Lately I've been having great luck/success "swimming" the drop shot rig.

I've been fishing a drop shot "rig" by casting it in shallow water, from five to 15 feet deep in broken or weedy bottom.

I use a cylindrical drop shot sinker, and a space of two to three feet between it and the bait. I determine the distance primarily by the depth of the vegetation. I try to keep the hook just above the thickest of the plants, and the cylindrical weight passes through the gunk more cleanly than the other types of weights.

What stuff it (the sinker) does gather, does not seem to diminish the effectiveness of the setup. In fact, many of the strikes come when the weight gets hung up on a plant, and I jiggle the rod to pull it free.

I fish it similar to a jig, with a slow twitch and occasionally jerk or sweep on the retrieve.

Flappin hogs, crawdads, finesse worms, lizards and creature baits work for me. If the fish are tail biting the longer bait, I'll switch to the Flappin Hog, and if they are nibbling at that, I use a 3 and 3/4" Yamamoto Crawdad.

If you try it, be sure to leave a tag end of four feet or so for your sinker. That's enough to keep the bait high enough so that it rarely snags the vegetation. I adjust it to that point.

I usually make long casts, unless casting to a specific target, such as rising fish. It's not a topwater rig, but I've managed to hook a few by casting past the spot where the fish jumped, and retrieving it without allowing it to settle.

For a hook, I use the Owner Weedless Wacky Downshot hook.

http://www.ownerhooks.com/pages/products/hooks/downshotsystem.htm

The only downside I've experienced is that pickerel will frequently sever the line. To counter that, I use a swivel on the main line, then use about seven feet of twenty pound test fluorocarbon for a leader. I use Seaguar Invis X line, but expect that most other brands would work just fine.

I may have to replace it after catching a pickerel, but it has stopped the break offs, without a noticeable dropoff in hits.

Probably because it's getting fish that are holding in the weeds, waiting in ambush for an unsuspecting prey to come along. If that's the case, mono might work nearly as well as fluoro. But, why take that chance?

My philosophy is that you should tip the scales in your favor at every opportunity, whenever possible.

Good suggestion.

Drop shot fishing is a wonderful tactic to add to your arsenal.

Thanks for sharing.  

Neat. I'm going to try that. You've got my wheels turning.