SissySticks

For me this is all about durability, and in a market that is increasingly interesting in performance and apparently increasingly disinterested in durability, I find myself searching ebay for older garcia and shimano reels a lot. The old 5, 6, and 7 series abu garcia spinning reels are very durable reels with their aluminum construction, despite lower bearing counts and less-smooth retrieves. I have some OLD shimanos that are still catching fish. I'm saddened that this years Sahara no longer has an aluminum frame. I would say ANY reel, at any pricepoint, that won't last a typical recreational fisherman at least 10 years at a "close-to-new" level of performance (assuming basic maintenance) is over-priced.

I would always go with the bigger reel. As far as rods are concerned, there are as many opinions on what makes a good drop shot rod as there are people who fish it. There are so many manifestations of the drop shot. Are you open hook nose rigging? Texas rigging the bait? Big bait or little? How heavy of line are you using? How heavy a sinker? Water depth? Cover? I think a 6'8" MXF rod is the best all around drop shot rod, but I also have a LMF, a MLF, a MF, and a MHMF that I use quite a bit for different kinds of drop shotting. If I were going to have 1 rod for this technique, I'd have a Batson 802.75 blank built up for me by a good custom builder. For an over the counter rod, quantum's smoke and exo rods are tough to beat for the price, and the Bass Pro Carbonlite's are shockingly good rods for $100.

I actually don't think bass are great fighters, pound for pound. Smallmouths are decent fighters. Big spots are decent fighters. I think largemouths, pound-for-pound, aren't. I like bass fishing because I like being outside, it relaxes me, its quiet (unless I have a loquatious fishing buddy), and there's an element of challenge to it but it isn't competitive and therefore allows me to still be a likeable human (I am intensely competitive by nature, and competition brings out all my worst qualities). I also learned to do it at a young age and it has always been a part of my life, so part of it is just that I was brought up doing it. I also like the gear, gear is fun to collect and this gear at least gets use. I like the joy of the accomplishment of catching one, and I ESPECIALLY like the joy of watching someone else who hasn't done it catch one. Lots of things I guess.

There is some truth to this, and I am an advocate of elaztech. However, elaztech has SO MANY other positive qualities on drop shot (buoyancy, durability, action), that I've just done what I can to mitigate the problem. Use slightly stiffer rods, a bit more hookset power, lower stretch line, barely skin hook baits. Plus, the OP is nose hooking, which shouldn't cause the problem you're describing.

I'm interested in this issue of fishing for numbers vs. fishing for big fish. I like to get a lot of bites, and I tailor my approach to that goal. However, there are a lot of people, more probably, who think the other way. I'm just curious how many on each side of this issue.

I lose a lot of fish on drop shot when I use an open hook because the hook is very short and also very small, and because most ds hooks are beaked instead of straight points which does not nab the fish's lip as well. When I use a regular gammy ds hook, I bend the point out a bit so it has a bigger bite and so the point is NOT in line with the eye. I only use open hook drop shots with small flukes and wacky rigs, and even then, you can definitely get away with a bigger hook, like a #1 g-lock. Likewise, though I LOVE elaztech plastics because of their buoyancy and durability, they present certain hookset challenges because of their consistency and "springiness." To mitigate this, I have gone to using a skin-hooked tex-posed rig with a little wide-gap hook (like a #1 or 1/0) for most of my drop shotting, and I use braid with a fluoro leader. Then, I wait until I can feel the weight of the fish on there and pop them pretty good, which goes against the norm for drop shotting, but MOST of what you will hear about drop shotting applies to small-hook nose hooking with light line and light rods, and I do little of any of those things, and recommend them even less.

This isn't a terribly detailed topo map, and thus, it doesn't give you much to go on that you couldn't figure out from looking at shoreline angles anyway. What I would suggest is getting the USGS topography plugin for Googleearth. It is much more detailed, and its free.

