What exactly am I trying to do? Drag it, Shake it, bounce it or nothing at all.

Thanks.

Read fishing articles top left hand of page , they have some good articles on drop shot technique.

Last week I was using a dropshot with a Zoom Super Fluke Jr. baby bass, and casting it next to cover or structure and not moving it... That techique worked the best.

It was over 100 outside, the water temp was 84, ski boats everywhere... It wasn't ideal. A friend of mine was out the day before and only caught 5 between two guys. My boat caught 35. The dropshot will catch fish if you put it in the right spot and let the fish eat it.

I agree with Bass-Brat 100%. Read the articles.

I bookmark the articles that I think will help me the most. They helped me catch fish. I try new things all the time because of them.

Thanks for the replies. I'll check out the articles.

Josh, were you hooking the fluke on a worm hook, or nose hooking. I was trying a Keitech yesterday, but was using a WG worm hook to make it wedless, I think this hurt the action.

Drag it- shake it - bounce it - do nothing.  Those are 4 options.  There are more.  Think about what you're doing with the dropshot.  Like any other technique, there are plusses and minuses associated with it.

A major minus is that it isn't a fast, cover the water type approach.  There are more, but I'm not going to go into right now.  I've been fishing drop shot alot this spring and summer, so I'll focus on the plusses.

The primary advantage to this technique is that you can anchor a bait a given distance above the bottom and make it dance and quiver.

So far this year, I've been carrying 3 dropshot  rigs all the time.  I've got a 7' spinning rod with 8 lb test,  a 6'10" m/h bait cast rods with 14 lb. fluorocarbon and a 7 1/2' flipping stick with 20 lb fluorocarbon.

Whichever one I pick up depends on what kind of bottom/cover I'm dealing with.  LIght weed/cover & clearer water I will probably go with the spinning rig.  Most of the time, I've got the bait casters in my hand.

Just throw it out and fish it like you would a t-rig.  I don't throw it very far - I seldom throw more than 30  feet and I often work it very close to the boat - depends on depth.

Just be secure in the knowledge that your bait is dancing around - x many inches above the bottom, depending on how long of a leader you've chosen.

On the heavier rigs I tend to t-rig the baits as opposed to nose hooking them.  On the spinning rig I'll nose hook most of the time.

On the heavier rigs I'll use bigger baits - senko imitations with a tougher plastic, flukes, especially the 7" mag fluke.  The powerbait 4" crazy legs chigger craw has been a good producer the past month.

Experiment with leader length - I'm currently mostly using a 5 to 10 inch leader on the heavier rigs. On the lighter rig I'll use whatever length will put me a few inches whatever bottom grass is present.  12" would be short - 24" would be long.

The basic approach is to drag it along and make it dance.  When you stop, you know for a fact that your bait is X many inches above the bottom.  Another thing to remember is that once your bait is on the bottom, it is essentially weightless. There is no weight to interfere with your feel between your bait and your rod tip.

Once you get into drop shotting, the more you will get into it.  These days It seems I spend the majority of my fishing time drop shotting.  It is almost getting to the point of if an area doesn't look like it has good drop shot potential, I'll move on.  Kind of like years ago, when sluggos were the hot bait - if an area didn't look like it had good sluggo potential, I'd move on.

Once again, I've ranted too much about drop shots - I'll stop now.  Thanks for reading

   You can use any hook you like for a drop shot.  A lot of the standard texas rig hooks will hurt the action on the typical drop shot type of bait.  I use the Owner Wacky/Drop Shot hook.  The Gamakatsu WG Finesse hooks are nice as well.  They also come in a weedless version if you're fishing in thicker cover.  You can just nose hook the bait and drop it down.  You can use them in ANY depth.

   Most people typically think of the drop shot as a deeper water technique.  It works just as well in shallow water as well as in thicker cover.  You can work it many different ways, such as the ones that Fishes in trees mentioned.  I don't necessarily agree that you can't cover water with it.  It can be a fantastic bait to make long casts with and drag or hop the weight back with pauses to cover lots of water.  That is one of my favorite techniques when casting across submerged points.

   You can easily mimic a quickly moving baitfish, or a dieing bait with the drop shot.  It all depends on how quickly you decide to retrieve the rig.  I've found one of the best ways to fish it is to cast it out, let the weight sink to the bottom, then just dead stick the lure.  You want the bait to fall to the bottom.  Lift the rod tip and repeat back to the boat.  This can be a very slow moving technique yet it can produce some of the largest fish.  How you use it will all depends on the activity of the fish at the given time of the day.   Don't think this is a finesse only technique.  You can use rather large baits that are fished very aggressively.

   As far as gear goes, I prefer a spinning set up for a drop shot.  Thats not to say that I don't have baitcasting rod set up with a drop shot when I plan to use one.  I like a 7' rod in medium light to medium depending on the cover.  You just need to remember that you are not going to slam the hook home on a drop shot.  Just lift the rod tip and reel.  This is where having a little more limber of a rod is a benefit.  Drop shot hooks are typically a very small wire gauge.  You don't need to cross the fishes eyes on the hook set.

Great information. Thanks. I read some of the articles also. Lots if great stuff. I'll definitely be experimenting more with this.

Thanks for the replies. I'll check out the articles.

Josh, were you hooking the fluke on a worm hook, or nose hooking. I was trying a Keitech yesterday, but was using a WG worm hook to make it wedless, I think this hurt the action.

I was nose hooking it with a dropshot hook.

There are many different ways to work a dropshot. I like to play around with different retrieves and let the fish tell me what they want.

Colors; baby bass and white work great in the lakes I fish. Also play around with the distance between the weight and the hook.

Good Luck