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Some thoughts on the drop shot
by: John Stevens 9/25/2012

Drop shotting as a technique offers the opportunity to present your bait or lure in almost a perfect finesse situation.  Simply put, it can make almost any soft, plastic bait come alive in the water.

A drop shot rig for those who have never used it, consists of a hook tied at a right angle to your main line with a "dropper" leader off the bottom to which you attach a drop shot weight or a variation of. To work it, you "peg" the weight to the bottom, and jiggle your rod tip against the weight, while maintaining the bottom contact.  I have found bites occur most for me after I stop jiggling for a moment.

I had first learned drop shotting from shore, and it is similar to drop shotting from a boat, except that from the boat you can maintain a much more vertical presentation which is preferred.  I have noticed some things with it and that is what I want to share with you today.

Aurora Reservoir offers almost crystal clear waters with clarity oftentimes in the 6 to 8 foot range.  I fish Aurora Reservoir a lot, and it is there that I have made these observations.  First, the bait seems to dance more, and dart around more lifelike, with LESS movement of the rod tip against the weight.  Lesson for me, don't overwork the bait.  Second, this is a very effective rig to use with live leeches!  With the leech, you don't need to jiggle the rod tip at all as the leech will do it's own undulating moves without your help.  The third thing that I noticed is that after a full day of drop shotting, my lines would have severe twist.  I mean, nasty, gnarly twist that causes all kinds of problems.  What I found was that it wasn't the drop shotting itself that caused the twist, it was reeling the line back in!  Having the bait on a hook tied off at a right angle on one side of the line, in effect created a big spinner out of the rig.

Now then, I am not paid by anyone to fish, and I am not sponsored by any hook companies.  A while back, I had been watching Lindners Angling Edge on tv, and saw them use a new product from VMC called the "spin shot".  Basically, it is a drop shot hook with a piece of wire through the eye with a loop on both ends of the wire, in effect making the setup a swivel with a hook.  I had looked at them in the store, and to me, they looked cheap, and .. well, cheesy.  Looked like another gimmick to me.  But, now that I have been drop shotting a lot, and it is my son's favorite technique, and having to deal numerous times with line twist issues, I was ready to give them a try.

So try them I did.  I must say, that I was very pleasantly suprised with the results!  Since using them , line twist really is gone.  The only time I have had issues now, is when I have screwed up myself.  Using too small a hook for the bait size.  That is a very important thing with it, if your bait size is too long for the hook size, the weight of the bait will keep the hook from spinning on the wire, and you will still have line twist. Other than that, the hooks are very sharp and the whole thing works as well as advertised. The only other problem I have with them is that they are pretty pricey. I think you can get regular drop shot hooks at about 20 for 6 or 7 dollars at any of the big box stores, whereas these hooks are about 4 or 5 bucks for 5 of them. But, for me, the ease of use makes it worth it.

As I said earlier, I first saw these on tv, just as I have seen the banjo minnow, flying lure, helicopter lure and many, many other products. The problem with that is that all of those guys who we see use them on tv are spoonsored by them or paid for their endorsement. There's nothing wrong with that at all, but sometimes, I would rather have a regular fisherman's opinion on a product. It is that reason that made me decide to share this blog with you.

I hope you all are enjoying the beginning of the fall bite! See you on the water soon,

 

Tiny

Blog content © John Stevens

Member comments

takeakidfishing, CO   9/25/2012 1:27:56 PM
The Spin Shot hook is a great product.Love using them.Great read as always John..A small tip with spin shot hooks..tie on two of them 6 to 8 inches apart and play with your weight leader length to help determine how far off the bottom the fish are feeding..I often use two different baits,one on each hook to see what the fish perfer to eat that day.Either way you use them its a great drop shot setup and the tips you outlined Tiny are priceless...Thanks Tiny

 

FISHRANGLER, CO   9/25/2012 4:43:55 PM
Good read Tiny

 

moosegoose, CO   9/25/2012 8:46:17 PM
So many things you can do with the dropshot! I am sure lots of members will be better off for reading this. Good stuff!

 

BigK, CO   9/25/2012 9:00:21 PM
instead of the pricey hooks try using Spro swivils size 10, tie to line, add leader and then due your setup, eleminates all twist and very small so they can go through the guides when casting if you reel up to far, available at Gander Mt

 

John Stevens (Tiny Stevens), CO   9/27/2012 12:50:41 AM
Big K, that's a good idea... I already use those swivels when I am spooning to eliminate twist. Erik... I too do that as well.... at times I have even gone so far as to run a 3 hook rig with a 1/4 oz jighead as the drop weight, and a double hook rig as you described it above them. Overall though... I was really pleased with the results of the spinshot hooks, and will probably continue to use them. Thanks for the comments fellas! Tiny

 

takeakidfishing, CO   9/27/2012 2:18:04 AM
Hmmm using a jig as a weight...I'm loing to have to play around with that setup..Very cool idea Tiny

 

panfishin, CO   9/27/2012 8:21:22 AM
yeah i've heard of people using tube jigs as the weight on drop shots and doing pretty well with both hooks

 

JuggaloRon, CO   9/27/2012 10:11:33 AM
For shore fishers, if the bass pull out too deep, practice on shallow water trout in the winter. I like a size 4 hook and a hollow belly minnow from Berkeley. Give it a shot and you'll enjoy the winter practice.

 

JKaboom, CO   9/28/2012 5:49:11 PM
Thanks for the writeup on this method Tiny I really appreciate it :) (And I value the everyday fisherman's opinion above all because there is no incentive...)