I submit only this for consideration. And I joke not, this guy catches more fish in public waters than anyone I know, I've seen it with my own eyes. http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/01/24/midwest-finesse-tackle-rods-reels-and-line/

If I'm beating the bank, I'll usually start with a grub, a #6 x-rap, a #5 shad rap, or a 3/8 swinging jighead with a creature on it to cover some water. Then if I need to I'll slow down with a 3-4" senko, a 7" SK Super finesse worm on a shakey head, or some kind of 3-4" zman softbait on a 1/16oz. open mushroom jighead. I'll fish a drop shot worm, the 3/8 football head, the 7" finesse worm, or the grub or small softbait on a heavier jighead for offshore pre/post spawners if I'm not finding active fish shallow. If I really get in "oh crap" mode, I'll drop shot a 3" tiny brush hog on a short leader around bedding areas.

Well, here in OK, there aren't many weeds, just wood and rocks. I was hoping it would work well for presenting small plastics deep, but alas, it sounds like I'd best look elsewhere. It does interest me, though, that Stacey King likes it a lot on gravel at Table Rock, a lake not known for its weeds. He uses a bell sinker though...

Finesse worm. I don't really care what kind, brand, whatever. As long as its between 3-6 inches, straight tailed, and green colored, I can catch fish with it in almost any conditions on any lake any time of year. Close second would be a smoke or gp grub.

How do you guys avoid getting snagged with this rig? I want to like it, it looks good with a creature or tube on it, and I have caught a couple fish on it, but using standard bell sinkers I have lost a TON of them in the rocks. Seems like the thing just gets wedged and WILL NOT come out. Does a finesse drop shot weight work better?

Also, fish riprap. Always seems to have at least a few fish on it.

I bought a 1986 Fisher SV2 (kind of a multi-species boat) as a project. It had a sound hull, was made of 100% aluminum (back before Fisher was bought by BPS and they started putting wood in them), and had a clean running Merc 50. I paid $1600 for boat/motor/trailer. I paid a really good mechanic to go all the way through the engine and make sure everything was running tip-top, and I got lucky, the motor was in great shape and I only ended up spending about $250 for the tune up and a few minor repairs. It starts turn-key, even cold. The thing had 3 layers of crap carpet in it, so I stripped all the innerds out of the boat except the supports, stripped all the old adhesive and carpet off, and am in the process of replacing it with Nautolex marine vinyl. That process cost my dozens of hours, 2 bottles of nice bourbon for friends who helped, and about $225. I purchased 2 used Lowrance LCX color graph/gps units for $450, a Maxxum 55 for $200, and an Endura 50 for $100. I build an extended deck that added much needed storage and 14 sq. ft. of deck space for about $150 out of scrap aluminum building materials from my neighbor (who is a window contractor) and stainless hardware from Ace. Then I added 2 tempress stand up seats and fixed height pedestals, and replaced the livewell pump. I bought a spare tire and some other safety stuff/accessories for the boat. It looks beautiful now and all together, I've got $3000 in it and I feel like that was a steal considering how well set up it is and that it is set up exactly the way I like it for exactly the way I fish.

My answer to this depends on whether you're tournament fishing (weight matters) or fishing for fun (getting bites matters). If the former, I'm not sure what to tell you. Catching lots of big fish requires a lot of time on the water, some luck, and a ton of patience and confidence in throwing the baits that will catch big bass (but not always lots of them). Myself, I fish for fun. I want to get 30, 40, 50, 100 bites a day. Ironically, of course, its getting lots of bites that gives you the confidence to do the things you need to do to catch big fish, but I digress. In my experience (20+ years on the water), it is a rare day you will get those kind of numbers of bites on the tactics you describe, because the truth is, more fish are in a negative mode at any given moment than are in a positive mode. My answer- pick an area, and pick it apart using small, unassuming and slow moving baits. If you pick even a remotely good area, there ARE fish there, and they CAN be caught. I RARELY fish with worms longer than 5 inches, creature type baits more than 4 inches, or topwaters/cranks heavier than 3/8 oz. Most of my time is spent throwing 3-5 inch finesse worms, 3-4 inch grubs, and 3-4 inch creatures on jigheads and drop shot rigs. I haven't been skunked in 5 years, but there are days I don't catch anything bigger than 13". There are also days when I caught 15-20 pound bags fun fishing, and winning bags in tournaments the same day on the same water were won with 12-14 pounds. You never know. I tend to think you learn more from getting a few bites from small fish than zeroing fishing traditional baits, but I know I'm sacrificing some big bites too. I just like getting bit, plain and simple. I would advise going fishing with only a drop shot rigged finesse worm, some kind of moving plastic (scrounger, grub, small swimbait, etc.), and some kind of creature/beaver on a 1/4oz. football head and just pick an area (one creek or something) and pick it apart with just those baits. I bet you'll catch at least 1, and that was the point of the OP, after all.

