On a normal slip bobber set-up, the lead sinker is only about six inches above the hook. A slow, free falling hook and bait sometimes attracts bluegills better than one that falls fast. So, do any of you place the weight further from the hook, in order to let the section between the hook and sinker fall more freely and slowly? Just wondering, sometimes I over-think things, but little things often make a difference. Will appreciate any and all replies.

Not on a slip bobber, but have on a fixed float. My son (11yo) really has a lot of confidence in putting the shot as much as 24" away from the hook. It gives a different double jointed pendulum swing with the last joint having an excruciatingly slower swing depending on what you plastic/bait you use. We like to use Gulp! Alive! crickets because they are fairly flat and glide down super slow. Tubes are another option we go with because of the ultra slow fall. One thing you have to remember is the further up the line you put the shot, the longer it will take the hook/presentation to swing all the way to verticle so you have to be very patient.

When we do use float rigs we normally start with a traditional fixed float or slip float with the shot 6"-8" up from the hook, but if that bite doesn't pan out he is really quick to switch to the higher shot and he normally does very well so I end up doing the same after he catches a few. Hope this helps!

Jagg, thanks for the reply. Sounds like your 11 yo son knows what he is doing. I'm sure you are proud of him and enjoy having him as a fishing buddy. I'm glad to know that adjusting the placement of the sinker, in order to adjust the speed of the fall, is something that someone does. Maybe I wasn't over-thinking the question after all. :-)

He's definitely making me proud as I watch him and his siblings grow up.

If you fish float and/or bobber rigs, hook and/or shot placement is something that you have thought about. I tend to be more traditional in my rigging compared to most, but I use more variations on fixed float rigs that others don't use, don't know or have forgotten. I have seen my son use what he calls, "the separation" effectively and seen some anglers basically use a drop shot rig under a float effectively along with other new to me variations and just flat out new techniques to use under a float.

One thing to note as a difference to what you are describing and what my son has likes to fish is that he uses his rig under a fixed float that swings after the cast and during the retrieve. A slip float rig drops or "parachutes" straight down from the float and doesn't swing nearly as much as a fixed float rig. Instead it tend to lift and drop on the retrieve. The compact drop of a slip float rig tends to work for us if we are working stick ups, dense weed beds, reed beds or anywhere where you want a compact presentation that won't sway and get tangled in tight cover. More close quarters water if you will. We use fixed float rigs in more sparse cover or open water where we can really let that nice natural glide of the lure/bait swing back under the float on the retrieve. Hope this helps.

Jagg, what you said is very interesting. I had never thought much about the difference between a fixed float and a slip float regarding the swing of the line, as you so clearly described. The use of a drop shot rig on a float is something I was thinking about recently, although I haven't tried it. The place where I'm catching fish is in mostly heavy submerged hydrilla, which makes for difficult fishing because most of the fish are close to the bottom. I have tried on any number of occasions to use a float rig over the grass, and I continue trying, but I get very few hits that way. I catch most of my fish on a drop shot rig. I am constantly jerking a hook loose from hydrilla, and lose a lot of bait as a result, but I have to get down to them to catch them.

Other methods I use at times are, 1. a beetle spin with changed out plastics, and 2. a 1/16 or 1/32 ounce jig and plastic or live worm, best with live worms. I let these drop down and slowly swim them back. They too hang in the grass, but not as bad as the regular hook on a drop shot rig.

I have considered buying a long rod (12' or longer) and attempting to swing it out and work it straight up and down in the grass. The water is stained, so I can't clearly see where the little openings are, but the sonar helps me see how thick or sparse the hydrilla is that I have passed over.

I guess I could say catching bluegills and redears under hydrilla is a work in progress. Occasionally, they are active, swimming and feeding up in the water column, and will whack the daylights out of the beetlespin or jig when I swim it along shallow, but more often they are near the bottom, requiring me to get down there where they are. If you have any thoughts about how I might best fish under these conditions, please let me hear them.

There are two ways that I can think of trying to catch them under that hydrilla canopy once I found them. At least, two off the top of my head. The first would be to go after them with a weedless spoon like a Johnson Silver Minnow. I would nose hook a Gulp! Alive! minnow or fry onto the back. A 1/8th oz spoon would probably be the best option to pop thru the hydrilla. 1/16th is probably too small. 1/4 is a pretty big spoon, but I have seen and heard of guys pulling up sunfish on a 1/4 oz weedless spoon while fishing for crappie. The last thing I would add for this presentation would be to trim your tag end of your knot as close to the knot as possible and to slather your knot, spoon and minnow with whatever liquid fish attractant you prefer. This is not really to attract fish as much as to help the spoon slide thru the hydrilla cleanly. If your spoon isn't getting thru the hydrilla, try casting the spoon straight up into the air and letting it crash into the hydrilla; basically giving it a little more forward momentum. Try to fish as vertical as you can.

The second presentation would be to try a variation of that slip float/drop shot rig with a twist. The rig looks like this: a 3/8th oz drop shot weight on bottom (pineapple weight preferably), a drop shot hook or Charlie Brewer weedless Crappie Slider jighead 6"-18" up from the weight with a Thill Crappie Cork (3/8th oz size) on top with bobber stop. You want to fish this rig vertically also. You use the heavy weight to get the business end of this rig down thru the hydrilla and use the float to suspend it at the most productive depth. Sometimes you want the weight on or near bottom, sometimes you want that weight off of bottom to get the presentation a little above the fish. Like above, trim tag ends as close as possible and rub down weight and lure with attractant to make it slick. Some of the guys who use this type of rig (mainly Florida guys) do so with a weedless hook or jig and hook their plastic or bait weedless. Something with out a lot of appendages but with a quivering action. A minnow, triple tail grub, tiny fluke and similar type plastics would be my choice, but I know of one guy who uses this rig with crappie tubes as the lure and consistently catches super Redears and the occasional Bluegill. In Austin you can definitely add Redbreasts into the mix. Hope this helps you out!