Published on August 9th, 2024
What is a Drop Shot Rig?
The Drop Shot rig is one of the greatest finesse techniques used by anglers of all skill levels and experience to target just about any species of fish, but the Drop Shot Rig has gained its glory in tournament angling for it's effectiveness at catching Smallmouth Bass.
It consists primarily of a (usually) small hook tied 8-12 inches above a weight. The concept is simple: The weight stays in contact with the bottom while the hook and lure stay suspended above. It’s a simple, effective and super easy way to present a wide range of different bait types and we’re going on a deep dive into everything you need to get started with a Drop Shot Rig.
Advantages of Drop Shot Fishing
Versatility in different water depths and conditions
The first, and arguably greatest advantage of the Drop Shot is that it can be used to easily present almost any lure in virtually any water depth, from 2 feet of water to 100 or more. All you have to do is adjust the weight on the bottom to the conditions and depth you’re trying to reach.
Effective presentation of bait
The second largest reason it is such an effective technique is because of the location of the weight. Unlike other presentations like a weighted texas rig or even a simple jighead, the weight is located at the end of the line, while the hook and lure hover weightlessly above in the strike zone, giving the lure a natural look without getting lost in soft, weedy or otherwise mucky bottom surfaces that would end up hiding other presentations.
Improved hook-up ratio
The third thing that makes Drop Shotting so great is that the hook-up ratio is high. Like, REALLY high! Since you’re probably using a small finesse hook that is typically a thinner gauge, as long as the hook ends up somewhere in fish’s mouth, whether you set the hook or the fish tries to spit it out after realizing there’s something…fishy about the lure, the hook point will often catch, easily penetrate and then you’re in business!
Setting Up Your Drop Shot Rig
You can use almost any type of conventional fishing gear and terminal tackle to make a dropshot rig. In a pinch, you could use a spincast combo spooled with monofilament line, whatever kind of small hooks you have laying around, a couple of split shot weights and bam, you’ve got a Drop Shot rig. That said, there is some gear that just makes it so much more effective. The best part is, you don’t have to empty your wallet to get it, and everything you need is widely available at most tackle shops.
Rod and Reel Selection for a Drop Shot Rig
Since it’s a finesse presentation, a spinning setup is typically better suited for fishing a Drop Shot Rig. A 6.6ft - 7.1ft medium-light rod with a fast action tip paired with a 2000 or 3000 size spinning reel will do the trick. You just need to make sure that whatever reel you use has a decent drag system. Since you’ll generally be using a lighter setup, having a reel with good drag paired with an appropriate rod to handle big headshakes and enough backbone to not bend in half means, that trophy Smallmouth Bass fooled by your Ripple Worm will be able to dig and pull out line under tension without breaking your line or knots.
The Best Line to use with a Drop Shot (braided main line and fluorocarbon leader)
You can use straight fluorocarbon or monofilament and still present your drop shot very effectively, but using a high visibility 8 lbs-12 lbs test braided mainline tied with a 6 lbs-10 lbs fluorocarbon leader is the absolute best setup for this technique.
Because of the way the Drop Shot is designed, the weight tends to make the lure helicopter, or spiral, down through the water column, often introducing twist in the line. Over time, this line twist will get bad enough that it will start looping over your rod tip any time you let the line go slack, which will be a lot. Braided line doesn’t suffer from line memory the way that mono and fluoro does, and won’t cause you contemplate donating your rod to the lake after untangling your rod tip, only to have your line loop around again right before you make another cast.
Any colour of your favorite brand of braid will work, but sometimes when the bite is light and a fish has picked up your lure and takes off sideways, having a high vis colour like bright orange or yellow will give you a visual cue in the absence of that coveted “thump” that it’s time to reel-set your hook!
We found the sweet spot to be a 10lbs braided mainline with a 10lbs fluoro leader to be a versatile combination that’s effective for many popular species.
What Hooks to use with your Drop Shot Rig
While you can get away with using many different styles of hooks, a Drop Shot specific hook will make life easier and improve your hookup ratios - with a caveat that we’ll touch on shortly.
Since we’re talking finesse presentation with often smaller baits (not always), you’ll be reaching for a #1 or #2 size hook most of the time. But as with other aspects of fishing, it depends on the forage for the species you’re targeting and the size, profile and shape of your lure. Smaller lure? Use a smaller hook. Bigger Lure? Use a bigger hook! It’s that simple.
