What kind of bait would ya use? Would a senko do the trick? Plan on leaving em there & reeling in every 30 minutes or so.. 

on butler chain we like to just put the trolling motor on half power and just have a 3/4 oz carolina rig and move every 25 seconds 

I like to dead stick a floating worm on a shakey head. Using a heavy jig, I can drag it along until I contact cover, or it free falls down a drop.  I'll stop it, let it sit for 30 seconds or so, shake it and wait again.  A Havoc BottomHopper will wave with the slightest movement or current and really holds the Spike-It garlic scent.  I always add scent when dead sticking. 

Dead stick anything you want. Senkos to swimbaits lol it all can work

My biggest bass last year was caught deadsticking a 7" MS Slammer. Let it sit for a solid minute and the first hint of movement she came unglued on it. 

I have caught the majority of bass in my life deadsticking.I would say at least 80 %.But I usually move it in 30 seconds if nothing bites.

I used to fish a deep hole in the middle of the day in the summer this way.I would use a giant manns jelly worm with no wieght.I cast into the hole and would leave it sitting there as long as I could stand it.I once caught a fish( 6-7 pounder ) that picked it up after 15 minutes.I caught several bass around that size that way in the same hole.

Yes, but a 4-inch finesse worm can work just as well.

Maybe a trick worm.

Drives me crazy but it works.

Like fishing for catfish.

If no bite and you want to read or listen to the radio as you take a nap, go for it.

Dead sticking means different things to different people. I don't have the patience for letting a bait sit for a minute. I can work a bait slow but that is too slow for me. If I was gonna let the lure sit for 30 minutes like the OP said I would probably go with a Z Man product like a saw tail worm or diezel minnow. Something that would float up from the bottom so its noticed easier.

Dead stick to me is a number in seconds. Could be a minute but that's about it. I'm changing tactics before I sit 1/2 an hour. If that's your way of fishing cool but I'd fall asleep. 

I also would look at some bait that might have a little buoyancy if I was to try that. 

All my deadsticking is  done accidentally . I'll be preoccupied  doing something else and a bass picks up my bait . Maybe some day a light bulb will go off inside my head .

3 hours ago, Sam said:

Yes, but a 4-inch finesse worm can work just as well.

Maybe a trick worm.

Drives me crazy but it works.

Like fishing for catfish.

If no bite and you want to read or listen to the radio as you take a nap, go for it.

So just set 3 or 4 rods & go read a book?

Would a 5-inch senko's work well?

You can dead stick anything.

9 minutes ago, J Francho said:

You can dead stick anything.

Obviously.

would any kind of dead stick catch fish though? ..

2 minutes ago, Kevin Zheng said:

would any kind of dead stick catch fish though? ..

Not a "dead stick", but just about any bait that is left alone can get bit.  I don't know about your plan to sit for 30 minutes, but that's your patience, lol.  I'll keep moving after a few minutes and look for active fish.

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

All my deadsticking is  done accidentally . I'll be preoccupied  doing something else and a bass picks up my bait . Maybe some day a light bulb will go off inside my head .

Same here. All fish I've caught while deadsticking have been accidental when I was occupied with something else.

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

My biggest bass last year was caught deadsticking a 7" MS Slammer. Let it sit for a solid minute and the first hint of movement she came unglued on it. 

I typically leave a MS Mini Slammer trailing 20 yards behind the boat when I go out in the kayak. It gets bit pretty often.  Those are bonus fish to me.

i wouldnt define dead sticking as letting a bait sit 30 seconds then moving it. to me dead sticking is throwing your bait out and leaving it sit quite some time before moving it. I have a friend in NC, when we used to go pond hopping he always had a berkley red shad shakey worm he would throw out on a spinning reel, he would leave the bail open and prop his rod up somewhere. he then would go fish with another rod and keep an eye on the red shad worm rod. when he noticed his line slowly moving off the spool he would run for it and i swear everytime he caught probably what was the biggest bass or one of the biggest in the pond doing this. it might of took 45 minutes for that to happen, but it was ALWAYS a big bass...

I accidentally catch a lot of bass while deadsticking a Ned rig.  I'll be moving along when I get a phone call,(remember the geico commercial about moms calling at the worst times?) so I shut off the trolling motor and forget to reel my line in.  Often times a bass caries my lure off during the phone call, so I'm holding the phone to my ear with my shoulder and trying to fight the fish at the same time as talk.  It sure makes a funny picture. Many of my biggest bass have been caught while incidentally deadsticking a Ned rig during a phone call (preytorions pb was caught while deadsticking a trd while talking to his mom also)..

Mattlures Upside Dead Stick Trout floats belly up for those of you who are dead stickers.

Lot of bed fisherman dead stick varuios lures in bass beds and wait for a female to come to the nest.

Dead sticking is waiting for a slow sinking Senko to reach the bottom or picking out a backlash or  drifting. I am not patient enough to soak bass lure very long.

Tom

I catch a lot of smallmouth dragging a senko behind me while casting with another lure drifting a river in my 12 foot Jon. That's what we call dead sticking. If throwing out a lure and letting it sit for 30  minutes I think I would rather just join the bucket  brigade and cut some bait. 

If you're truly dead sticking like cat fishing then get some Canadian night crawlers, a long sewing needle, a syringe, and a small treble hook. 

Set it up like a C-rig. Run your leader through the eye of the needle. Thread the needle through the entire worm. Tie on the treble hook, slide the end of the worm over the hook shank, and use the syringe to inject air into the worm. 

Cast it out there and wait. You'll catch everything in the lake including bass. 

18 hours ago, J Francho said:

You can dead stick anything.

X2, as long as it is a plastic.

I had a friend who would smoke one cigarette as he left his 4-inch moccasin blue dead ringer just sit there. Drove me nuts. But he always seemed to get a hit, sooner or later.

After he finished the cigarette and had no bites he would reel in and do it all over again.

Great guy. Died from lung cancer about five years ago.