Everything I know About Dropshotting-Techniques#2

So, we have covered a moving bait for feeding fish type of presentation, which typically has fish oriented by the bait, and loosely relating to some cover or structure feature. Now lets examine the DRAG. The drag is mostly effective for those fish that are non, or marginally active in chasing to feed. For this technique, I usually up size my weight to a ¼ oz, but have used as heavy as ½ oz to balance the rig depending on the size forage dictating lure size. This heavier weight is important for two things: 1. being bottom contact and enhanced feel for the bottom, and 2. being a rapid decent, and possible instinctual reaction strike. Upon casting, leave the bail open or reel disengaged, so that the rig falls as straight down as possible. The one rule that will ensure success for this method is to attempt to feel your way along the bottom. That is to say, try and figure out what your weight is dragging across weather it be rocks or wood or sand. In doing this you will be moving the lure slow enough to allow for less than aggressive fish to take notice, and you'll imparting a very natural movement to the rig. The next time you go for an outing on the lake, walk down to the boat ramp before you put the boat in. Look around for a school of bait (usually they will hang on ramps for the food) and watch their movement when not disturbed, and then disturb them gradually. You will notice they go about their business as normal, then become visibly nervous, and then flee (Im a bit obsessive, I've spent lots of time watching bait). By feeling out the bottom as I mentioned you will be mimicking these movements pretty closely. I could catch some grief for this next statement, but I almost never jiggle or shakey head the dropshot rig into a gyrating frenzy. If you have to do this to get bit, you will probably do better with a tight wiggling crank or a shakey head jig. In a jackpot I recently fished, we started out with slick sunny conditions, and the drag was producing pretty well. Some cloud cover and wind moved in ahead of an approaching front and I couldn't buy a bite though my partner was still catching be it at a much reduced rate from earlier in the tourney. I noticed he was doing a lot of jiggling, and that clued me in that the fish were becoming significantly more active. I picked up a crank, and WHAMwe didn't win or anything grand like that, but we did manage to catch a number of fish upon adjusting. So to re-iterate, reserve the rod shakin for jigs, t-rigs and carolina rigs, and although Im sure there are exceptions, the drop shot drag seems most effective when little or no rod action is imparted. In the drag scenario, I usually start with a longer leader (up to 3 or 4 feet) and generally never go any shorter than 12 inches. While dragging, you will encounter obstacles that the rig will bump into and momentarily get stopped. Don't immediately pull past these obstructions, but let the lure soak a few seconds. During the stop or when pulling past the object is generally when you will get bit. Many of these bites will be perchy or feel like a crappie or bluegill bite. And much of the time the fish wont commit on the initial peck. This is when most folks make the biggest mistake in fishing a dropshot. Instead of holding the bait in place and waiting, or continuing to move the rig, pop the bail open or disengage the reel and let the lure sink to the bottom for just a second or two. A high percentage of the time you will have the fish caught when you re-engage the reel and take up slack. This is especially effective for reservoir smallies and spots. Next we will move on to a couple of very specialized techniques using the drop shot.