Ok, I've got my drop shot rig here I just tied up a little while ago. One of my favorite
worms to throw on a drop shot; you can throw just about anything on a drop shot, creature
baits, tubes, Basstrix, whatever, swim baits. But my one favorite bait if I had to choose
one overall, would be a 6 inch ST Roboworm. This is my color, Aaronís magic. I've got
my 1/0 Gamakatsu drop shot hook.
There's 3 basic ways of rigging this on a nose hook. You have the Texas Rig style with
the O'Shaugnessy that I use with the rebarb, itís really good. The Texas Rig is basic;
most of us know how to do that.
The Nose Hook; you can wacky rig it. There are certain situation where this is the way
to go. There are a lot of times when this over the traditional way, this will out fish
the traditional way like unbelievable. There ís also times when it is too slow and it takes
longer to get to the bottom and when it does fall, the ends of the worm will actually kind
of like a senko will actually move on the way down. But it does sort of fall down like
50% so instead of going right to the bottom, itís going to take awhile. So in certain
situations, experiment with it and try it that way. There is also the traditional Nose
Hook, and when I Nose Hook, I barely, I barely get any plastic. You can see that I want the
worm to move really freely. I want it to be right at the tip of the worm, not too much
worm. It kind of messes the action up when you go through too much worm, it makes it
kind of funny and you get line twists easier too, it actually keeps the line twists down
when you do it that way.
The way that I prefer is to go back about a quarter inch in the salt of the belly of the worm,
go straight into the worm about half way and then bring it out toward the nose, this is
by far the best way. I come out just to the point of the hook is right just under the
surface of the worm, this actually makes the worm in one with the hook so the worm is not
moving like it would on nose hooks and normally it kind of moves around and swivels around,
this is actually connected to that hook so whatever that hook does, that worm is going
to follow behind it. It increases the action unbelievable, it's not as much as when itís
on a nose hook, it kind of moves, this is like the right action like a fish or something
actually coming up that actually lifts and the whole worm kind of looks more natural
and it works better to me. For me, I prefer over the traditional.
A lot of drop shotting, itís an incredible rig for catching fish, vertical or straight
down. I do that probably 30%-40% of the time. The other 70%-80% of the time, I am casting
it. Like with a Texas Rig, a Carolina Rig, Iím actually taking my rig and casting it.
Whatever distance, if you have a brush pile or rock pile or whatever you are casting to,
cast to it. You donít need to get right on top of it and drop it straight down, this
rig is actually more effective casting.
Leader lengths vary; in the spring I tend to use the shortest leaders I do through the
whole year. In January and February I use like a 1 inch to 3-4 inch leader. As you get
into the post spawn, summerÖ.. I tend to go to the length of the worm or double length
of the worm so anywhere from a 4-5 inch leader to a 12-14 or 15 inch leader depending on
where you are fishing. It may be 20 inches where you are at, it may be 6 inches. As again
to the fall and the winter, thatís when I use my longest leaders. And I vary, sometimes
in the summer and spring I use long leaders. Sometimes in the summer I use a 2 foot leader
but the fall and the winter time I use the longest leaders, usually and I go up to a
30 inch leader sometimes depending where you are at. Normally on the lakes that we fish
most of the time, ya know like a 16 inch leader is plenty or a 12 inch but I am talking about
some of the lakes in California that we use to fish with 25 feet visibility, go like a
25-30 inch leader.
The drop shot weights is very critical, the size and weight you fish. 1/8 oz. is what
I use the most, down about 30 feet of water. Itís just the rate of fall, the bait falls
more natural, it doesnít just go out there and plummet to the bottom. There are situations,
say for instance, Buffalo, Lake Erie, ChamplainÖÖ Ω oz, 3/8 oz is barely enough. You want it
to get out there as fast as possible and get to those fish as fast as possible and they
just destroy it. I have seen bites at Guntersville and Wheeler where I want it to get down there
quick and as fast as I could because if they saw it, they ate it so there are situations
like that. So in those situations, ya know º or 3/8, go at it, experiment with it. But
most of the fishing when I am doing a drop shot, Iím throwing an 1/8 oz, 3/16thÖÖif
one day Iím throwing an 1/8 oz than the next day itís blowing 20 miles an hour, Iíll
go to a 3/16th. You might need to go to a º oz. Normally in a tough bite, where you
are doing a drop shot, you get bites and itís tough, I go light as possible.
