I've read/heard that a lot of pros are no using the drop shot in a lot of situations where they used to use a Carolina rig (horizontal presentation, not vertical).  I messed aroud with this a little bit last year but was curious to see what others are doing with it.

How big of a weight, how far up the line to tie the hook, drag or hop retrieve, etc?  

How big of a weight, how far up the line to tie the hook, drag or hop retrieve, etc?

Yep, that's it. Those are the variables you have to experiment with. For a general answer, and you know how good a generalization is, heavier weight for deeper water, shorter distance between weight and hook for less active fish, experiment with the retrieve.

The whole idea behind the drop shot is to target inactive fish by putting the bait in front of them and leaving it there, hovering and twitching right in front of their noses. Keeping it moving all the time just might be something they haven't seen before. I would guess that if you're going to be casting quite a way and doing a moving retrieve, you'll need some extra distance between weight and hook, to keep it up off the bottom. Haven't tried it that way. I'm just speculating.

yes u are right  anglers use the ds for vertical jigging and cr for casting    i like heavier weights  just because u can fish alittle faster with them  but when the fish are really finicy i will use a lighter weight and fish much slower    normally a 1/4 ounce then a 1/8 or 3/16 ounce weight for a slower bite              now leader length all depends on how far up the bass are suspended  go about 6 inches longer then where the fish are  so if a fish is 2 foot of the bottom use a 30inch leader   i like longer leaders    definety just drag it  if u try bounceing the rig  the weight is just bouncing up and down and the actual lure isnt moving much  and a bouncing weight could possibly scare fish  

Most of the time I cast a drop shot rig to cover just like you would a jig or texas rig. So I rig it up with a 6-12" leader, a 1/4oz weight (depending on depth and current) and a 2/0 lightwire Owner offset worm hook. Then I'll rig a 4" ZOOM finesse worm, RI flirt worm, or a 4" ZOOM dead ringer weedless and very slowly inch the rig through cover, shaking it and pausing it along the way.

Another very effective technique is to flip a drop shot rig in heavy cover like grass mats. I use a 7' heavy action flippin stick, 40lb Stren Super braid, a gammy 2/0 superline wide gap hook, a 1/2-1oz weight, and any small craw, beaver, or any other normal flipping bait on a relatively short leader (no more than 6"). And just flip it into the cover, let the weight hit bottom, and shake just like you would if you were flipping a texas rig.

Exactly the type of stuff I was looking for! Thanks.

I threw a 3/8 ounce last summer but didnt' know how much heavier people were going. Hadn't though about dropping it in a tree but seems like a great idea (last weeks Day on The Lake on ESPN had Tommy Biffle fishing a jig saying people never leave the lure in the cover long enough). This would allow you to leave the lure in the same spot and get some action for about as long as you want.

I've also decided to try it during the spawn - but will probably have to drop down to a pretty small weight I'd guess.

All good stuff so far but I will add this. If you are making vrey long casts (as you might with a c-rig), you might wish to opt with a greater distance between the weight and the bait.  Why? Because the farther the rig is away from you, the shallower the angle will be between you and the rig. A shorter distance between the weight and the bait could make the bait to drag along the bottom and you wouldn't know it.  Ideally you would want you bait to suspend above the bottom unless of course you want to c-rig a drop shot.  ;D

This makes me think of a story my Korean friend told me about Japanese finesse fishing.  He said he was fishing in Japan a couple of years ago and  was fishing with on old Japanese man who would cast out his drop shot rig, light a cigarette, smoke, talk, and when finished with his cigarette, proceed to twitch his line.  He would then wait, talk etc.  One cast might last 15 minutes.  My friend said he was so frustrated just watching the old man that he couldn't stand it, but the old man outfished everyone around him.  Made me think of bobber fishing as a kid.

Here's something i am going to give a go at this year!  

It's a drop shot setup that uses a jig as the weight which will provide two catchin options. Or maybe even drag a dinger off the back of a heavy jig as a C-rig  

Here's something i am going to give a go at this year!

It's a drop shot setup that uses a jig as the weight which will provide two catchin options. Or maybe even drag a dinger off the back of a heavy jig as a C-rig

I have been doing this for a couple of years now. I typically use a spider grub on a jighead. Their are a couple of things you need to know about this.

1. The jig will hang up a suprising amount of the time.

2. Be carefull because a jig can sometimes dissuade some really finicky fish away from the suspended lure for some reason i dont know why.

2. most of my fish from the bottom of this rig came when i hit a school. When the other aggressive fish come to steal the lure out of the hooked fishes mouth, they have the jig.

What kind of weight do you guys reccomend for drop shotting?  

I recommend the finess style.  3/8 to 1/2 oz is what I used a lot on Erie and most of the rivers I fish.  1/4 oz seemed to work best on most lakes.  

Does anyone know any good weedless hooks they recommend for dropshotting.  I have seen some smaller hooks that you would use for texas rig or carolina rig, but was wondering everones sucess or lack of success on them?

What kind of weight do you guys reccomend for drop shotting?

I think you will find 3/16 to 1/4 the best for depths up to 20-25' especially if you're just starting out. 1/8 is cool too, but it will most likely be easier and more convenient to "feel" the bottom with a 3/16 or 1/4 oz. weight.

Bottom line is that nothing is absolute.  You will come to learn that one weight is good for one situtation but not so good in another.

For example, I had the opportunity last month to fish 45-60' for the first time ever and unfortunately for me the heaviest weight I have was 1/4 oz.  To this point I never "saw" the need to acquire heavier weights because I never thought I'd face a deep fshing scenario.

It seemed like an eternity for the rig to get to the bottom even with a spinning reel. I will definitely opt for a heavier weight if I fish that deep again.