Ok this is the last one. I hope you guys and gals have been able to take something useful from these write-ups. Id like to say I dont consider myself an expert on this subject and dont want to come across as pompus or anything, just someone who has spent a whole lot of time with a drop shot rig in hand, and found out it works great for alot of different situations. ok, on to the meat.....

Bed Fishing with a Dropshot:

I realize some of you that might read this are opposed to bed fish, but as chiefly a tournament angler, I will bed fish to fill my limit with larger than usual females that would otherwise be almost impossible to catch. A note here on my bed fishing skills: I only weighed in 1 fish off a bed this spring out of approximately 25 or 30, and it was a Kicker fish type of scenario. Additionally, through bed fishing with a drop shot, I have observed the effectiveness of this technique in catching fish that are completely uninterested in eating and will only respond to the most realistic imitation of a live crittert. Generally I opt for the drop shot as my first choice for a bedding fish. I have gone to using GULP almost exclusively for this application to increase the sensory stimulation of those targeted fish. Case in point: A lake I fish experienced weather conditions that had the spawn delayed so that when the big surge happened it was almost unreal in the numbers of 5-7 lbers moving shallow. These fish were semi responsive to a number of presentations, for a day or so, but got pretty leery of any multi-appendage critter attached to braid or heavier line awful quick from pre-fishing pressure. Tournament morning dawned to a lake full of locked on lock jawed females who were to say the least a bit skittish. I worked a 4-5lb fish for about an hour before I left her to pursue another, but was still in sight of the nest she was sitting on. A competitor pulled up and caught her within a couple of minutes. I noticed he was throwing a dropshot rig, so I grabbed mine, and caught the fish I was targeting within a couple of seconds. I returned home from that event with an idea to experiment with the fish in my home waters which are notoriously impossible to catch when spawning. I found the drop shot rig on a short leader with a ¼ oz weight seemed to fool them every time. Upon employing a multitude of GULP baits I found them to be almost completely susceptible to the offering. I also began to pitch the standard senko and creature type offerings in the conventional t-rigged or weightless manner typically employed for bed fishing. Out of around 20 to 25 bass both large and smallmouth, I found that the static suspended presentation of a dropshot seemed to cause less anxiety to the fish, and also made it possible to keep the offering available for more close examination due to the fact it was at eye level for an extended period of time. As a safety measure for the fish I did nearly all of this fishing with either cut hooks or barbless hooks so that when I released pressure, the fish would quickly come loose and be able to resume it's reproductive tasks. The key I discovered was to keep the bait over the bed while keeping the weight out of the bed. This is achieved by varying the length of the leader according to casting distance. I found that the set-up mentioned in the dock fishing section worked best with regard to line and rod choice. This is most likely due to the fact that when a bed fish is hooked they have a tendency to run at a 90 degree angle from the direction they are being pulled, that is to say they will run sideways instead of away from you and the added leverage can help with control. They also tend to turn on their side quite often when caught off beds. The combination of these two things can cause an initially hooked fish to come loose immediately upon turning to face you since they are typically hooked shallow in the side or top of the mouth with more conventional flippin type techniques. With a dropshot two things play to the angler's advantage in this scenario. The first is that normally a dropshot will hook a fish in the side of the mouth fairly shallow anyway, but due to the hook type and light pressure in hook set and reeling in, when turning to face you a fish won't be as likely to throw the hook.  Second, the fish don't generally exhale the offering as quickly when turning due to the fact they don't seem to be as anxious when evaluating the smaller offering, and you're not crossing their eyes with the hook set. Additionally, If you're releasing fish immediately after catching them on beds, I believe the drop shot causes it to be a less traumatic experience for the fish, and there is a better chance they will return to life as normal upon being released.

I have learned quite a bit from your drop shot info you posted. Thank you!

Huh??  Could you start from the top ;D ;D

Good work.  This is obvioulsy something you have put a lot of time and effort into.  Thank you.

Thanks for these in-depth articles.  I have saved all five in hopes that more of the details will make sense later.  For now I am happy to have learned what I can from them.