But here’s the caveat: you can use bigger EWG hooks on a Drop Shot and they’ll work as well or better for certain lure profiles. 
For example, if you were rigging a 6” Wink Worm, you absolutely could use a smaller Drop Shot hook and nose hook these types of finesse worms. You’ll catch fish no problem. While the Wink Worm is 6” long, it’s a very thin profile and easily gets crumpled up in the mouth of fish like Large and Smallmouth Bass when they inhale it, along with the small hook in the nose. They’ll also spring back into action after they’ve been unhooked and ready for the next bite! But If you’re noticing that fish are even more finicky and you’re experiencing a lot of short strikes, bites where they are just grabbing the back end of the tail and not the whole bait up to the hook, you can easily upsize your hook to a 3/0 EWG hook and Texas Rig your worm. You’ll lose a little bit of that mesmerizing action of a nose hooked Wink Worm, but you’ll be putting the hook point further back in the lure while still leaving plenty of worm to dance around.
If tying a Modified Blood Loop Knot or Palomar Knot is a bit too daunting for you (we'll talk about these in the next section), there are hooks out there called “Spin Shot Hooks”. They are basically a #1 or #2 Drop Shot hook sandwiched between two eyelets and you can simply tie your favorite knot from your leader to the top and your tag end to the weight on the bottom. Spin Shot hooks are a bit more expensive, but they come with the added benefit of your hook always facing up the correct way without ever having to make occasional adjustments.
There IS a downside to them though. If you’re fishing in stained or muddy water, having that bit of extra terminal tackle won’t matter very much, but if you’re fishing in very clear water, Spin Shot hooks are a little bit bulkier and could be just visible enough to an already weary fish to deter a bite. Additionally, while not a deal breaker, you also have an extra knot as one more point of failure in the setup. This won't actually matter to most people, but it is worth mentioning.
Drop Shot Knots
In order to rig a Drop Shot the way we’re recommending, your setup will consist of two knots.
The first is a connection knot from your fluorocarbon leader to the mainline braid. It doesn’t really matter which connection knot is tied, so just use whatever one you are most comfortable tying.
Our favorite is the good old Alberto Knot. It’s fast, strong, simple and anyone can quickly learn how to tie it if you don’t already know.
Here’s a great video that can teach you how!
The second knot is going to be either a Palomar Knot or a Modified Blood Loop knot. Both knots have their advantages and disadvantages so experiment with both to see which one you prefer.
The Palomar Knot has been used in Drop Shots for decades. It’s a strong knot
that is not complicated to tie. The biggest downfall of the Palomar is that while it creates a very strong knot, as the line loosens over time, the hook will often turn down in the knot. This isn’t an issue if you’re using it to tie on a jig or other kind of aggressive hard bait, but when it happens with a Drop Shot rig, your lure will hang down vertical instead horizontal. The only solution is to re-adjust your hook and cinch down on the line again to tighten the knot or re-tie the whole thing.
Here is a YouTube video that teaches you how to tie a Palomar Knot
The other Drop Shot knot (and our favorite) is a Modified Blood Loop Knot. It certainly isn’t a NEW knot, but it has gained a lot of popularity in recent years for its ease of use and ability to keep the hook rigged straight fish after fish without having to readjust your hook or knot. It’s just like a regular Blood Loop Knot, but instead of pulling the line through to create a loop, you’re using the hook, and
when you cinch it tight you end up with a strong knot at the top and bottom of the hook eyelet. This is what keeps the hook always straight and functions very similar to a Spin Shot Hook, just without the extra bulk of the barrel swivel. The only disadvantage of this knot is that if you’re not paying attention when cinching it down, you could end up with part of the knot stuck at the end where the eyelet ring bends around to meet the hook shank. If this happens, you risk the line rubbing against the edge and breaking prematurely under pressure.
Here is a YouTube video teaching you how to easily tie a Modified Blood Loop Knot
What kind of weights you should use
The final component of the Drop Shot is simultaneously the least complicated, yet most important part of the whole presentation and will make or break your success: the sinker at the end!
Like almost every other part of the rig, you can get away with using just about any sinker that you have laying around. You could even crimp on a few split shot weights in a pinch and get the job done. BUT, if you want to maximize the effectiveness of the whole presentation, using the right type and size of weight will help you put more fish in the net. (see what we did there?)
