If you’ve ever fished a drop shot rig, here’s a couple modifications that you can make that can help draw fish towards your rig. As I’m sure you know drop shotting allows you to suspend your lure while maintaining contact with the bottom. It’s rigged with the lure tied above the weight so you can shake and twitch your lure while keeping it in the strike zone. The drop shot rig can be extremely effective at times. Most anglers I know stick with the traditional drop shot rig, but here’s something a bit different that might give you that fishing advantage you’ve been looking for.
Try drop shotting with a glass bead/brass weight combination. Glass and brass seem to put off enough sound to get a bass heading towards your lure. I’ve had a lot of success with this combination.
The most common drop shot components used are as follows:
Hooks – Typically #4 – #2/0 are used
Weights – (Bullet, round, egg, barrel, cylinder) led, brass, steel & nickel
Beads – Glass, plastic, brass, tungsten “O” Ring – Brass, Steel, nickel, painted
Lure – Soft plastics 2” – 4” tubes, grubs, worms, crawfish, etc.
Although this technique works well in many situations, here are a few that you should try:
In Weed Beds
In weeds my two favorite drop shot weights are the cylinder style and a “brass and glass” combo. There are days when bass want a quiet presentation and the cylinder style weights come through weeds very nicely. On those days where you need some noise to call the bass into your drop shot, here’s where the brass and glass combo truly shines. Try dropping into holes and pockets of heavy weeds. Let it settle to the bottom and then lightly bounce your rod tip 4-5 times, then pause for a few seconds and repeat.
During the Spawn
Drop shotting has proven to be killer at this time of the year. It can provoke a strike from even the most timid bedding bass (usually the big female). The trick is not to move it often and sometimes it’s best if you don’t move it at all……. just let it sit there suspended. You want as little slack in your line as possible, so you’ll always be in contact with your lure.
Around Rocks & Boulders
Use a drop shot around rocks shoals and submerge boulders. It is very effective, because you can hang up the bait on a rock and still work it, without moving it away from the cover. If you try this in shallow water, you can see that it looks like your bait is trying to drill a hole in the side of the rock to hide in. It drives bass crazy and they’ll usually hit it just because it appears to be terrified and trying to escape from another predator!
The only down side is, you lose a lot of sinkers… and brass sinkers and glass beads can get expensive after an eight hour day.
So next time you’re at the tackle store, or online shopping for tackle, pick up some “O” rings, brass weights and glass beads, and try these drop shot fishing techniques the next time you’re on the water. You’ll be surprised at how well they produce.
For a more detailed look at the Drop Shot Rig and Drop Shot Fishing check out this article: Drop Shot Fishing – Top to Bottom
