Drop shot success

Recently I went fishing for multi-species fish and had easy pickings the day before, expecting somewhat of the same. But the day was warm sunny (versus overcast and cooler), with little wind and put fish deeper or under heavy cover . So I decided to hit some mid-lake humps for some school fishing.

I caught a few on cast-&-retrieve 1/16 oz jigheads and my handpour minnow, but the bites were light and few. The dropshot was a technique I've rarely use for panfish or anything else, so I decided to give it a shot. The first cast and first lure twitch and a big sunfish was on the line. I caught 10 more in the same area as well as a decent bass and 20" pickerel. The hard rocky hump depth was 6' surrounded by 10' of water.

Rig description:
6lb test florocarbon
the usual palomar knot - make sure the hook point/barb is up!
small Eagle Claw bronze hook (#4) with straight shank
2' leader connected to a 1/8 oz. weight (I cut the hook off a rusted jighead)

Technique:
I cast the rig out and made sure the shot rested on bottom, feeling the rocks;
I added some tension to the line and started pulling the sinker towards me, pausing and twitching the bait occasionally;
Once I felt the line feel heavy with rod tip lift, I raised the rod tip higher, slowing reeling at the same time (no wrist snap!) A fish was on the line every time I felt the weight and lip-hooked to boot!

Maybe it was my handpoured bait with extremely thin tail, I don't know not having tried something else, but you can't argue with success. I also caught 3 crappie on the same hump and if a school was present, would have slammed more.

Something to try when the horizontal retrieve needs to be slowed way down. It truly turns fish on that are just hanging out.

Wow nice tech, glad you caught them!

Pretty cool, thanks!

Glad you shared that. Something I've never tried either, but I think I'll have to do that this summer. My 9yr old should be able to get the hang of it as well and it eliminates the need for a bunch of casting.

I used the technique for the first time in my pond last year and saw an interesting sequence starting with perch milling around a small bait d/s 1' off bottom. The water was fairly clear so when one hit the bait after inspecting it for 30 seconds, more fish got excited. After catching four perch and a sunny, a bass hiding in the weed line shadows came out and whacked the 2.5" bait.

Just goes to show you - a feeding frenzy is always contagious and prey (lure) vulnerability gets the fish almost every time!

I too am glad for your post. When you hear about success with a technique it motivates you to give it a try. Sometimes we get bogged down in what we know and are slow to try something different even when the fish are trying to tell us they are not interested in what we are doing right now. You know they are kinda like us. I love grits with my fried fish, but once in a while I want some coleslaw and french fries instead.

Thanks again.

Country

The only thing I like about fishing are the infinite choices I can discover to catch fish. I could never go back to using just live bait and haven't for forty years. I guess it's a never ending search for the ultimate lures that get bit most of the year or that a fine tuned for specific conditions.

Nice post.

Drop shotting ain't just for bass anymore. Good post

that works great for summer perch too. great post manThumbs Up

I will have to try this for crappie, it one of my favorite methods to fish anyways.