Glad to know you are a seasoned DSer, CCL. Different groups follow the drift. If you get manny misses, most likely those are smaller fish or sandies which mostly occurs earlier in the DS season. There will be more hookups when bigger fish are group up. Spotlock works also where fish move in under the boat in waves with intervals of blank screens but I had better luck with drifting where fish stayed with me longer, like four many hours. Also with drifting, your lures are more horizontal and in motion by the drift.

Getting them to bite requires another skillset Lol. Can i ask you to take Dennis Christian one day DSing at CC in the deeper areas? To me DC is the master of getting the fish to bite and we all can benefit from this. I am curious to know what DC does when good concentration of fish are suspended under the boat for a long period. Thanks in advance, CCL.

Great job Sea Pro Todd! Wow! You have inspired me to consider giving dead-sticking another try. I’ve tried a couple of times in the past with no success.

I would love to take Dennis out. I have met him several times. One time he helped me when my battery was dead . Lucky for me he had an extra to loan me to get home! If you would like to come out as well that would be great!

Deadsticking is very frustrating to me because the fishing varies in some cases hour by hour not to mention day by day. Ed from Ed’s Guide Service fishes every day and loves deadsticking. He uses a thumper, a two jig combo with flukes and garlic and tries to drift at .7 MPH. Yesterday he found a school, drifted across them and caught nothing even though the fish piled under his boat. He tried a different spot for an hour, came back, repeated his drift and caught these including a 34” fish…

Thank you, CCL. This cold snap may keep em in the deep longer

I know Dennis is a "shallow" guy

Ha ha! Well, I tried drifting in deep water a couple of days this week on CC. I tried various thumper speeds and it seemed about 2 beats a second or a little faster attracted the most fish. I hung out a 3 inch blue and white soft plastic on a jig head, and dropped a #4 Mepps down to where I saw fish and worked it like I do fishing vertically on deeper structure. The second day I caught 4 sandies in 1 1/2 hours on the Mepps and not a bite that I could tell on the jig. After that, I tried a couple of humps and caught 12 whites and a short hybrid in another 1 1/2 hours. I left still catching fish - they were all over Dam Ridge in 20 to 28 fow. Water temp was 51 degrees.

Good Dennis. You are more than ready to go DS with CCL on CC. Once the fish group up good, then you can see what CCL is doing differently than you. With DS you pretty much have to hold your rod still as the word dead stick implies, and "patiently" wait for the soft crappie bite. The boat's drift will create enough action on your lure. The bite will be more frequent if the fish groups are hibbies or magnums. I prefer sunny day cuz the fish are deep.

I know both splasher and thumper work. My past 3 trips I only used splasher cuz of light winds calm sea. On choppy days I got the thumper ready.

Congratulations Todd! Those are some awesome stripers. Austin is a striper catching young man also. Good report too. Thanks

When deadsticking I find the most success happens when my line is straight up and down. I am constantly working the trolling motor between speeds most days to keep the line vertical.

Mr. C.
I’ve noticed that the bigger fish during winter months in our area generally like a much slower speed when thumping. Even as slow as 50 to 60 thumps per minute unless they are very actively feeding already. At times faster works better for smaller species like sandbass. Others may have a different opinion.

Thanks, Jeff.