The drop shot rig has been around for a long time now and almost everyone I know uses it at one point or another but there are many ways that the drop shot can work, like pitchin’ it in docks, weeds, rock, and wood. Now the drop shot was created for deep water off shore structure fishing, but you can fish it from 6 inches of water to 60 feet of water.
When fishing the drop shot you have to have the right gear. Now a typical guy would use a spinning combo, and that’s what most guys’ use, I included, but there is another way. That would be fishing with a bait caster combo. Now with both combos the principles are the same, you’re just getting the best of both worlds. With the spinning combo, you’re getting more finesse because you are using light line and weight, and I like to use a 6’9” medium light, St. Croix Mojo Bass rod with a medium size spinning reel that holds about 140 yards of 10 pound fluorocarbon or 10 pound braid, but in heavy cover like wood and weeds you might want to use a bait casting combo, my personal favorite is a 6’6″ medium heavy St. Criox Mojo Bass rod with a high gear ratio bait casting reel with 12 pound and up fluorocarbon or 45 pound braid. Now the hooks can vary, from a small size 1 octapus hook to a 4/0 ewg hook. All have their time and place. With the small hooks, you might want to fish them with the spinning combo with a small 3 inch to 4.5 inch finesse worm, sitck bait, or a small minnow shape plastic. With the bigger hooks, you might want to fish bigger baits, like a 6 inch stick bait, craw, sweet beaver, or a fluke. All work well when you need finesse but a big profile to get the big bites.
Now that you know what gear to use, let’s talk about where to fish the awsome rig. Let’s start shallow, from a foot to 6 feet of water. With using this rig in shallow water, we want to shorten the tag where the weight is placed, this makes the bait closer to the bottom or closer to the surface. The hight placement of the hook is something that the bass will have to tell you. You can not be afraid to change the hight. With fishing the shallow water especially in the spring, the bass are goin to be in the spawning stages, you might want to start out with small bait high in the bed and than work your way down closer to the bottom of the bed. Each time you switch, you might want to go with bigger baits and do the same when the bass go to deeper water. Do not be afraid to go super big also, like Mike Iaconelli, he used a 7 inch Ish tube on a 12/0 hook. Sometimes bigger is better! These are some ideas that have made me a better drop shotter! Tight lines to all!
Jon Reznack
