Have any of you ever drop shot fished with live bait? If so, what bait and what result? I am setting a goal for myself to try more finesse fishing, [i hate slow fishing methods] but I cannot argue with the results I have seen at times. Just hard for me to put the crankbaits and spinnerbaits away, Even though I have boxes of soft plastic lures.   I even put together a drop shot rig to use only for that method, my usual stuff has just not been as productive with the cold water temps that have been the norm around here for the last few years. 2014 I did not see temps any higher than 80 degrees, and 2013 I never seen 79, and those temps were late summer.  Any thoughts on live bait drop shot?

I've done so with live nightcrawlers. Success?

 

You betcha! But they attract a LOT of little fellers.

Sounds like the live bait would get tangled and put itself on a chokehold.

i take minnows for my wife and hook them up drop shot bc of the grass in the lake and she wears em out.

A couple of years back, additional crawdads were released into our lake in an effort to control/eradicate zebra mussels (I am assuming a bass fisherman made that suggestion ).  I was fishing one day when I saw a gentleman dumping half a gunnysack of crawdads into the lake.  I drove over to take a look as he left and in addition to the hundreds of crawdads scurrying about to find some cover, there were about a dozen or so dead ones floating on the surface.

 

Since my nieces were in town & wanted to do some catfishing, I scooped up the floating crawdads.  That afternoon, I rigged them on a dropshot with a short leader, so that they floated 6" or so off the bottom.  Ended up catching six catfish over 5 lbs, including 1 that went 14 lbs., 6 oz and a couple of 2 lb bass.  So yes, drop shotting with live (or recently dead) bait works.

That's what we did in FL when we used shiners as bait. We hooked the shiner about 2-3 ft from the bottom and used a 2oz sinker to keep it in place.

Have any of you ever drop shot fished with live bait? If so, what bait and what result? I am setting a goal for myself to try more finesse fishing, [i hate slow fishing methods] but I cannot argue with the results I have seen at times. Just hard for me to put the crankbaits and spinnerbaits away, Even though I have boxes of soft plastic lures.   I even put together a drop shot rig to use only for that method, my usual stuff has just not been as productive with the cold water temps that have been the norm around here for the last few years. 2014 I did not see temps any higher than 80 degrees, and 2013 I never seen 79, and those temps were late summer.  Any thoughts on live bait drop shot?

Go to a baitshop and use the biggest minnows they have. Little secret is to hook them as far back as you can. But not enough they're dragging your rig around. Hook in the meat of the tail

DSing live crawlers is a failsafe technique for the guides on Table Rock during the heat of the summer. Great for beginners, because you catch EVERYTHING.