Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations drop shotting

somebody complained somewhere that not enough of us actually fish.......so after yesterday i thought about reporting on a good day fishing...for me anyway...

we left the marina on lake pardee and spotted the thermocline at about 15 feet, so we trolled for a few hours above, below, and in the layer with no luck. pardee is one of these deep cold sierra snow melt reservoirs with awesome scenary, and lots of wary fish, many often leave skunked. visibility is often over 50 ft, and the fish see you before you see them.....you either have to troll 100 to 150 feet behind boat, cast for a country mile, or sit real quiet somewhere for a long time to let everybody (the fish) get used to you.

as the sun was warming stuff up we decided to forget trout and try bassin a couple coves up the river arm. long cast topwater action was good most of the day. i caught about 6 smallies ranging from 12 to 16 inches, 1 14-inch LMB, and about 4 spotted bass ranging from 12 to 15-inches....as the sun was going down i decided to try a new technique (for me) called drop-shotting. on our little fish finder we were seeing lots of smaller fish schooling near the bottom at depths of 18 to 20 feet - perhaps BG or crappie or small bass? I rigged up, dropped down and no sooner than the weight hit bottom it was attacked......10-inch spotted. i had three remaining crawlers that had survived some time in my beer fridge (pathetic really) but the fish didnt care, they gobbled up all of them so i went to small plastics (1-inch rainbow trout pattern grub). they attacked this as well. the best catch of the day for me was about a 7-inch red breasted sunny......absolutely beautiful fish and the only gill of the day as i was discovering this technique to catch gills the park ranger was runnin around telling everybody to get off the water as the park was closing an hour early

Given how hard it is to catch fish at pardee....it seems like this technique would be very productive on ponds with hook shy fish.......sitting quietly in the boat and basically jigging in slow motion just off the bottom. the rig consists of a round weight as the terminal tackle (sized appropriately for depth, line wt, etc.... i used a 3/16 oz with 6lb test for 20 foot depths), and 1 or 2 hooks tied on the line (palomar knot) anywheres from 1 to 3 feet above the weight. the hooks have a special bend in them that you run the line through and it makes em stick straight out, perpindicular to the line. attach crawler or grub, drop rig to bottom, pick up slack, and jiggle it around.

has anybody else used this technique? i cant wait to get back out on the water.

Sometimes its the only thing that will catch them. We had to use it a lot in NJ's clear deep resvioirs. Not my fav way to fish but it works. I always used a sluggoSS on the dropshot. Anyone remember them with the long thin tail. To me they work the best. My stregnth is in the weeds so drop shoting for me was a once in a while thing. I will take the thickest matt of weeds you can find anyday.

Bruce - you are sooo creative. Thanks from all of us for the visual.

In NJ there is a private pond/lake. Its Thomas Edisons old rock quarry. We get to fish it once in a while. Its like nothing you ever fished, its increadable. We throw the biggest jigs we can get and catch fish like this all day. Its the best lake I ever fished. Its about 40 akers. This pic was taken last sunday, my friend Rick and Tim went. 28 feet on a 3/4 ounce jig. fish was 6 and change.

I was up in NJ last month we caught probly 25 like that and many more a little smaller but very few 1 pounders. Its a steep drop right from the bank right down to 25 feet..straight down. Throw the jig as close to the bank stripp a few pulls off the reel and hold on THUMP hehehe

Drop shot rigging is the "in" thing right now. It is an extremely finesse type presentation. It allows for people to put a bait right in front of a fish and dangle it in front of him until he goes nuts and bites.

Very, very effective.

Thanks Bill!

I use drop shot and tube baits (Calif. approach) a bunch and catch a lot of fish. They are both finesse techniques. Drop shot stays in one place wiggling around while the tube (not the big fat tubes used for pitching/flipping) spiral down like an injured fish. Let it drop to depth pick it up about 6 feet and let it fall - repeat. I learned both from a Calif pro bass fisherman (? Rich Tarbor) about 15 years ago. He was here on a pro teaching seminar with other pros. At that time no one used tubes or drop shot rigs like the Calif guys.

My experience fishing in clear water with a lot of fishing pressure is to think small, slow, light, and keep your presentation as close to structure as possible. Patience and perseverance can produce very large fish.

My 11.5 lb was caught on a 2� jig with 4lb line. It is a fish I will never forget!

Joey, that fish is in fabulous condition. That is one big, healthy northern strain largemouth bass. For some reason I get more of a kick out of fish like this that are in great condition than ones that are bigger, but kind of beat up. You know what I mean? Excellent fish.

You want to laugh. Supposedly there are monster lake trout in there and the owner stocked 30,000 trout and never caught one. We mark all kinds of fish deep like 60 70 feet. You get a erie feeling when your in this place. Someone said the name of Edisons quarry was Limequest or something like that, my thought is if it was a lime quarry maybe this is why its so fertle?. All the fish are like this. I wonder though why we dont catch any small ones, hardly any. The story goes they were digging they hit a underground river and all equipment is still down there. I ask myself how in the H_ll can someone have enough money to buy this lake and the surrounding land in NJ. Bought within the last 15 years. Were gonna fish the depths over the winter for these monster trout. The place supposedly dont freeze because its so deep and spring fed.

Amen bruce...great fish joey..and thanks much for the "how to" pic (worth a thousand words)....i knew you guys would know all about it. great story ewest. and yes indeed dwight, good words to fish by.

although the bass i was catching yesterday were not lunkers, they were perfect fish in every way, not a pimple on em, thick healthy bodies with fantastic color, a joy to behold as was the lone gill....i had to apologize to my wife later in the day after getting mad at both of us for forgetting the camera....again.....

i've fished all my life and have instinctively tried variations of drop shotting before, but i only recently learned it was an actual technique with an actual name and specific tackle........i was in a tackle shop about 6 months ago and learned the drop shot "how to" from a local guru out here, so i bought a couple of the weights and some of the hooks but never officially tried it til yesterday.......i'm hooked

Hey Joey I remember the sluggo. I bought some after watching Bill dance fish them. I also bought some Bill dance eels. The eel was a favorite bait of mine.

jg, I bought a lot of the SS after I caught one fish on it. I dont know if they make the SS anymore. They make the regular sluggos but for the dropshot the SS works great for me.