Hi All,

I'm going to be fishing at a clear lake and be dropshotting in about 50ft of water. Im going to use 6 lb test because the fish are line shy. During my prefishing I used a 1/4 ounce weight and it took forever to get top the bottom. What size weight would you recommend using? Also how long should my leader be when I'm drop shotting in 50-70 feet of water?

Also, I'm gonna start out with topwater in the morning with a Zara Spook. Would I start with a slow retrieve at first and give itr pauses or work it non-stop to the boat?

Thanks

You gotta be going to south end of Clear Lake?  

Anyway there are some variables here.  

First if wind comes up you will want to adjust the weight up so you can maintain contact with the bottom.  That's probably #1.

If you are fishng directly below the transducer at that depth probably start with 3/8 oz.  If bottom is not jagged (that's lava rock there) you can get away with round dropshot weight ( Swell Mart) as long as you don't move the boat horizontally very much.  If you are climbing the bait up and down points the round weight may snag a lot - depending on bottom composition..the probably best thing is buy, borrow or beg some mojo weights.  

http://www.mojolures.com/

If you need more weight then you are faced with pegging larger sinker or pegging a bead below a larger sinker.  Don Iovino has info on this on his site. A piece of steel guitar string makes OK threader.  Rubber bands or old rubber skirt for stopping material.  Ok now you can manage botttom contact.  that's #2

If you fishing horizontally at all you will appreciate the mojo's or bakudan or rockhopper..

http://www.iovino.com/

http://www.***/articles/dropshot-hotshot.shtml

http://www.***/articles/hh/wall-drop-shot.shtml

http://www.***/articles/dropshot-garland.shtml

http://www.***/articles/dropshot-first.shtml

These links may help dial you in...on leader length and other things

I WOULD ONLY USE FLUROCARBON LINE  - maybe P-line or Sugoi if you can manage it on your reel..I would use only recommended hooks.  You could probably dial up to 8# test.  Flurocarbon is pretty invisible in the water.  If you use monofilament you will miss a lot of bites at that depth.

Sometimes the fish just want the plastic sitting there being gently manipulated while the sinker stays in contact with the bottom and other times they will only hit it on the fall- that is raising and lowering the rod - little like spooning - or you might be fishing rip rap or wall where the plastic falls from ledge to ledge.  Then the fall rate can really figure in.  I've found at Lake Mead in that situation go with the lightest weight you can manage and still have some bottom contact.  The trade off is of course waiting for the dang thing to get down there.

If you get on them they will probably be schooled tight and you could load the boat in short time! Remember the  hypodermic for de-compression.

Fishing the Spook

Throw it as far as you can with the wind at your back for starters.

Establish a cadence.  Like 1,2,3 pause  -  1,2.  Repeat that all the way to near the boat.   Then think about some variations.  Experiment with your rod jerking power, distance and angle- too much power and the lure will nose out and splash - which can be good.  rod too high and line comes out and you loose action and maybe "spook" a prospective bite.  Too little and it won't walk.  Generally rod is down towards water - different rod angles make different actions. The slack you give it after each pull makes the walk.  Vary your timing there as well. Long pulls and hesitation will cause it to walk more side to side.  I'd start with something slow maybe even very slow if your partner can deal with it - given it is December and go from there.  Letting it splash and just sit there before begining retrieve can be good.  Just barely twitching it after it lands can be good also. with practice you can twitch it in place.

This might not be applicable, but there has been, on Lake Mead, an afternoon surface bite starting about 3:00 PM. Shallow sun warmed flats adjacent to deeper water. Throwing into skinny water.

      6lb. test for that kind of fishing is pretty risky. I would go with 8lb flourocarbon line. Flourocarbon sinks faster and is less visible. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies

When I said Clear Lake you guys probably thought of the the lake in northern CA. The lake im fishing is Oroville. My mistake, thanks again for the replies.

I wrote an article on light line drop shot fishing that should appear on this site soon.

I'm with Pond-Pro on that one.

Hi All,

I'm going to be fishing at a clear lake and be dropshotting in about 50ft of water. Im going to use 6 lb test because the fish are line shy. During my prefishing I used a 1/4 ounce weight and it took forever to get top the bottom. What size weight would you recommend using? Also how long should my leader be when I'm drop shotting in 50-70 feet of water?

Also, I'm gonna start out with topwater in the morning with a Zara Spook. Would I start with a slow retrieve at first and give itr pauses or work it non-stop to the boat?

Thanks

50 to 70 feet this early in the year is very questionable, at what depth is the thermocline layer? If you fish that deep, be prepared to fizz the bass and keep the livewell water temperature below 70 degrees.

You can easily use a 1/2 oz drop shot weight with 6 lb fluorocarbon line. Line stretch, yes fluoro stretches, will be a factor at 50+ depths. You may want to take a look at Daiwa Samurai braid, 15 lb is .007 diameter, less than 6 lbs fluoro and will not twist using a spinning reel.

WRB