The two types of sinkers are round or teardrop shaped sinkers and pencil/stick shaped sinkers. Both styles are extremely effective and whichever one you use will simply depend on cost and availability. That said, we will almost always reach for a pencil shaped sinker over a round or teardrop sinker.
No matter which shape you use, the whole point of the sinker is to stay in contact with the bottom as much as possible, inevitably picking up grass, mud and other mucky stuff that settles there. In our opinion, Pencil shaped sinkers just seem to grab onto less than other shapes. Pencil sinkers will also get wedged in between rocks far less than the wider round and teardrop shaped ones will. The last reason we prefer Pencil sinkers is because when we’re making a short pitch into shallow water close to where we think a fish might be hiding, the slimmer profile just seems to make less commotion on the surface as it falls in the water, reducing the chance of spooking away the very fish we’re trying to catch.
There are also two styles of eyelets on Drop Shot weights, the traditional round swivel eyelet and and the crimped swivel that forms a tight upside down “V”. The eyelet style doesn’t affect the performance of the weight, but there are a number of benefits to using the crimped style over the round style.
To attach the round style eyelet, you simply tie it onto the tag end with whatever knot you’re used to using, but if you want to change the distance between your lure and your sinker, you have to cut the line and re-tie, constantly making the tag end shorter and shorter until you get to a point you have to re-do the whole thing. You also can’t make the tag end longer, only shorter.
With a crimped swivel you don’t need to tie a knot to attach it. You simply pass the line through the bottom part of the eyelet and pull it into the upside down “V”. 
The crimped section will grab onto the line tight enough to hold it securely without actually cutting. If you want to adjust the sinker up or down, you simply pull the line down from the crimp, move your sinker and pull the line up into the “V” again. You can do this over and over again without ever having to tie a knot. Eventually the line will start to wear out from being pinched over and over again, but if you notice that happening, just cut off the compromised section and carry on with what’s left.
If you’re trying to free a snagged sinker that’s tied with a round eyelet, you risk breaking either the sinker knot, the hook knot or your leader knot. One way or another, you have to spend time tying at least one knot before you can cast again. If you get a sinker with a crimped eyelet snagged on rocks and just can’t get it free, a sharp pull will often break the line exactly where it is pinched into the eyelet leaving your hook knot and leader knot in-tact. Then you just reel up, attach another sinker and keep fishing.
When it comes to the actual size or weight of your sinker, the conditions will almost always be the deciding factor. Generally speaking, you always want to use the smallest or lightest weight possible. If you're pitching a Drop Shot into shallow water, you don’t need a 1/2oz sinker. A smaller 1/16oz or 1/8oz sinker will perform better and be less invasive to any fish in the area. If the bottom composition is very squishy, mucky or weedy, a lighter weight won’t bury itself as much and will pick up less debris and vegetation. This will also make it easier to detect hits instead of constantly wondering if the sudden tension is caused by a fish biting or the weight sticking in the mud.
You’ll want to bump up the weight when you’re targeting deeper water, though. Lighter weights will still work in deep water, but you’ll quickly find that it takes a lot longer for your lure to get down to the target area. Remember earlier when we talked about how the lure helicopters down through the water? Well that really slows down the fall rate of most lures, even small profiles like the Drip Teeze, and using a heavier weight is how you compensate for it.
Another reason to use a heavier weight, even when targeting shallower water, is when there is a lot of wind and waves, or any situation where you’re constantly moving. Believe it or not, even if you’re not moving, high winds and moving water will easily pick up your line and lure if your sinker isn’t heavy enough and toss it away. When the whole point of this technique is to keep bottom contact with the weight, this is obviously bad. Similarly, if you are moving at a slow trolling pace or drift trolling, a sinker that is too lightweight will simply just pull up higher into the water column and you’ll drift along wondering why you’re not feeling anything at all from your line.
Just remember, start light, and if you can’t feel the bottom through your line with the sinker, bump up the weight until you can.
If you don't have any weights that are heavier, try adding a second sinker to your tag end! It will serve the same purpose, and will add an additional noise making component to the presentation as your weights knock each other.
What Bait to use on a Drop Shot?
