Does anyone have comments on drop shot weights. I am wondering if the bass feel heavier weights. I think that they do as I used a heavier weight for the wind and had a tic tic and no fish. Any comments would be appreciated.

Tick tick is usually something pecking at it usually perch , I don't think so they feel the weight

I hear you but I have been catching a lot off fish after the tic tic some good size I use to ignore the chewy type bite and sometimes it was a sand bass blue gill etc but I have been slamming bass for a while now using the drop shot the graph has been showing them stacked and recently I could not trigger the bite with reaction baits, jigs etc however I have given in to the drop shot thing and it has been an eye opener as I have always powered fished. I was using a real light drop shot weight and they were picking it up and line would get heavy etc. I went to a heavier weight when the wind picked up as my bait was drifting and I started getting the tic tic no fish, I do not want to believe that the fish are that finicky but I am starting to believe they are. That is why I am seeking second opinions on if the fish are that in tune with the fishing pressure.

Rudy, yours is actually a very good question. I used the drop shot all summer long, got better at it as I forced myself to learn it. And, I studied all of the material on it I could find including some really old tapes by specialists.

The weight should definitely be heavy enough to "feel the bottom" so that you can establish a taut line. 3/16s to a 1/4 ozs. are common sizes depending on fishing depth and also fall rate.

It isn't so much the depth of the water, per se, it is the amount of line you have out with wind, waves and currents acting on it that create the need for a heavier sinker. And, line size, too, affects how these conditions control sinker size.

The other issue is fall rate. I once interviewed a 70+ shot putter, so an elite, and he didn't know that if you dropped a 16 pound shot and a 12 pound shot out of a 10 story window, that they'd hit the ground at almost exactly the same time, tbis because wind resistance is negligible for something of those spherical dimensions and heavy weights. But, if you dropped something like a large ping pong ball of the same size as a shot, the light ping pong ball would be more affected by trying to fall through air (which has its own mass). Casting a lure of different sizes into wind makes us all intuitively understand how wind resistance works. Except water has way more mass than air so it magnifies the issues.

So, what the great drop shotters will say is if they are drop shotting in really deep water, they'll often use a much heavier sinker to get it to the bottom "faster." I guess I have heard weights all the way up to 1/2 oz. and more. It'll take all of that, say, if you are in 50' of water and have that much line out between you and the bottom with the currents ballooning out your line. If not, you'd lose the "feel" and connection to your rig way down there.

The fish? Depending on the direction it swims off with the plastic in its mouth, it's going to feel the weight in most circumstances unless it swims down in its direction first, but one way or the other, it is going to feel the pressure of your taut line very quickly and that will be a much greater pressure than anything caused by a sinker. It is no big deal at all to the fish. In a Texas Rig, by contrast, the weight is between you and the fish, so fish pressure on your line has to lift that weight first before it can be transmitted up your line. It seems never to be a problem there, either, so with a drop shot, even less of an issue.

Don't forget to let the fish hook itself; if you are losing too many, your hook is likely too large. A tiny 4 is better than a 4/0 most of the time. Hard to believe, but true.

Nothing to be done about the blue gill nibbles. Just know that when a bass sucks it in and swims off, you'll feel the difference and your rod tip will tell the story.

Brad

Brad

I use a 1/2 oz weight.
Works perfect.
To fish it right you need to shake your bait in place without moving or lifting your bait off the bottom.
It is what I use in 2ft to 30ft.The tic tic you feel is sand bass hitting the weight.
I fish on fork I know. Ha!

Good info , this is a technique I need to learn but I have zero confidence in it . I need to go out with a drop shot pro to teach me the ropes. I get the basics of it but I have yet to catch a fish on it .

I never fish drop shot on the bottom. So I use just enough weight to keep the bait under control given the trolling motor speed. If I'm fishing on super windy open points. I use more weight. If I'm in a calm spot, very little. If you are getting tic tic from small fish, move the bait lower. Drop shot, to me, is a suspended fish type bait. And the bigger fish usually are suspended under the smaller ones. Usually. You want just enough weight to manage the line given the conditions. Rate of fall I guess could be a factor, if you are dropping in for a reaction bite. But usually, again, it's a finesse tactic and you want the worm, fluke, or whatever to look as natural as possible. So diving fast probably isn't it. Over the last week I caught a BUNCH of spotted bass on a drop. I was issuing whatever I could grab quickly. I even used a Cara Amistad with 15lb line to catch a limit one day. I was using a bigger than normal hook, 7" fat robo, and a 1/2oz tungsten weight. Lol. It was REALLY rough and windy, and fishing suspended spotted bass in HEAVY timber.

Point is... I guess it doesn't matter too much. When they're biting.

This is only a suggestion. Last week I fish with David OZIO. Mostly dropshot. He was riged with straight 12lb test & he had me riged 12lb main line 7lb leader. 1/4 oz dropshot weights. He said it was an experiment. I caught alot more fish with the 7lb leader. That light line made the difference.

Yes, there is no reason, at all, from a boat dropping vertically, that one has to fish off the bottom. If you can drift over fish spotted with electronics, KVD drop shots this way I believe, then hang the hook down to that desired depth. No, this is not the traditional drop shot I don't suppose, but it puts a natural looking bait where the fish are. That the sinker is simply dangling down to effect a taut line, but not touching the bottom, makes no difference to the fish.

It brings up a point, too, about traditional bottom fishing the drop shot and concerns over how far off the bottom. If you are fishing vertically over the side of a boat, you don't have to reel it in fast but you could come up a few inches at a time to see if they are taking the bait a bit higher in the water column. You know how finicky bass can be and sometimes a few inches seems to make a big difference.

Brad

Head out to a lake where the bass are schooling, when you see them on the surface, drop a DS down below them. That way you can 'know' the fish are there and active. You'll feel all of the different types of bites. I had been using it this summer myself, but all my fish were small. Until I hit Athens last weekend, and between my Flutter Spoon and Drop-Shot, I was able to speed up my learning curve on structure fishing, and the 'arcade game'.

Excellent discussion!