You have gotten great advice from a lot of people on here. All the things listed are things I look for on a topo map. I would add this-- I use what I glean from that study to decide on an area of a lake to concentrate on for the day. I look for an area of the lake that I am CERTAIN has fish in it (the size of that area might be a few thousand acres) because it contains a variety of features that fish use throughout the year. Then I start at what I think is the most likely place in that area to contain a group of fish given the season and conditions. I limit my fishing to that area and force myself to figure the fish in that area out. I think a lot of guys mark 50 spots on a topo map and then spend most of their day running and leave little time for fishing.

I also use a t-rig in grass, and I'm not convinced that I catch more fish with the jighead or the t-rig. I really should do a side by side sometime to see. Anyway, I like to let the sinker slide free on my t-rig, though, because I think the worm has better action that way.

Way ahead of you boss. My 2nd favorite drop shot bait, except in late fall-early spring.

Wow! That's a ton of super cool, fancy sticks! My own shaky head gear is much more pedestrian. I use a couple different rods for little worms on jigheads. The first is not technically a shaky head by modern standards, more of a jigworm as I fish it with an open hook. 6' L action Castaway original (the green sticks), tennessee handle, with an abu garcia 601alb and 10lb. sufix 832 with a 8-10lb. McCoy Fluoro leader. On this rod I throw 1/16 or 3/32 oz. hand poured mushroom jigheads on #4, #2, and #1 matzuo black nickel sickle hooks, sometimes with a weedguard, and usually a 4" SK Super Finesse worm or a 4" Z Man Finesse ShadZ. The second rod is a 6' or 6'6" M Castaway TS700 series with tennessee handle, same line, shimano solstace 2500 reel, and on it I use a 1/4 oz. Slider Football jighead, usually with a 4" Zman Hula StickZ, a 4" Wacko, or a 4" centipede. I call this my worm crankin' rig because I use it to scour the bottom with a constant retrieve, almost like slow rolling a spinnerbait. The third is a 6'6" MH baitcaster with 12lb. McCoy fluoro and a Garcia silvermax, that I use to throw a big finesse worm on a 1/4oz. football shakey head (I usually use either a 5" Zman FattyZ or a 7" Super Finesse worm on this rig) when I'm looking for bigger bites or fishing in deeper water. As far as the spinning rods go, I have multiples of each in my boat at any time, as a plastic bait on a jighead is my bread-and-butter, along with the drop shot rig.

X2. Its one of only 5 baits I even take with me stream smallie fishing anymore. I use a 1/16 spider slider head with it, and have also had many triple digit days using it. I also like a sammy 65, a bitsy tube, a 3" senko, and a 3" slider grub, but truthfully, I could just take a bag of tiny brush hogs and be pretty confident that I'm going to have a strong day.

