point.  I did a little yard casting today and am working out how to cast the rig on my bfs combo a bit more smoothly.  I spooled up with 6lb fluoro, I wanted to start light and I had the butt-end of a spool to use up in any case.  I have my eye on a few stormwater ponds to give some attention to.  They are miserable to fish with most bottom contact lures so I am excited to see how I can do with a dropshot.  

[Lendiesel22]

I fish mostly DE ponds and rivers and have yet to find the need to adhere to deep clear water drop shot rules. No special gear or light line is really needed especially when bubba shotting.  For muck bottoms use a stick style weight up to 1/2oz, 2 or 3/0 ewg with a rage bug on it and go to work. Break out the sissy sticks when the water is clear and temps are low

[fishwizzard]

I have been doing a ton of reading over the last day or so and it is really looking like I had a poor understanding of how versatile a presentation a drop shot can be.  I have been struggling a bit in the muck bottom ponds around here and I think it is going to be a great tool for that, both finesse and bubba versions.  

[Junger]

Is anyone going to fish during the eclipse? If so, do you think the fish will behave as if it's an extended dusk?

[BrianinMD]

Will not make any difference...

[fishwizzard]

Welp, so I guess a thing to look out for when drop shotting with a casting combo is to make sure the weight is on securely.  I found this out for myself this afternoon.

I was doing pretty good, I hit up a small stormwater pond and managed four small bass on my first quick lap around the bank.  I had just started going back to work a few spots a bit harder when I got a good hit.  The fish came off and I neglected to check the weight when I reset my worm.  I made a quick cast to try and get him again and my weight flew off as soon as I let my thumb off the spool.  

[Junger]

My first time out on a kayak to fish. I missed 3 fish, landed 1 LMB that came off at the kayak (I didn't have net), and 1 snakehead. Kayak fishing was OK, but there are definitely issues I have with it, such as trying to stay stationary on a certain spot to throw poppers or other top waters along a specific edge.

[fishwizzard]

Very nice!  I still have yet to catch a snakehead, what did you get him on?

 

And yea, drifting around is annoying. If you are shallow a 6-8' fiberglass tomato stake will work great on most of the soft bottomed spots around here.  For deeper water you can make a hillbilly anchor with any weight you can find and just sit on the rope to hold position.  It does not work at all in any real wind or current, but it will keep me in the same spot in a breeze.  

 

 

[Junger]

2 hours ago, Bunnielab said:

I still have yet to catch a snakehead, what did you get him on?

 

 

I caught him on a white Zoom Horny Toad with a 4/0 rigged weightless. I had brought 2 rods that day, 1 rigged with a popper and 1 with frogs. I couldn't fish the popper at all because of the drift so I had to park myself into the weeds and threw the frog all day. I saw the pics of the SH's from the C&O canal in this thread, I'll have to start hitting that more often.

[Fried Lemons]

Fished the great falls area for 3 hours today. Caught 3 12-16" smallies, so a fairly slow day. On my "last cast" I hooked and lost a giant smallie just as I was reaching down to lip it. My old pb was 19" and I have caught many in the 18" range. This fish was in a different league. 21"+ with a massive girth.

[Junger]

Went out to Lake Whetstone for about 2 hours on Saturday. My kids caught some bluegill, lots of action on live worms for them to keep them interested. Mommy took them on a paddle boat ride when they needed a change of pace.

 

Ended up with a pounder on a texas rigged pink super fluke, and missed 2 others on a wacky rigged pink senko.