After I throw it out and cast, you want to let it sink to the bottom, most of the time
you could work a drop shot from surface to the bottom, itís all workable with the drop
shot. Drop shot is excellent for catching suspended fish; itís not just a bottom bait,
a bottom rig. What I do is cast it out, letís cast it out one more time, if you are watching
the background that is actually the good way to work it, just kind of let it sit, kind
of hop it a little bit. When you cast it out, let it sink. Once the weight hits the bottom,
keep the rod loose in your hand, you donít want to grip it tight, I tend to hold the
rod in front of the reel which gives you more leverage and more control, balances the rod
and reel a lot nicer. You can put a finger behind but I do not like holding it like that,
I think you lose a lot of leverage so I tend to hold it in front of the reel. With all
rods you canít really do that. This is a Megabass Signature Rod and I kind of did some
work to it so I could hold it like this but to hold it in front like that is just that
you have so much more leverage and I put a finger on the blank and a lot of people think
that is for feeling the blank or feeling the bite, itís not true. What I do is keep that
for leverage so I can kind of keep that rod balanced and I keep it loose. Itís a big
issue in Spain rods, they will hurt your back, they will hurt your elbow, and they can cause
a lot of pain just because of the way that you hold it.
Oh look at that! We got one just sitting there. But ya the leverageÖ..(let me get this fish
in here) the leverage, it helps when you get a bite you can kind of push down and pull,
and what it does is it locks that rod in your hand. You would break this rod trying to pull
on my hand; for sure you can not get this rod out of my hand even if my 8 year old could
probably hold it and if you pulled it by the tip, you would probably break the rod. It
gives you so much leverage.
Again, I hold the rod loose in my hand to keep tendons and stuff at bay and not to stress
anything out. I fish a lot and it might help you if you donít fish a lot and you might
go out there and fish once a week and strain your muscles especially when you catch a lot
of fish, itís better to hold the rods, even baitcasters, kind of loose. Letís see how
he ate it, oh yaÖ..itís a little smallmouthÖ.. they like that Robo, he's micro. But again
with the drop shot cast it out, let it hit the bottom, kind of shake it, kind of hold
the rod lose in your hand, it will help. Holding it tight all day, it doesnít feel good and
the drop shot, most of the time Iím kind of swimming it, kind of hopping the bait up,
let it fall back to the bottom, hop it upÖ..all I want to do is let the fish see the bait
and most of the time they will bite it. A lot of the time you do not need to have that
pause, once that bait gets down to the bottom, the weight hits the bottom, you want that
bait to pause maybe fall a little bit, almost like a free fall. A lot of the time Iíll
let it fall all the way to the bottom like so, hop it back up again, shake it and there
is a lot of times when you might have to slow down and I deadstick it, thereís a bit right
there, right under the boat in 6 feet of water. So there are a lot of times when you barely
need to shake it and I call that shaking the worm not the weight and that comes to bait
like Texas Rig and a lot of the times you want to shake the weight, not the worm. Thereís
a drop shot when the fish are really tough to catch and shaking the worm and not the
weight makes all the difference in the world and that may happen sometimes and thatís
totally normal and it makes the manufacturers make more money and thatís what you want
to see.
So, experimentÖ..ya know, there are times when my weight is on the bottom 20% of the
time and there are times when my weight is on the bottom 100% of the time. So, drop shottingÖ..if
you learn how to do it, and you become a master at it, it will change your life of bass fishing.
It is the most effective one rig that there is. I mean, honest to God, everywhere you
go, and overall, youíre not going to beat a drop shot. And I know there are guys out
there who will never drop shot and Kevin VanDam made fun of me in the past and called this
a sissy rig and VanDam also has a drop shot rigged up all the time so even he has changed.
So, donít be afraid to experiment, fish the banks, swim it down the bank not touching
the bottom very much, put swim bait on there, a worm, whatever you want to do, it works.
All it does is suspend your bait off the bottom where fish feed most of the time so it makes
perfectly good sense that it is a killer way to catch them.
Good luck fishing to you, I hope this helps you!