Three of my best fish the past two days bit after I casted out and then got distracted doing something other than fishing...tending to a cigar, picking out a backlash, etc.

   But when I try to go super slow on purpose, I become the Tootsie Pop owl; 'One...Two...Three..." Done.  I just can't help myself...have to move it.  I have cashed checks in tournaments deadsticking, but fun fishing?  Forget it

 

 

I always cast out before I pee or eat something.  It’s uncanny….

I love it lol. Slow methodical baits are my deal. And I love dead sticking. Sometimes I’ll cast a popper, jig soft plastic or whatever out. And then check my email on my phone or something waiting to feel that thump 

The only bait or technique that I intentionally deadstick would be drop-shot.

 

I tried dead sticking a buzzbait for two hours . . . .  Nothing !

🤪

A-Jay

 

Gotta eat lunch sometime.

Weightless Senko works!

Tom

I occasionally deadstick a cast while I help the boy with his rod, or with changing lures on a second rod. I end up gut hooking them if I get one like that though so I don't like doing it much.

The only time I really "deadstick"  is when I'm fishing either topwater or worms/jigs. For topwaters, especially big swimbaits, I like to let the ripples fade out before I start my retrieve. I think the big splash can attract curious fish and they sit there staring at it until it makes just the slightest move. Too many times I've made a cast and then turned to grab something and that's when I got hit and wasn't ready to set the hook. For worms and jigs I actually don't like fishing them slow. I've caught fish stitching a worm but man is that mind numbing. But when I'm working a worm through a weed bed I like to feel when it pulls free of a dense patch and then let it sit in the opening for a bit before moving it again. Same with a jig. If I feel it hang up on the edge of cover or a rock I won't immediately pop it over I'll pull it up against it, let it sit, do it again, let it sit. And then hop it over.

 

I wouldn't really consider any of that true deadsticking though. The only time I do true deadsticking is fishing trout imitation lures in calmer waters. Just letting an MS Slammer or Mattlures trout sit there and giving it the slightest twitch every now and then. 

May be wrong but more fish have been gut hooked and killed by dead sticking than most any other presentation.

If you’re paying attention to feel and sight like any other plastic offering it can be very effective at times, if not what’s the point. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

If the fish only want a dead sticked bait I'm probably going home.

 

I can do painfully slow but dead sticking is not in my DNA although I have successfully caught bass doing it.

My dad and his buddy used to say lighting a cigarette would change your luck because it required both hands. For me it's trying to skip a bait and picking out the inevitable small overrun. If a bass inhaled it on the way down it's been munching for 5-10 seconds before I know it. I try to determine that before I deal with the loose line.

 

I don't really even like fishing a worm. But a quick look at my list of bass over 3 lbs tells me to keep one tied on.

I'm like @Choporoz @Pat Brown about not wanting to do it, but sometimes in crystal clear smallie waters it's definitely part of being effective.  So instead of just dead sticking, I stay active by "bed fishing."  I just barely tap the rod, bounce between taught and slack, shake, etc.  Anything to stay engaged.  I'll drag just an inch or two, repeat the process, but then I'll break out with a quick snap/jerk/double hop.  Sometimes the opposites in the same retrieve are the way to go.

 

scott

1 hour ago, MassYak85 said:

For topwaters, especially big swimbaits, I like to let the ripples fade out before I start my retrieve. I think the big splash can attract curious fish and they sit there staring at it until it makes just the slightest move.

I have one place I fish where the bass tend to sneak up and slurp the topwater before it moves. And it's usually a good bass. It has taught me to always leave a pause after the cast if there's a chance one might be there. 

I fished with my Senior Chief in about 88 on Orange lake, Florida. We were fishing a massive section of Hydrilla and I was flipping, he was using a plastic worm and threw out and set his rod down, he called lunch and grabbed a flask. 😂 20 minutes and his rod went nuts damned if he didn’t boat a 7 pound Largemouth. Yes, it was gut hooked and Senior opted to mount the fish but I literally couldn’t believe that he caught that fish “dead sticking “ 

1 hour ago, Mike L said:

May be wrong but more fish have been gut hooked and killed by dead sticking than most any other presentation.

If you’re paying attention to feel and sight like any other plastic offering it can be very effective at times, if not what’s the point. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

Yes. It’s a great way to kill a great fish and that’s a fact.. 

I will have plenty of time to dead stick, after I am dead.  While I am still alive, my bait is moving.

My wife totally takes me to school when it's a flat calm dead stick deal.

She's even better when there's some wind.

I try to do it, I really do.

But like the OP, It's just so hard for me.

After like 30 seconds, my left eye starts to twitch, I go into a trance

and I begin to speak in tongues.

#glossolalia

😵

A-Jay

When they’re keying on small threadfins, I’ve found that dead sticking a reaper on a dropshot can be deadly. 

As someone else said, deadsticking is not in my DNA. I can't even fish a drop shot with any success because I feel like I'm fishing with a cane pole. My hands have to be moving the bait. That's just me.