When drop shotting in the winter is it better to have the bait higher in the water column or closer to the bottom?

I find more often than not that the fish are tucked tight to the bottom so I go with a 6-8" leader so I can stay close to the bottom but still shake it quite a bit. In the winter I feel like the bites I get most often are reaction bites. The bites I get are fish that are reacting to the bait dancing in their face, so I impart a little more action than most people. Since I fish Texoma most often I always try to use a shad imitation bait on my drop shot.

I've had some success with drop shot this winter. I have varied the length of the leader depending on where the active fish are. Oftentimes in the winter, the inactive bass hug the bottom as if they were under a blanket and the active ones pop up from the blanket to feed. In those situations, I've had the leader length about two and a half feet.

Experimenting with drop shot is easy, set up two drop shot rods with different length leaders and just hold them and see which one gets bit.

UHM?? TRY BOTH?

Sorry I couldn't resist.

Dang it collincountytx! I've been targeting the wrong fish ALL this time! LOL Seriously though, I never though of it that way.

^^^ u sure are helpful.

Found a a lot of bait fish and green backs hugged to the bottom today. So I hugged the bottom(6" leader)with a smaller profile bait and caught a few. I'm trying to finger the drop shot out myself

I've had pretty good Sucess with the Shakey/Drop Shakey head on bottom for the wieght and 6-12" up drop shot. I don't shake it as much throw it drag it back slow,but use different retrieves till find what fish want. If you catch/or miss one make sure to make multiple cast at that spot they're sometimes stacked up. have fun

There's no wrong way, bass are ornery and like to break rules, but it makes sense to me to put the bait in front of their face.

The general guidelines on leader length according to A. Martens--keep in mind that he's also talking about SMB and spots.

Leader Length
"Probably the biggest thing you need to adjust is your leader length," he said. "If I want to imitate a crawfish, I might have a leader as short as an inch. I use it a lot like a shakey-head jig doing that.
"But most of the time I start out with one about 6 to 12 inches long. I use a longer leader in cold water and in the fall, and if I'm making long casts, or fishing deep. If you see the fish suspended off the bottom on your graph, you need a long leader then too. But if I'm fishing around rocks where (bait) like sculpins are hiding, or shallow water, I go with a shorter leader." A. Martens

lower on rock or whenever you expect them to nosed down on whatever you're fishing.. Up from there. 18" is always a good rule of thumb for me.