Dropshoting, marketing or real science behind it?

[Old Ironmaker]

I am often called old fashioned, a human paradigm, even a dinosaur going down the river the wrong way whatever that meant, and that was 30 years ago. Please educate me, I hope old dogs can learn new good tricks. I'll try anything to put a fish on my line. I even bought a Colour Selector once.

 

Dropshoting, Aren't we talking about still fishing with vertical presentation. I always wanted to know the science behind this dropshot system. With that hook tight to the main drop line a fish needs to take the bait strait on I think. Point of hook first. If the fish strikes from the rear or side it would most likely feel the drop line and let go as that main line would not be free as it would if it was on a light tag. When we set up this type of drop shot the tag line was always made of the lightest diameter mono you could get away with and light split shot, just enough to hold the line vertical, keep the bait moving naturally if alive, up, down, left right. Dropshoting looks to be too static and goes against much I have learned. If you watched panfish and some game fish feed through crystal clear water IE ice fishing shallow Erie or snorkeling, you would see the fish inhale the bait by vacuuming in the bait, if something was amiss they would spit it out. Then often will suck it back in again. If they felt something was up they spit it and ran. Walleye are a inhale, spit and restrike if you have ever watched them diving. For another thread, don't want to digress here.

 

They are selling dropshot hooks, dropshot weights, do they have custom dropshot rods? Are we getting sucked in by marketing gurus in New York looking for our hard earned money? Or is there a science to this phenomenon that I'm not getting? I was one of those guys that ran to LaBaron or the Sportman show in the 80's everytime Al Linder mentioned a new product and tried to buy it.

 

I haven't tried the setup, should I?

Edited May 29, 2013 by Old Ironmaker

[Roy]

No need to learn this new trick. There's a good chance that most people started fishing as kids by "drop shotting".

 

BTW, I also have a combo-C-lector.

[buick14]

Dropshot has worked for me for lakers through the ice, walleye soft/hard water the list goes on. It's my go to finesse when going gets tough, in gin clear and muskoka type lakes for bass. It's the real deal.....I guess the principal behind it is a fish comes and looks at it, thinks about it, nips a little on the tail, likes what it feels and inhales and runs. Most of my fish are all caught in the same place in the mouth. Sensitive rod is a must or you'll be missing fish......it's a super soft take most the time.

 

No lie a great technique for almost all species.

 

So let me get this straight: Colour selectors are a gimmick?...next I'll be hearing the original banjo minnow doesn't have the same action as the infomercial

[fishindevil]

The technical aspects are not new,but it's a lot more finnese presentation and yes it does work very well and is a fish catching application,and with the correct finnese rod you can feel everything and fish it in many different ways for example: following a nice drop off from 5ft down to 25ft and stay lightly in contact with the bottom and feel every single bump the whole way down !!!! It's amazing !!!! And the fish don't complain at all sometimes it can make totally inactive fish go crazy for it !!! The more arsenal you have to catch fish and use them the better your results will be !!! You should try it and you will see what we mean !!!

[Rich]

No offense, but you wouldnt have bothered typing that if you had tried dropshotting.

[fishindevil]

Hey Roy !!! What color should we be using with out dropshot bait ??? The color "C" lector will tell us !!!! Lol have not seen one of those in years....

[craigdritchie]

Everything old is new again.

[DropShot'r]

Dropshoting IS the real deal.

 

Don't get caught up with dropshotting being only a finesse tactic, it is, but it is so much more as well. As long as you balance your tackle there really is no structure you can't dropshot,

 

Have fun this year dropshotting.

 

Drop

[porkpie]

Remember the pickerel rig..... That's dropshotting! Yes, it works! You don't need to buy all the fancy stuff to do it either, it just makes it easier!

[Mike Pike]

I could not have voiced my confusion about dropshotting any better Old Ironmaker! Looking forward to the input.

 

- A Fellow Dinosaur -

[Rich]

It is for WAY more than bass.

 

75% of my winter steelhead were on dropshots. What a great alternative to float fishing, and very productive.

 

90% of my spring crappies were on dropshots. I know of no other efficient way to fish deep crappies. Other ways work, but the dropshot eliminated time constraints and hookset issues caused by slip floats.

 

Perch? Try a dropshot with two hooks instead of a pickerel rig then tell me if you ever buy a pickerel rig again.

 

How about smallies? Ever drag tubes, jig spoons, and still cant get a bite? Put a big old Gulp minnow on a dropshot, and try to keep the bass off the line.

 

Grand River smallies inhale dropshots like nothing else in my arsenal.

 

I haven't done it, but I'm sure it would be a whole new world of tactics in a walleye or lake trout fisherman's boat.

 

The tactic is sure old. But as with anything , it has evolved to a far more productive tool than it ever was before.

[wkimwes]

Yes, drop shotting isn't just a "light tackle" presentation. You can use this in heavy cover too, like timber, vegetation etc..of course you would have to upsize the "standard" ML rod with 4lb test! I have a MH/XF 7'2" Casting rod I use for heavier application with 30lb braid and 12lb floro leader and use a 1/0 or 2/0 EWG texas rigged plastic.

[Moosebunk]

Funny first response Rich. Gave a chuckle here man,

 

Dropshotting dramatically increased smallie numbers and size of fish last fall. First season really applying it all, I was amazed. Tactic would likely come easy to anyone who jigs walleye regularly, and this presentation on a couple totally foreign lakes worked very well. Didn't go out and buy anything "special" for it other than the VMC hooks and some pencil weight sinkers. Normal braided 10-20lb line, medium spinning rod, floro lead, hook and sinker, usual things required really. Yeah.. that way it all sounds old school, but it is a little more refined with some new products and even ideas for doing it. Don't blow the bank getting all the marketed tactic specific gear if you have a rod that will do the job already, seriously. Some guys seem to prefer all floro main lines...

