basspro48

The drop-shot rig has become my absolute favorite way to fish any type of finesse plastic in the past couple years, but only recently have I been experimenting with it and tapping into the true potential of the almighty drop-shot. However, I had two situations I used it in that produced big time for me this summer. The first was flipping, yes flipping a drop-shot. I rigged up my heavy flippin stik and 60lb braid and tied up a rig with a 1oz tungsten weight and a 2/0 superline gammy and a sweet beaver or whatever bait I was catching em on and flipped it right into the thickest cover and worked it just like I would a t-rig. Most of my bites would come after a solid 30+ seconds of shaking the bait in one spot, and the fish were simply blasting it all summer long. The second was skipping. I used a rig with a short leader (6-8 inches) a 1/4 or 3/16oz weight and a finesse worm and would whip it up under docks and trees and shake it in place for as long as I could stand it. This was extremely effective as most of the guys fishing docks were slinging senkos and jigs and the drop-shot gave the fish something they'd never seen before. Anybody else have any other unusual or effective applications for the drop-shot?

So even the masters have tough days, lol. Can't wait to see the hawgs yall will be haulin in the coming weeks!

That is one sick rig! Major props on that build

Joker has got it down, ghost minnow and chart. shad are my money colors when the jerkbait bite is on

A 5/16oz "Pamunkey Special" finesse jig tied by me matched with a 3" GYCB twin-tail grub trailer gets it done on the rivers for me. On most lakes I prefer a 1/2oz black/blue or PB&J flippin jig tied by me matched with a ZOOM super chunk in a matching color.

Greentop is a must for anyone in the area, I'm fortunate enough to live relatively close and go there often. They have the best selection and best staff of any shop I've been to.

Have you had any adverse conditions in your area lately? Anything that might have shut the bite off?

My top producers in the fall have been Bandit 100 series cranks and Lucky Craft Pointer 100's. I go up in the backs of creeks and mow that Bandit all over every piece of wood I can find and sling that pointer across every point I come to. However if I can get a good topwater bite going on a buzzer or G-Splash then I'd much rather do that.

I always use either fluoro or mono for crankin. I never use braid because not only does it have the stealth appeal of a Mac truck (fluoro is dang near invisible underwater) but it's zero stretch could rip the hooks right out of the fish's face.

This badboy decided to come home with me after my last trip to Gander Mountain. It's a 7' Medium Castaways HG40 Skeleton series and man this thing is saweeet. It is extremely light and sensitive, with an extra fast tip that makes it the perfect drop-shot/light t-rig rod. It has also excelled at throwing small spinnerbaits and cranks and is an awesome topwater rod. I'm looking forward to whuppin a couple toads with this stick

Like JF, I would think drop-shotting would be more effective in water that deep. In fact you could just tie up a ds rig with a long leader and wacky rig a worm on it. Then you could get the bait down but still have that slow enticing fall of a wacky worm. Ike calls this technique the "wet noodle rig"

I've done really good with this technique, thanks to Mike Iaconelli. He was the one who introduced me to it, which he called the "wet noodle rig" My best producing baits with it so far have been 4.5" robo's and ZOOM finesse worms

I usually listen to music before blast-off on tournament days. It usually consists of DJ Khaled, Hurricane Chris, brad paisley, trapt, Kanye West, or Lil Wayne That kinda music usually gets me pumped lol

What species are we talkin? Most surf tackle will suit your needs just fine but it really depends on the target species/technique or rigging you plan on doing....

Looking for a new reel to put on the surf heaver and am wondering if the Daiwa Saltist is really worth the extra $$$ or should I just stick with the good ole Sealine? The Sealine is a great reel, but the saltist is just soo pretty :-/

Put on for ma city- young jeezy ft. kanye west

Wow I'm definitely gonna check those out, thats a sick lookin stick

For river smallmouth, nothing beats a 3" or 3.5" tube texas rigged or on a jighead slowly hopped and dragged along the bottom. I throw a tube in the Rivanna (also a small river) and the pony pasture section of the james about 90% of the time and really punish the smallies on it. Other than tubes I'd reccommend small finesse jigs, a 1/4oz buzzbait, and a pointer 65 or other small jerkbait.

Anybody have any experience with Castaways skeleton series of rods? I handled a few of em up at gander mountain the other day and they felt like a solid, sensitive rod; not to mention they are currently on sale at an excellent price...

P-line fluoroclear isn't a true fluorocarbon line, it just has a fluoro coating on it. My suggestion is to use both, keep a fluorocarbon line like Seaguar on the rods you mainly use for techniques that require as much sensitivity as possible (texas rigging, jigs, c-rig, etc) and keep mono on the rods you use for cranking and topwater. Mono's extra stretch is good for treble hook baits and it won't sink and hinder the action of topwater baits like fluoro. But you want the increased sensitivity and less stretch of fluorocarbon for all your bottom baits IMO.

I have a 2002 150 EFI mounted on my Xpress and yeh it does a good job of suckind own gas. But I've never had a single problem with it, it runs great, and I just love the way EFI's sound lol

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Spinnerbait: 1/2oz War eagle. white. Buzzbait: 3/8oz Cavitron. chart/white. Shallow Crankbait: Bandit 100 series. chart/shad. rootbeer Medium Crankbait: Bandit 200 series. chart/shad. rootbeer Deep Crankbait: none, zero confidence in deep crankin Lipless Crankbait: 1/4oz rat-l-trap. chrome/blue Topwater: LC G-Splash. Ghost minnow. American Shad Frog: Reaction Innovations Swamp Donkey. Black Plastic Worm: ZOOM trick worm. watermelon/gold Plastic Creature: ZOOM baby brush hog. green pumpkin/red Stick Bait: GYCB 5" senko. green pumpkin/red Swim Bait: 5" Bassmagic, mattlures baby bass, mattlures ultimate bluwgill, and soon to be Spro 4" shad (sorry can't name just one) Jerk Bait: LC Pointer 100. chart/shad. aurora brown Spoon: None In-line Spinner: None And you forgot my favorite, JIG: War Eagles and my own creations

Oh don't worry about the secret bait getting out, what they don't know is the way you have to fish it to get the big bites And yeh him and his dad are actually on their way to Detroit right now for the Fishers of Men Regional Championship on Lake St. Clair

The upper Pamunkey is a decent place to yak, but I doubt it would be very enjoyable on the lower tidal section. A boat is pretty much necessity on the section I fish.