I usually start to think I'm on to something when I catch a 4 or 5 doing basically the same thing in different places, AND have eliminated other options. I think patterns are more important the larger the fisher you're on. For example, last summer, I was on a ~1000 acre lake that has a mix of bass (smallmouth, spots, largies), and it was July. I started fishing rod and had a couple bites in an hour, but when I moved offshore to fishing brushpiles in 15-20 feet, I caught 2 fish in about 5 minutes on a wacky drop shot. Ran to another brushpile in 15-20 feet, caught 2 more fish in 5 minutes on a wacky drop shot. Fished some more rock, nada. Back to brushpiles, now fishing a drop shot creature and a finesse jig. Nothing. Switched to the wacky worm shot on that same brushpile, caught 4 fish in about the next 10 minutes. At that point, I knew I was on to a pattern, and I spent the rest of the day just running brushpiles with the wacky worm, and caught about 50 that day. The active fish weren't on points or rock banks or channel swings or even other brushpiles, they were on brushpiles in a very specific depth range. The bigger the water, the more important I think this type of process-of-elimination becomes. But yea, once I've caught 4 or 5 in consistent places and DIFFERENT places, and I've eliminated other options, then I'm on a pattern.

I carry a couple baitcasters because I like to throw a creature on a draggin' head and because I'm a touch more accurate with one when I need to drop a senko or a topwater in a tiny shoreline pocket, and I suppose also because I just happen to have a couple nice baitcasting rigs. But probably 75-80% of my fishing is with a light to medium power spinning rod and some kind of small soft plastic on a lightweight jighead or a drop shot rig. I'm spectacularly overanalytical by nature, so even though my head tells me to simplify, I'm constantly fighting the baitmonkey, so my post was for myself as much as the OP. What I *** the most about Brewer and Kehde (read his blog on IN-Fisherman!) is the simplicity of their fishing systems. Both are/were happy to go out with 1 360 box full of baits and be not only perfectly content, but exceptionally successful. I wish I could get there myself. I'm working on it.

I personally think "lure" versatility is overrated. I have WAY too many lures. I think its easy to get paralysis by analysis with regard to lure selection. I think "creativity" is underrated. Take the senko (or whatever knock-off you prefer, I like Wack-o's personally). I am confident that a guy with a lot of confidence in a senko can find a way to use it to catch bass in any condition possible. Deep, shallow, dirty, clear, windy, grass, wood, etc. Plus there are a lot of size/color considerations. The key is his creativity with that one bait in terms of where and how to fish it. That kind of versatility is priceless. The best fishermen I know fish with 10-15 baits year round, they're just creative in how they use them.

I think a lot of this tendency, and MANY anglers have it, has to do with the reason we fish these days. We see fishing as an activity where the objective is to catch fish, and catch as many pounds as possible as quickly as possible. This is, largely, a result of the explosion of tournament angling where, quite literally, dollars are attached to every cast, every pitch, every fish, every minute. Nitrofreak was on to something when he talked about fishing for cats or whites or whatever as a kid. When we went fishing as kids, we weren't quite as obsessed with everything, we just wanted to go out and have a fun time fishing. I think if we bass fished more that way, we'd slow down naturally. We wouldn't be worried about whether or not we were "maximizing" our day. We'd realize we maximized our day the second we got in the car to tow the boat to the lake in the first place, before we ever made a cast. We'd also have more fun, be more relaxed, and likely catch more fish, too. We'd spend less money. I don't know about you guys, but I suspect I'd be a lot happier with my favorite pasttime. So, to the OP, I suggest this. Read Charlie Brewer's book on Slider Fishing. It doesn't really matter if you want to learn how to fish the slider-- its more of a philosophy of fishing than it is a technique. Then, go out and find an old timer, I mean a real old timer. Someone in their 70s or 80s, and see if they'll take you fishing. I went fishing with Ned Kehde one weekend when I was in graduate school, ostensibly to pick his brain about fishing journalism (he's an In-Fisherman field editor), and instead I got a graduate level education in slowing down and keeping it simple and having fun fishing, and the simple joy of getting your line stretched. I also began a journey that I'm still on, toward simplifying every aspect of my life, and slowing down every aspect of my life. So, you might get more than just a fishing tip.

I just don't care for micros. I have a couple rods that I love DESPITE the micro guides, but in general, I won't be buying any more, because they just don't do well with passing leader knots. Like I said, I have a couple rods I like anyway that have them, but I prefer standard guides on spinning.