 

Watched a buddy pluck a couple stubborn sunning specks that just wouldn't go for any other thing, even a worm under a bobber right over their heads. Dropshotting is just one more tool for the trade.

[Roe Bag]

No need to learn this new trick. There's a good chance that most people started fishing as kids by "drop shotting".

Sinker. Two hooks. First one 8 inches up from bottom. Second 8 inches above that. Minnow on one hook. Worm on the other. Drop it over the side of the boat to the bottom and wait. Didn't matter if it was weed edges, weed pockets, shoals or holes. Started catching fish that way over fifty years ago.

 

Dropshotting new or marketing? Refined a little but just marketing.

[Sinker]

I still prefer the smallest 3 way swivel and a the smallest bell weight you can get away with, on light line.

 

It works better than having the hook tied direct to the line. Lure/bait has more action, and fish can suck it in with less resistance.

 

That's the way I started fishing, and will always use that rig.

 

S.

[adempsey]

Well, I always associated drop shotting with a horizontal presentation of primarily artificial plastic baits (the hooks stick straight out from the main line) . The old school pickerel rigs or Kentucky rigs are most often pre-snelled hooks tied onto your main line and baited with meat. It's not quite the same thing. Even if you tied the hooks directly to the main line they would not stand straight out (unless you tied them that way) as they are supposed to in Drop Shot. I really don't see this as marketing any more than saying trolling is a marketing term. It's a technique and you don't need any special hooks or weights to do it. It's all about how you set it up.

[Old Ironmaker]

No offense, but you wouldnt have bothered typing that if you had tried dropshotting.

Of course I've been dropshoting, apparently for years, just didn't call it dropshoting, vertical still fishing or bottom bouncing a pickerel rig or Lindy rig was the term. Get as vertical as possible. A pickerel rig didn't always come with the horizontal wire, beads and pre tied snelled hooks, you could make them any colour and distance apart as you wanted, and they worked very well when all else failed, still do. The pitch and retrieve guys looked down their noses at you when we were " dropshoting"

 

The confusion for me is the hook tied directly to the main vertical line sticking strait out and up. If dropshoting is setting few 3 way swivels and running a horizontal tag well we have been dropshoting since you were a minnow Rich.

 

We used to have a fullback, a half back and a tailback, now it's a running back, same guy.

 

Now I'm convinced it's marketing in my humble opinion. Dropshot weights, please. A thin pencil weight so not to get hung up, wait is that a Dropshot weight?

 

My colour C Lector always says chartreuse, always, just ask Al and Ron Linder.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Old Ironmaker

[Spiel]

Of course I've been dropshoting, apparently for years, just didn't call it dropshoting, vertical still fishing or bottom bouncing a pickerel rig was the term. A pickerel rig didn't always come with the horizontal wire, beads and pre tied snelled hooks, you could make them any colour and distance apart as you wanted, and they worked very well when all else failed, still do. The pitch and retrieve guys looked down their noses at you when we were " dropshoting"

 

The confusion for me is the hook tied directly to the main vertical line sticking strait out and up. If dropshoting is setting few 3 way swivels and running a horizontal tag well we have been dropshoting since you were a minnow Rich.

 

We used to have a fullback, a half back and a tailback, now it's a running back, same guy.

 

Now I'm convinced it's marketing in my humble opinion. Dropshot weights, please.

 

Imagine the time we could have wasted over coffee if only I had known you were a fisherman when I worked in the BF area, often under your direction JD.

[Old Ironmaker]

Imagine the time we could have wasted over coffee if only I had known you were a fisherman when I worked in the BF area, often under your direction JD.

 

Busted, what do you think we were talking about in the pyrometer room when I was staring at the mass spectrometer, co2 levels in the waste gas? Mario and I thought it was a new fishfinder! PM me please.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Old Ironmaker

[SirCranksalot]

For the benefit of the Frequently Confused Club(of which I am a charter member) could somebody pls explain what is mean by 'dropshotting' in the modern day context. I understand it's basically having a sinker below the hook, or hooks, but are there any other defining characteristics. I don't understand what would make that a 'finesse' technique. I'm not being sarcastic, just curious.

[Terry]

as said we fished that way as a kid and it worked great and it really shines for smallmouth under the right conditions

 

BTW, I also have a combo-C-lector

[Rich]

It gives your bait essentially a still, suspended approach. With today's plastics, normal movement gives your bait action. You have basically live bait, right in the fish's face.

[Moosebunk]

Why it's likely considered "finesse" is because of the subtleties of bait/lure movement.

 

One idea for best results with soft plastics for example, is to have a weight that puts you on bottom but isn't overly heavy, and just the line lightly jigged but keeping the weight still, will give the bait enough action to entice a strike. It's a very unaggressive way to fish that works well.

 

But again, overall I guess it's almost as old as time... just back in fashion in a different sort of way.

[SirCranksalot]

... just back in fashion in a different sort of way.

Ok, that's the part I don't understand> What makes the modern way different?

 

Thx for the replies, guys. I thought folks mostly dropshotted with live bait, but it sounds like many, if not most, use plastics(Gulp minnows?)

[Terry]

we use to use live bait and a big hunk of lead and any hook we had

now it's plastic, special hooks and fancy sinkers