Questions for you drop shot experts

[Swingpure]

I do catch fish drop shotting. I catch them on a number of different baits, nose hooked or wacky style. But there are some fish I miss or lose that I feel I should have hooked or landed. Perhaps missing some and losing some is inherent with this style of fishing, but I feel I can do better.

Two questions:

1 - Do you set the hook as soon as you feel them, or do you wait untill you know they have taken the bait. Currently I set the hook as soon as I feel something different, but wonder if sometimes I set it too early.

2 - When I set the hook with my 5/0 hook wacky style, when I feel something, I lower my rod tip, wind any slack in, then do an exaggerated hook set and that works well. I do not find that method works as well for a 1/0 to 3/0 hook on a nosed hook bait. I watched a video where the gentleman simply lifted his rod and wound in. I tried that today and landed fish, but also lost fish.

Any tips?

Thanks

Gary

[skypilot]

They don't have hands.

If you feel them, it's already been in their mouth a while.

If I Texas rig I will let them have it a second when they pick it up off the bottom. If they hit it falling, I set the hook then.

[Swingpure]

This is interesting narrative from a website: http://www.bassdozer.com/articles/dr...-hotshot.shtml

[COLOR=#000000]Most of the time, I nose hook baits. I nose hook only two ribs back as I do not like to have the nose of the bait stick out so much that it gets in the way of the hook point. This is important since the way to hook a drop shot fish is to literally pull the bait out of its mouth until the point barely catches behind the shut upper lip. If the nose of the plastic sticks out too far, it serves as a bumper to push the hook away from penetrating the lip. So make sure the hook point is free and clear of plastic that could clog it.
[COLOR=#000000]Hooking drop shot bass is begun with gentle rod pressure after detecting a bite or a bass down below on the line. Use gentle reeling and rod pressure as if to pull the bait and hook slowly out of its mouth. This will only make the bass more determined to clamp down and hold onto its prize. The hook will slip until it catches like a splinter that barely sticks behind the upper lip. Then the upper 25% of the rod tip will continue to bend and load under pressure as you reel in slack moderately slowly. All this takes a few seconds. The fish should often start to swim away (hopefully not at you) which serves to set the hook beyond the barb as you sweep the rod back in a confident controlled manner while you reel down until full pressure of the fish's weight is on the line.
[COLOR=#000000]Think of the hook set as a two step process. Actually, three steps as follows:

1. First come the "preliminaries." When you detect a bite or a bass on the line below, you must first wait until you sense the bass has the bait and hook in its mouth. Sometimes this happens instantly, and some days it seems to take a long while. Fortunately, most bass will act the same way on any given day. So if you figure one out, you can apply the same successful chess move to others.
2. Second, we've already described above how to pull the line, reel slowly and load the rod tip until the hook point pricks behind the lip. The upper 25% of the rod tip should bend over and load.
3. Once the tip is loaded down, sweep the rod up as you reel to sink the hook home. In this way, visualize that the hook is being driven by the spot on the rod that's 25% down from the tip where the backbone begins. The hook is not driven home in a jerk like you would set the hook with a jig or Texas rig for instance.

[One_Tracc_Mind]

Hi Gerry, I am no means a drop shot expert, however, over the years I have learned a few things. Drop shotting was designed to be used with light line and fine wire hooks. This also means having the prober rod And hook set. It sounds like you may be using too heavy of line and to stiff of a rod. I'll tell you what my set up is and I keep fish hooked up well. Very important the hook is facing "up" and the bait lays 90 degrees to the main line. I have a 6'9" med-light action extra fast tip spinning rod paired with a 2500 size reel. I use 20# braid with a 6 foot 8# leader. What I do, when I detect a strike is just hold my rod at a 45 and just start reeling. With the light line, light wire hook and extra fast tip there is no need for those jaw ripping hook sets like I would use flipping a jig. Try any combo of these things and see if it works..

joe

[blasted_saber]

They don't have hands.

If you feel them, it's already been in their mouth a while.

If I Texas rig I will let them have it a second when they pick it up off the bottom. If they hit it falling, I set the hook then.

Well, they may not have the hook in their mouths when you feel them. If its a large bait theres a lot of lures which doesnt have a hook in it

[Swingpure]

Thanks for the replies. I had a lot more success today. Joe, coincidently I tried a few things that you suggested today. I switched to lighter line, 6 lb, but I lost one good bass because I forgot to readjust my drag to the lighter line. My hook sets were better by doing just what you suggested. I wound in when I felt a bite and when I really felt the weight of the fish, I would raise my rod. I broke my rod tip on my "official" drop shot rod and while waiting for the glue to dry on the new tip, I used my ultralight rod and it actually was a little more sensitive and I rarely missed a fish. One thing I eventually have to bite the bullet and do is to change to the braid with the fluoro leader. If I stick with mono, I will move up to 8 or 10# Trilene Sensation. I was attracting them when I was using the 14# before. The Strike King Dreamshot works extremely well. I caught well over 30 fish today, although admittedly they were not giants, but the winds kept me off the main points.

[Swingpure]

Joe, why have the braid at all, other than to prevent line twist, why not a reel full of what you use for your leader?

GARY

[skypilot]

Well, they may not have the hook in their mouths when you feel them. If its a large bait theres a lot of lures which doesnt have a hook in it

I suppose.

I just never use a large bait when finesse fishing using a drop shot rig. Light line, small lures, etc. or fishing a floating worm have always been successful for finicky bass especially on bright blue bird days.

[One_Tracc_Mind]

Joe, why have the braid at all, other than to prevent line twist, why not a reel full of what you use for your leader?

GARY

Line twist is the main reason. The floro twists really bad with on a drop shot for some reson. I fine the bread doesn't. The braid has zero stretch and super sensative so you can detect the bite instantly and when you use that reel up rod tip hook set you will hook the fish every time. I only use floro on my reaction baits, jerk bait crank bait spinner bait. Top water has mono and everything else has braid. Oh sorry my flipn jig had floro but my bunch rod has 65# bread.

[frederickwreid]

Line twist is the main reason. The floro twists really bad with on a drop shot for some reson. I fine the bread doesn't. The braid has zero stretch and super sensative so you can detect the bite instantly and when you use that reel up rod tip hook set you will hook the fish every time. I only use floro on my reaction baits, jerk bait crank bait spinner bait. Top water has mono and everything else has braid. Oh sorry my flipn jig had floro but my bunch rod has 65# bread.

Ha ha.. that's funny... I'm opposite. Braid on topwater and crank baits, mono for drop shot and no floro - only leader on some rigs. Maybe I'm all wrong, but for me it just felt right.

As for the 'nibbling' of a dropshot - I use light line, fine hooks and smaller baits... and it's usually a last resort. Don't count out the fact that some of what you feel can be those little fish (perch, rock bass, panfish...) just tearing at the tail of your bait.

If the Bass wouldn't eat anything else, I want something that will just sit in front of their yap for a while with just a little wiggle. I've had good success with live bait - worms, on the drop shot. If they are picky, thats what I reach for. Best of luck Gary, and hey - don't sweat losing a fish too much! It's just another excuse to get the line back in the water!