When y'all are fishing a drop shot shallow ( 6ft or less ) in late fall/early winter do you prefer a shorter leader like 12-16 inches or still prefer a long leader like 20-30 inches?

Been fishing about a 12-16 inch leader and have been catching some fish but thought I may be not catching all the fish I could be...

shorter for shalow

I like to have two rigged up.  One with a shorter leader, 6-10inches or so, and one with a longer one, 12in and up.

Same as the above post for me. I have one drop shot with a 6-10in leader(I try to get it around 9) and then one that has a longer 12-16in leader. I use the shorter one 90% of the time and only use the longer one in water deeper than 25ft.

As a general rule, I always start out with a long one and work my way shorter until I find that majic length.  My reasoning is that a bass is looking upward the majority of the time, so I'm presenting my bait where the majority of the fish will see it, provided that I'm confident that they are within a few feet of the bottom.

As a general rule, I always start out with a long one and work my way shorter until I find that majic length. My reasoning is that a bass is looking upward the majority of the time, so I'm presenting my bait where the majority of the fish will see it, provided that I'm confident that they are within a few feet of the bottom.

I like that way of thinking, I actually did this today started with a long leader and worked shorter but I couldn't for the life of me get a bass to bite a dropshot today. Caught some on a lipless and swimjig.

You could also tie on 20 below the hook and move the weight up and down accordingly. I've never really had a problem with excess line below the weight.

6-8 in on shallow water

8 - 16 for everything