I have a question for you guys, I need help with my dropshotting. I mostly throw swimbaits, and t-rig, cranks you name it. But dropshotting is one of my weaknesses. Any tips would be helpful thanks.


My dropshot seup right now is a shimano sedona 500 spooled with 6lb test fluro-pline, and a loomis imx spinning rod i belive 6' 6'' medium, would this do. Or should I swich to my loomis shaky head rod?

I believe your set-up will work just fine. I'm not a fan of 6 lb line but that's just me. I have a Cabela's Fish Eagle ll 6' 6" med with a Quantum Kinetic reel, I spool it with 12lb floro, and no worries.

Yeah 6lb is to lightish for me I fish 8 from time to time depending if Im fishing any structures

I dropsshot with 6 when i fish the exposed hook style and have heard of people going as low as 4 but to me thats wayt o light.ten lb floro when rig the worm texas style.
tight lines, BRIAN

Aside from your equipment, what do you feel contributes to drop shotting being a weakness? And it's ok to say that you just don't like finesse ;)

I would not say that I am great at drop shotting but it is something that I'll do from time to time. Keys for success for me have been:

- Using the proper weight to match the cover (pencil weight for grass, round for rock, etc)

- Hook selection (nose hook for open water, straight shank robo rebarb hook for more weedless approach).

- How to hook the worm (hook lightly in the nose for best action)

- Line weight ( 6 for small fish and in general, 8 or 10lb for larger fish or around cover)

I think there are about 1,000 types of soft plastic that will work on drop shot but whether they get bit or not depends more on your basic terminal tackle. Rod and reel are important for fighting the fish, and to a lesser extent for imparting action to the worm, but even if you're using an ugly stick with a spincaster, you should still get plenty of bites with the right setup on the business end.

Tell me more though about what it is that is hurting your confidence in the technique. Let's diagnose :)

Your setups are fine. The IMX will cover just about any DS situation you can fish. Do you have a spare spool with the Sedona? You can just put 6lb. on 1 spool and then put something more like 10lb. on the other. If you have 6 on the Shaky special, you can use that for light stuff, like 6 lb with smaller baits and light weights. Like Rob said, nose hook for more action and open water, and T-rig for a weedless or shallow approach. Hooks are up to you; I prefer the Owner Mosquito and Gammies for my DS. But what matters the most is technique(?). How are you fishing a DS?
Try hopping the bait and swimming it along the bottom. Try shaking the bait on a slack line, try deadsticking the bait with no movement. Try fishing the rig vertically below the boat in open water. Bottom line... try anything you think might work. If shaking isn't working, try the deadstick, etc. Fish the DS every way possible.

>My dropshot seup right now is a shimano sedona 500 spooled
>with 6lb test fluro-pline, and a loomis imx spinning rod i
>belive 6' 6'' medium, would this do. Or should I swich to my
>loomis shaky head rod?

If you have a loomis shakey head rod the 820 or 822 I would go ahead and use that instead. That would be more suited than your imx for droshot. Plus, I feel the 500 is a little too small of a reel. I would use at least a 1000.

Thanks for your help guys Im proably gonna be fishin today bringing two setups with me my swimbait and d-shot, gonna fish alittle bit of everything, rago tool, hudds,tripple trouts everything in my swimbait arsenal bascicaly. And of course a little d-shot picked up a couple packs of robos last night in aarons magic, and magarita

>I have a question for you guys, I need help with my
>dropshotting. I mostly throw swimbaits, and t-rig, cranks you
>name it. But dropshotting is one of my weaknesses. Any tips
>would be helpful thanks.
>
>
>My dropshot seup right now is a shimano sedona 500 spooled
>with 6lb test fluro-pline, and a loomis imx spinning rod i
>belive 6' 6'' medium, would this do. Or should I swich to my
>loomis shaky head rod?

i generally use a 7' medium-light st croix spinning rod with a 1000 shimano reel and 6 lb flouro; however, my son changed my rods around yesterday and i ended up using a powell 703, which is medium action, and 8 lb fluoro on a 3000 shimano. ended up working just fine.

-perry-

More importantly I think we should talk about how to really "drop-shot" and how to detect bites and what not. That for me is the most difficult. I get the basis of drop shotting; cast out, let it hit the bottom, pick up slack until tight with weight, jig tip short and fast to impart action. But do you guys stop once and a while and deadstick or drag it some? I know there is more to it then just the jigging part. Also how do you detect bites I think I'm terrible at that part. Thanks in advance

ChouDawg

You know what really helped my drop shotting... Spending some time watching how my bait moved in clear water in relation to my rod action. Basically just toss your bait somewhere you can see it and shake it different ways. You'll see that if you shake it and give slack with the right rhythm, the worm will start to wave up and down or quiver depending how fast you shake it.

You'll also start to see which worms are good and which ones aren't. There is a reason why Robo is so popular for drop shot, their worms have terrific action.

If you try different hook rigging (like nose hook vs. small EWG vs. Robo rebarb hook) you'll get a sense for how the hook affects the action on each worm. How you hook the worm can really affect the action! For example, a small EWG hook on a 4" worm will kill the action most times. In that case a nose hook rig is usually appropriate. If you put the same EWG hook in a larger 7" worm, you may get all the action you need.

It's the kind of thing where you need to put together a good combination. Just having the right worm or the right hook doesn't always get it done, it's having the combination of worm, hook, hooking method, shaking method, and to a smaller extent line diameter that will get you bit. I am by no means a drop shot master, but I do have some combinations that I can put out there with confidence, and they usually get bit.

Drop shotting is a little more complicated than tossing a weightless senko or a rattle trap but a little time on the water experimenting and watching the results of your combinations in shallow/clear water will get you going I think.

Thanks for the response swimbait, I understand how drop shotting worked I've spend time observing the technique in clear water. I'm just a little puzzled on how to detect bites. Some people say the fish will rip it out of your hands, other say the bite will be undetectable. I'm just not sure when to stop jigging

I don't think I've ever had a fish rip it out of my hands while drop shotting. You will feel the weight of the fish while your wiggling the rig. Just load up the rod and reel in, letting the reel set the hook. Don't jerk up on the rod to set the hook like you would with a t-rigged worm.

once you start doing it a lot you will get the feel of bites, cuz bites will never have a certain consistant "feel" every day i fish i get bites that feel completely different so just pay attention basically haha

>Thanks for the response swimbait, I understand how drop
>shotting worked I've spend time observing the technique in
>clear water. I'm just a little puzzled on how to detect bites.
>Some people say the fish will rip it out of your hands, other
>say the bite will be undetectable. I'm just not sure when to
>stop jigging

bites range from pressure to a heavy "tap". every once in a while the bite is so light that i could only tell cuz the bait started to swim away. but i fish a lot of shallow ds where i think it is easier to feel the bite. i haven't fished it deep much yet. i understand that that bite is a lot more of a pressure bite.

-perry-