Everyone has their own favorite lure that gives them confidence and if you asked 10 different people what the absolute best dropshot bait is, you’ll probably get 10 different answers. There are thousands of baits out there ranging from big to small and ultra natural to completely outrageous, but how do you choose the right one if you're new to the presentation? The good news is almost any soft plastic bait can be effectively presented on a Drop Shot, so chances are you already have something you can use. If you don’t, we happen to know a place that can help you out…
Since Finesse is the game with Drop Shotting, you’ll often see people using smaller plastics, but don’t be fooled by the old train of thought, “big baits catch big fish and small baits catch small fish”. Monsters have been caught on baits like the 2.5” Scrappie Fluke, 2” Drip Teeze and 2” Triple Threat Grub. That said, smaller aggressive fish won’t be as intimidated by a down sized lure and are more likely to take the opportunity for an easy snack, just like a larger fish would. Where there IS some truth to that old mentality is because larger fish are just physically capable of eating bigger prey. Of course, there are plenty of examples of people catching ambitious fish on baits they couldn’t possibly fit in their mouths, the reality is that most of the smaller sized fish will feed on prey that is easier to catch and ingest. Using bigger baits simply weeds out smaller fish more effectively. You might catch less fish, but the average size will be generally larger.
All that is to say, that you should have a few different size, colour and profile options to choose from. Which one to use will depend on the target species and good old experimentation. If your target is panfish like Perch and Crappie, the three smaller baits we mentioned before are great choices. The Scrappie Fluke
and Drip Teeze work great for panfish because they imitate the small bait that Panfish often prey on. The Triple Threat Grub imitates… well it imitates a lot of different things. Baitfish, bugs, and small crayfish to name a few. Panfish have smaller mouths so it’s just easier for them to eat the small stuff, including the hook they’re attached to. Even smaller Bass will have no problem inhaling the 6” Wink Worm up to the hook, but most panfish species will usually just tug at the tail end over and over again, never coming anywhere near the hook until they lose interest and swim away.
If your target is larger species like Bass, Walleye and Pike, the world is your oyster when it comes to lure profile and size. The slightly larger 2 5/8” Goober Goby and 3.8” Ripple Worm are both superb all around lures and will catch anything that can eat it. We’ve mentioned it before, and we’ll say it again: The 6” Wink Worm is a killer nose hooked on a Drop Shot Hook or Texas Rigged on a thin wire EWG hook. You can even combine two techniques together and Wacky Rig a 5” Dipstick on a Drop Shot to target Bass at any depth with a rig that traditionally was reserved for shallower water.
Four Ways to fish a Drop Shot
Cast and Retrieve
The most basic way to fish pretty much any lure or setup is to simply cast it out and retrieve it, and you can do it with a Drop Shot too. There are, however, some nuances to casting and retrieving a Drop Shot Rig. If we haven’t hammered it in enough, Drop Shot rigging is primarily a finesse technique, so you're not going to chuck and wind it as fast as you can. Take your time with the retrieve! Even if you are using an outlandish type of lure, you want the movement of it to look as natural as possible. A steady, slow retrieve works best when using it this way. The most important part of retrieving a Drop Shot is making sure your sinker is regularly in contact with the bottom. If you retrieve too fast, you’ll end up pulling your lure and weight up off the bottom and the subtle action you’re trying to achieve will be ruined. You can also throw in an occasional pause or give your rod tip a small pop just to change up the movement, too. Many times, fish will follow your lure for a long time before deciding to strike or swim away, and often a small change in speed, direction or even a sudden and brief stop before moving again is enough to get them to commit.
Drag and Stop
The drag and stop is very similar to the cast and retrieve, but instead of a constant retrieve, you use your rod to slowly drag your sinking along the bottom, then stop and reel up the slack line. Fishing a Drop Shot this way has many benefits: You can get a good feel of what kind of bottom surface you’re dealing with. If there’s rocks, you’ll be able to feel the slight ting and thud as the weight drags over them. Sandy bottoms won’t feel like a whole lot, and if there’s any sort of short grass or vegetation, you’ll feel a slight tug and release of tension as the weight drags through and out of small underwater shrubs. Dragging the weight also stirs up sandy and muddy bottoms and kicks debris up into the water, which can help grab the attention of nearby fish and draw them towards your lure. This method makes it easier to detect hits too. As you're dragging your weight, you’ll feel a little bit of tension on your line and rod, but the effect of even a perch or bluegill taking the bait will be noticeably different, then you just reel set your hook and land your big (or small) catch! Similarly, once you get used to how the bottom feels when you’re dragging your weight, during one of the pauses you might not feel the hit, but when you go to resume your next drag, you’ll notice there is more weight than you expected. If you’re using the right kind of sharp hooks, this will usually be enough to gently set the hook on your fish and then you just have to land it!
