Advanced Dropshotting Video

Hi, guys. This is Gene Jensen with BassResource.com. I've been getting a lot of comments and questions on my basic dropshot video. I've been wanting to do a more advanced one since I made that one. I'm going to dig in today and dig into the details of the dropshot rig, and all the things that you can do with it, or some of the things you can do with it.

    To start off with, this is your basic dropshot rig. You know, your six, eight pound test fluorocarbon, three eighths ounce weight. Above the weight is your number one or one-ought. I use octopus hooks, but you can use a dropshot hook, or whatever. Then, you have your soft plastic above the hook, nice medium light rod, six, eight, seven foot rod.

    Have you ever thought about the other things that you can do with a dropshot rig? What a dropshot rig is, I mean, all it is, is a sinker below the hook on the line. That's it, so if you keep that in mind, you can come up with all kinds of different ways that you can use it.

    Here's one of the ways I rig it. This is a medium heavy rod. It's got 15-pound test line on it, a Revo STX reel. I've got a half ounce weight and a worm hook above it. This is a four-ought Gamakatsu. It's got a Rage Craw on it, but you can use any kind of soft plastic worms or creature baits, or anything. It's a blast. You can do all kinds of stuff with it. Use it like a Carolina rig. Throw it across a point, drag it. Shake it and drag it, shake it, and the advantage to that over a Carolina rig is you don't have to move it towards you to get the bait moving. You can leave it in one spot so it stays in the strike zone longer. If you've got those fish that are really finicky, or those fish that aren't quite turned on, you can shake it in front of their nose for a little while.

    You can use it bed fishing, you can use it flipping cover, things like that. When I flip cover, one of the things I do is I'll actually tie it onto my jig rod, which has got 20 pound test fluorocarbon on it. I'll shorten the leader up from 18 to 20 inches down to five, six, seven inches so I don't get hung up as much when I get into the cover. You just think about it, and all the things that you can do with any other rig, you can just about do it with a dropshot rig. You just play around with your leader length and the type of hook you're using.

    Now, in my basic dropshot video that I made a couple years ago, you'll see that I show one way of setting the hook. The way that I showed to set the hook is you just lift into it and you reel, and the hook sets itself. Well, if you look at a basic dropshot rig, you've got an open light wire hook. That's why you don't really need to set the hook.

    What I've noticed over the last several years is a lot of people that use a dropshot a lot have gone to using a standard offset worm hook, or a wide gap hook, or any kind of a worm hook where they can Texas rig the worm. When you do that, you've got to take into consideration the hook set. You've got to be able to punch that hook through that worm and into the fish, so you're actually going to set the hook. Not super hard. If you've got a light wire worm hook, you'll just reel down to it and lift up, and set the hook. If you're using a heavier gauge hook and heavier line, you're going to set it even harder. You've just got to take into consideration how well you're setting the hook, and the fact that you're not going to set it too hard to break the line.

    Anyway, we're going to get out into the lake today. I'm going to kind of fish the different drop shot rigs that I have set up. I'm going to fish one like the Carolina rig, I'm going to fish one like a jig, and I'm going to show you the versatility of the dropshot. Sit back and hopefully we can catch one or two fish.

    The first thing that I'm going to do, is I'm going to show you guys how I use it for pitching and flipping. What I have is a half-ounce dropshot weight, with your Rage Craw. I'm just going to flip it over here to these sticks and see what happens. I'm just going to kind of work it around to show you guys. You pitch it just like you would a jig. The cool thing is, you get down there at the bottom and you just shake it. You can leave it in the strike zone a little longer, all kinds of stuff.

    The hard thing for me to do when I'm pitching this is actually keeping it in the same spot. I'm so used to fishing with jig in this type of cover, it's that I want to pick the weight up off the bottom. For me, I've got to remember I'm actually fishing a dropshot rig and I can keep it, shake it, and pop it up and down, instead of like I would with a jig.

    All right. You notice that I was able to keep the bait in the strike zone a little bit better, a little bit longer, and then finally that fish decided it was going to eat.

    All right. That's how I do it flipping and pitching. Now, let's talk about a Carolina rig, or how I use it in the place of a Carolina rig. I'll lengthen up my tag line to about 18 to 20 inches. I make sure that my soft plastic is Texas rigged with the hook weedless. I'm just going to make a long cast in an area, just like I would a Carolina rig. Instead of dragging and stopping, and dragging and stopping, I've already got a bait that's coming up and falling down, and it doesn't even have to move. Let it fall back down. Still, I haven't moved it, I'm just shaking it. The boat is moving this way, so I've got to keep the slack up. I'm just shaking it. Then I drag it four or five feet, and I'm shaking it.

    You can fish an area methodically, slow. Kind of the trick is, when you drag it up and you feel something, feel a rock, or a stump, or a log or something, with your weight, your bait is already over top of it. You can sit there and shake it on top of that rock, or shake it on top of whatever it is you hit. If there's a fish holding on that rock or that stump, many times it can't stand something just sitting in front of its nose. It's too easy of a meal. It makes a pretty good bottom bait, especially when you're looking for scattered rocks or scattered stumps on the long point or a flat, or something like that. You just drag it around until you feel a stump, and then you can just shake it in front of their nose.

    That's basically it. I hope that this video kind of broadens your mind of what the versatility of a dropshot can be. It's basically up to your own imagination. Like I said, just have fun with it and enjoy catching fish with it.

    Like I always say, visit BassResource.com for the answers to all your questions about bass fishing. Subscribe to my YouTube channel. Press the "Like" button on this video to help people find it a little bit better.

     Have a great day of fishing. Take care.