Dropshotting - Am I doing this right?

[CWeb Canada]

While I have had success with drop-shotting walleyes I am looking for feedback on how to work it for smallies.

Do you just cast it out and slowly work it back to the boat/shore or do you present it in more of a vertical presentation?

Also, how would you describe the way that a smallie bites it (walleye nip at it)?

Any drop shot overview that some of you veterens can provide me would be most appreciated. The smallie lakes that I will be fishing have lots of boulders and rock piles and if I want to venture away from shore I would think this is a technique that I will want to feel confident in.

Thanks in advance.

CWeb

[RI_Bass_Guy]

I fish it both casted and vertcally depending on the situation. For deep boulders, I like to get over them and drop shot the sides vertically. Whenever I find baitfish deep with bass around them I will always fish them vertically. If I am fishing under 15-18 feet of water I usaully cast it out and let sit with a tight line for a minute, then work it back a few inches at a time. Experiment with retrieves, different one work on different days. Some days you don't work it at all,just drag it slowly back to the boat...let the fish tell you what they want

[Crestliner2008]

How you work the drop shot is dependent on the depth of the water you are fishing. If you drop shot on deep, off-shore structures, you'll vertically present it to that structure, in most instances. However, whether or not you cast it or vertically fish it is of secondary importance to where you fishing it.

On any given structure, there has to be bait. You must first find bait balls using the structure you're fishing over and then start your presentation. Here's an example of the bait balls I'm referring to:

If you find bait balls like this, you are much better off presenting your drop shot vertically. This is how we fish smallmouth bass in my neck of the woods.

As far as the bite goes, it will usually just be a feeling that your rod is getting heavy....or.....it suddenly goes completely slack. In the later instance, you'd best reel as fast as you can! He's headin' straight up at you. And this is what you can expect to find on the end of your line:

Good Luck!  

[EastMarkME]

How do you tell bait balls from vegitation Crest?

The last one especially looks like a vegitation if you didnt tell me.

Thanks ! Mark

[Crestliner2008]

How do you tell bait balls from vegitation Crest?

The last one especially looks like a vegitation if you didnt tell me.

Thanks ! Mark

Great question! First of all, you have to know your particular body of water very well, which I do with this particular reservoir. I've fished it for over 30 years. The other thing is that vegetation - at 25'+ doesn't change shape and/or density. You can actually see the thickness of the bait balls change from 2' up to 20'+ sometimes, in a matter of seconds. A sure sign you are on bait and not bottom structure and/or vegetation.

The second screen shot at 34.7' is typical of the enormous size of bait balls I've encountered many, many times. This ball of bait is a combination of yellow perch and smelt (yep, they do co-exist and school together). This school will show on the screen for as long as 30 - 40 seconds, before disappearing completely. BTW, the heavier lines on top of this ball of bait are bass. This is the exact spot and time that I caught the fish pictured in my previous post.

Also, my approach when I target these large, deep off-shore structures, is to anchor on them. You really cannot stay on a deep bait ball with an electric motor. I know because I've tried. The bait's tendency on these deep structures is not to just sit there. It moves, in unison, along the face of these drop offs, at a quite rapid rate. So, if you find a bait ball on say, a 35' drop, and anchor, the bait will return....time and time again....along with the bass in close pursuit. So you will have many opportunities to present your bait to bass.

Lastly, I cheat! Three of my fishing partners have an Aqua View!

[ks cranker]

Great example Crestliner!  Thank you!

[Fishbone]

Thanks for the shots of the fish finder screens. I got my first finder on a new boat this year and am trying to figure out what I'm looking at.

[CWeb Canada]

Thank you all for the great posts. Keep them coming!!!!

I agree with East Mark.....how do you tell the difference between bait balls and vegetation and more importantly, how are you able to determine the difference between the bait and the targeted fish? To be honest I can't tell where on your sonar (in the 2nd pic) you are referring to as lines that show the bass.

The more feedback the better as I also struggle to read sonar  :'(

Thanks in advance.

CWeb

[Fishing Rhino]

The middle photo is of particular interest to me.

What I have seen on the bottom at the deeper depths, thirty or more feet is a return on the screen which roughly, has the shape of an eyebrow, with the thinner end touching the bottom.  

In your middle photo, the return is composed of several of these, stacked randomly, on top of each other.

I've thought the eyebrow was likely a small pod of baitfish, unlike the large ball on your sounder.

One other question.  There is a broken, straight line which drops at an angle from left to right, into the left edge of that pod.

Is that your bait dropping into the baitfish as you get into the pod?

There is a similar, but unbroken line at the right side of the third photo which appears to be the same, but with the boat moving, or drifting at a slower speed, with the bait staying within the transducer's cone.

Here's a tale of the sounder which might interest you.  It was never noticable on the paper recorders I had, but clearly visible when I finally got a cathode ray tube, color sounder.

I loved it.  Could run it all the time without the expense of the paper rolls.

We'd leave the dock in order to get to our gear in Buzzards Bay at the break of dawn.

The bottom was a normal line on the screen, but, just before daylight, as the sky was beginning to show the first sign of daylight, a second line would slowly rise from the bottom, then gradually disappear with the increasing light.

It was an echo that was precisely parallel or equidistant from the bottom.

I did some research, and found it was caused by photoplankton.  Throughout the day, the photoplankton was dispersed throughout the water column, but would settle to the bottom as daylight dwindled.  

In the morning, when the first hint of daylight "activated" them, they would rise as one, then over a few minutes gradually disperse throughout the water column.

It was a fascinating phenomena to observe.  Routine weather variations (wind speeds) that we fished in, had no effect upon them, though I suspect that storm surges might disperse them as the began to rise.

Never went out in that kind of weather, so it's strictly conjecture.  I never noticed it when we fished deeper water, twenty to thirty fathoms, which we fished from August into the late fall.  Apparently, it only occurs in the shallower coastal waters.

Try as I did, during my fishing years, I never saw the "green flash" which supposedly appears in the sky just before daylight.  I've seen the sky preceeding dawn have a pale green glow, but never the rapid spread of brilliant green from east to west I have read about.

[Crestliner2008]

The angled line in the 3rd. photo and the broken line in the second photo (left end of screen) are both my drop shot lines going down. I fish the back of the boat (tiller boat) all the time, so I'm fishing directly over the transducer mostly - more so than my partner in the front.

The second photo shows the bass just above the elongated bait ball, which covers the bottom of the screen shot, in this instance. When you are anchored and/or drifting, you will rarely see "arches" of any kind. Fish become thick, straight lines or slightly distorted "eyebrows" near, or in back of the schooling bait.

In order to see all this on your sonar screen, it is imperative that you have it set up correctly. By that, I mean, the most import adjustment is ping speed. This must be set at maximum, if an adjustment is available. Most sonars that do not have this adjustment, are already set that way at the factory. I see no reason what-so-ever, for lessening this percentage. The ping is the rate of signal shots per chart movement. For the best detail, you want as many shots as you can get, obviously!

Next is chart speed. I have mine set at about 70%. That way, I get the most signal shots in each movement of the chart. I've played with this a lot and this seems to get me the best detail.

Lastly is sensitivity. Since I'm fishing deep structures, I don't mind a bit of clutter on the surface, so I set mine at about 80%. This allows me to see "through" a bait ball and gives me an opportunity to see fish in that school.

I hope this helps some. I've never used a color display, so I can't help you with those kind of sonars, as far as set-up is concerned.