Vertical Fishing
This, in our opinion, is where the dropshot really shines, and you can do it in just about any situation from a watercraft, a dock or beating the bank! You simply just drop the sinker right down into the water beside you. When you feel the line go slack it means your sinker has touched bottom. Then you just use your rod to impart action to your lure without lifting the weight. What you end up with is a completely weightless presentation of your lure as you gently lift it and let it drift back down to the bottom in the same place. Strikes will be unmistakable since there is no movement of the sinker to create tension on the line, so when you do feel weight, 99% of the time it’s because a fish has grabbed your lure. Reel set the hook and you’re in business! You don’t have to just drop your line straight down in front of you either, you can make short pitches out to different areas to cover a small area doing this as well. Just make sure you’re not casting out too far. The further you cast, the steeper the angle of your line will be, and the whole point is to keep a vertical angle vs a horizontal angle in your line. The only downside to vertical fishing a Drop Shot is that it’s only possible in scenarios where YOU can stay in one relative spot, for example on a very calm day, you’ve got a watercraft equipped with a spot locking trolling motor, or you’re sitting on a dock or the bank. If you’re on the water and struggling with boat control, vertical fishing will be challenging, and you may want to consider cast/retrieve or the drag stop method instead.
Deadsticking
Not to be mistaken as a lazy way to fish, although it is a good alternative when you’re on the dock enjoying a cold beverage, Deadsticking is an effective way to target fish lock-jawed fish. Like Vertical Fishing, you drop your sinker down to the bottom, reel in the slack so the line is taught and then stop. Don’t move your rod, lure or the weight. Just let it soak. You might be surprised just how much a little bit of movement in the water can impart action to an otherwise motionless soft plastic lure. Sometimes, this is what it takes to convince weary fish in a negative mood that this thing hovering in the water in front of them is safe to eat. At the very least, it could make them curious, even if they aren’t in the mood to feed. In case you didn’t know, fish don’t have hands so when they are exploring something new to them, they do it with their mouths. Fortunately for us, fish are very curious creatures!
There are other ways to fish a drop shot, but those are for another article! For now, focus on these four, especially if you’re new to Drop Shotting.
Tips for Success With a Drop Shot
If you haven’t figured it out by this point, there is a lot more to the Drop Shot Technique than you might think. It can be very simple, but there’s also a ton of small things you can do to maximize your chances of getting hooked up!
Drop Shot Leader Length – Mainline to Lure distance:
The length of leader from your mainline braid to your lure can play an important factor in what the fish see. Since we recommend high visibility colours, if your leader length is too short you risk spooking line shy fish if they can notice a bright orange live moving around above something they’re thinking of eating. In stained water this doesn’t play as much of a factor, but in relatively clear water, you want to make sure you’ve got at least 3-4 feet of fluorocarbon leader between your lure and your braid. There’s not a lot of harm going even longer than that but too long a leader could impact the sensitivity benefit of your braided mainline. At the same time, you want to make sure your connection knot isn’t passing through the first eyelet of your rod, otherwise it could get hung up on the cast, or worse, on the retrieve when you’re fighting a fish!
Drop Shot Tag end – Lure to Weight Distance
Like we talked about, the benefit of crimped eyelet sinkers is the ease of adjustment. If you know there are fish around but they’re just not biting, try moving the sinker closer to the lure. The fish you’re targeting could be glued to the bottom and unwilling to travel more than a foot up, even if just for a moment. Doing this will bring your lure closer to the comfort zone of these fish and make it just a little bit less scary to investigate your offering. Conversely, moving your sinker further away from your lure will raise it in the water column when your target appears to be suspended off bottom. You can also lengthen your sinker tag end if you find that your hook is getting snagged on taller vegetation. This way your sinker will sit camouflaged in the weeds while your lure is suspended above them, creating the illusion of unsuspecting prey that has ventured too far from safety.
Keep your Drop Shot weight on the BOTTOM
We’ll keep hammering down on this one! The whole point is to keep your sinker in contact with the bottom. There will be moments when you’re sinker is bouncing up, but the majority of the time, it should be touching. This is what lets you feel, through your line and rod, what the bottom composition is and what keeps your lure in the strike zone. Your weight on the bottom is the primary reason you can present a lure, essentially weightless, at ANY depth! You can even give your rod long sweeps to pick up the whole rig and drop it in a new spot, but when you do, let that weight go all the way down.
