DROPSHOTTING FOR DUMMIES

DROPSHOTTING FOR DUMMIES (PART II)

The beauty of the dropshot rig is in its simplicity, but the appeal of the rig is in its versatility. Plainly stated, some version of the dropshot can and will be effective in virtually any bass fishing situation. Don't get me wrong, I didn't say it's always the best thing to be throwing at any given time; But it will produce fish in an incredibly wide array of circumstances.

First, abandon any preconceived notions that you have about the rig. Just as spinnerbaits were not long-ago thought to be strictly a Author with a nice dropshot bass. lure for probing shallow water cover, limiting the dropshot's use to deep, clear, vertical, finesse situations would be a grave mistake. The rig has also been touted as a stationary presentation, yet another misconception. Fact is, the dropshot rig can be effectively employed virtually anywhere, any time, with the sole exception of extremely stained/muddy
water. It shines in clear to moderately stained conditions. I'll go out on a limb & call it the absolute best clear water soft-plastics presentation you can use. It's especially effective for targeting "pressured" fish, a nice wildcard to play when fishing competitively.

The dropshot rig can be employed throughout the seasons as well as throughout the range of the popular bass species'. It's equally effective on largemouth, smallmouth & spotted bass, making it a great rig to use in unfamiliar waters. The myriad of lures that can be employed on the rig is endless, so I suggest using the plastic baits that you would have confidence using with other presentations such as Texas & Carolina rigs, as well as your favorite jig-trailers. Don't be afraid to experiment either, the first time I attached an 8" worm to my dropshot rig I was rewarded with a 4.5 pound largemouth on one of my first casts. And yes, the dropshot rig catches quality bass as well as quantity.

So where should you start? Simple. Pick a spot or area that you know like the back of your hand, one that you're confident holds bass. Yup, go to your favorite waterway & go to the spot you're most confident in, and go under optimal conditions. Why?

Dropshotting can make the difference! Think about it; You can (& happily, in this case, do) have a truly deadly lure tied to your line. But if you don't present that bait to fish, you may never know it. It's my firm belief that if the average bass fisherman tries a new technique for one hour without some level of success, that there's a significant chance that he may not ever try that technique again. At very least we lose a whole lot of interest in a very short period of time. You'd really be cheating yourself if you tried the dropshot rig once or
twice with minimal success & wrote it off. Nothing catches fish when fish aren't present

Notice also that I said for you to go to YOUR favorite spot. I didn't say "deep spot", "weedy spot", "woody spot", "clear-water spot", etc... It just doesn't matter, you see, because the rig works everywhere that holds bass, with possibly the lone exception of muddy water. That's what I call versatile! I want you to catch fish in short order when you begin experimenting with the dropshot. The only reason you shouldn't catch bass would be if you didn't present the rig to catchable fish.

There are five elements of the dropshot rig that, when altered correctly to fit the specific fishing situation, will combine to fool even the most "difficult" bass. You see, what we're going to do here is present a realistic soft-plastic to the fish. Only instead of dragging it by & in turn giving the fish only a limited window of strike-opportunity, we're gonna make that fish look at the bait for an extended period of time. The bait isn't going to be lying lifeless on the bottom either. It's going to
suspend off of the bottom & exhibit subtle but very tantalizing movements. It's going to get pounced on quickly by actively-feeding bass, and is going to piss-off (for lack of better words) inactive to moderately active ones to the point of striking as well.

The first element that we need to decide on is our line. The rule here is to go with the lightest & clearest line possible. I don't recommend using superlines with the dropshot unless heavy cover prohibits the use of monofilament, or if you're fishing in relatively stained water. I personally use clear-green mono for nearly all of my dropshot applications. While ideally we're going to use 6-12# test line for dropshotting, we're not going to throw lines in this class into standing timber or lily pads.

Basically, upgrade your line's breaking strength until you stand a substantial chance of extracting the largest bass you'd hope to encounter out of the cover you're fishing. I've used up to 25# mono successfully with the dropshot, and am confident that even heavier lines would be effective, particularly where heavy cover masks its presence & bass are actively feeding. If you feel that thick-diameter mono is prohibiting your getting strikes, that's when you might switch to a thinner-diameter superline.

Hooks are self-explanatory. As is the rule with other plastics, use as small a hook as you can get away with. If you plan on nose- It really does work hooking your bait, tiny hooks of size 1 and smaller do the trick. I prefer nose-hooking my plastics whenever cover-related snags aren't abundant. By using a tiny, exposed hook you're almost assured of a hookup when a keeper bass bites your bait.

If you've got to hook your bait Texas-style, go with whatever size hook you'd use on the bait if you were Texas-rigging it.

You can be experiment with sinker styles & weights. I always recommend using lighter sinkers in shallow water & heavier sinkers in the depths. Since theoretically the fish doesn't ever physically touch the sinker, there's a good bit of leeway here. Remember that the bass may indeed drag the sinker, so go with a weight that is capable of staying put while you "work" the bait. High winds & current also require additional weight to keep you in contact with your bait.

Leader-length variations are nearly infinite. Try to keep the lure at the same level in the water column that you believe the bass to be using. Experiment by shortening & lengthening your leader. If thick submergent weeds are present, try to make the bait skirt the top of the weeds.

If you feel the fish are suspending, get your bait far away from the bottom. My friend Rich Zaleski from CT has had success with leader lengths as long as 30 feet! While such lengths are extreme, they just serve to emphasize that we are limited only by our imagination when expanding the dropshot rig's possibilities.

Just as leader variations are extensive, even more so are bait possibilities. Literally any soft-plastic lure nay work at one time or another on the dropshot rig. Use what you have confidence in, and scale down from larger profile baits if you're not getting results. Conversely, if you're getting bit by only small bass but feel larger fish are present, don't be afraid to attach a large worm, lizard, craw etc to the rig.

The rest is up to you. Go out & throw the dropshot rig everywhere. It'll never replace your tried & true techniques, but you'll love having it in your arsenal. It's a winner.