Was that a bite? I dunno, SET THE HOOK ANYWAYS!
Unless you’re vertical fishing or deadsticking, you will feel a lot of small ticks and tugs on your line as the weight drags along the bottom surface. Generally though, when a fish strikes you’re going to feel it. Instead of your line going taught and your rod tip bending a little bit and releasing, your line will go tight and start moving in a different direction (that’s why the high-vis braid is recommended, so you can see this easier) and your rod will bend, and stay bent! At this point, you need to set the hook, but you’re not trying to send this fish into outer space like an MLF Pro setting the hook on a 10lbs Bass with a punching jig. If you do that with your finesse spinning gear you’ll end up either yanking the hook out of the fish’s mouth, bend out the thin gauge hook, breaking your knot, or straight up snapping your rod. Instead, “Reel-Setting” the hook is a much more effective way to make sure the hook point finds its mark. When you think there’s been a bite, sweep your rod back or up about half way to engage the action and bend, then just reel in your line. If you’ve hooked up, you’ll know it. If you’re retrieving or using the drag stop method and you aren’t sure, just gently sweep the rod back without reeling. If there’s a fish there, your rod will stay bent, you’ll feel the fish start pulling and head shaking and you can start fighting it. If it just got hung up on a persistent weed, a short sweep will usually clear your weight and you can get right back to it. When in doubt, set the hook!
Experiment!
If you’re moving your bait a lot and not getting bit, try slowing down. If you’re deadsticking it, try the cast and retrieve or Drag Stop method. When vertical fishing, instead of just constantly raising the lure and letting it flutter down, let the lure sit on the bottom for a moment then pop it up quickly before letting it flutter down. One lure can behave in many ways depending on how it’s being used. Don’t be afraid to experiment! If you’re not catching fish, it’s because they aren’t there or they don’t like what you’re doing. The only thing you can do is fish somewhere else or do something different!
Move the Bait, not the weight!
The ability to present a lure weightlessly at any depth is one of the key reasons why the Drop Shot is so effective. When a fish strikes that weightless lure, you get the indication that there was a hit before that fish feels any weight from the sinker and realizes it was duped! If you’re using too much action and the sinker is popping up and down with the lure, you might end up with a fish that’s more interested in the weird turd looking thing popping in and out of the mud than your lure. When you’re focusing on imparting subtle action to just the bait while keeping the sinker anchored in one place, you are doing it right!
Common Drop Shot Mistakes
While there are lots of things to focus on to improve your experience, there’s a few No-No’s that you should be aware of, too.
Using gear that’s too heavy
You CAN use a heavy action rod with straight 50 lbs test monofilament line and catch fish, but you shouldn’t. A light or medium-light rod, paired with smaller diameter braided line, utilizing a fluorocarbon leader provides the essential sensitivity of the whole setup. Using heavier than recommended gear and terminal tackle will cause you to miss subtle bites and lose fish. Thicker diameter line will scare away line sensitive and other weary fish and a rod that doesn’t flex enough will impact its ability to absorb headshakes, ultimately giving them more chances to throw that hook when they detect even a glimmer of slack line.
Using TOO MUCH action
It is possible, and even very easy, to overwork a lure rigged on a Drop Shot. If you’re trying to target the bottom foot or two feet of the water, but you’re lifting your seven foot long rod from horizontal to almost vertical, you end up lifting your bait 4-5 feet higher than the depth you're trying to target. People often underestimate just how much action can be imparted to their lure with a shallow pop or their rod tip. Even more so when they’re fishing in water deep enough to obscure the lure from their own vision. Just trust us, small movements of the rod using just your wrist is more than enough to get that lure moving in the water.
When in doubt, SET THE HOOK
One of the main reasons people turn to finesse techniques like the Drop Shot is because the fish aren’t biting big, loud flashy lures. Most often when fishing a Drop Shot, you know when a fish bites, but sometimes when they are in a negative mood, the bite is so light you can barely feel it. To avoid missing those subtle hits with a Drop Shot, whenever something suddenly feels different, set the hook! You’ll either have a fish, or you won’t. But you’ll feel better knowing that the extra weight you felt for a split second was just another clump of weeds instead of wondering if that little tug was actually a fish you could have caught!
Enough reading, get out and fish!
Now you have all the know-how you need to set up your own Drop Shot rig, so get out there and put more fish in the net on a Drop Shot!
If you found this guide helpful, let us know in the comments and share it with someone else that might learn a thing or two!