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line, making it difficult to control the manipulation of the worm and difficult to feel a bass engulf the worm. in a strong wind most anglers don’t even try, but instead reach for a Carolina-rig or football jig, or reaction bait. next time you find the bass are feeding on the bottom and the wind comes up, instead of putting the dropshot rod away reach for a half ounce or heavier quickdrop and gain control of the wind. Current in a river or tidal situation also makes line control troublesome in dropshotting situations. again, upsize your weight and downsize your control problem. Winter bass fishing in cold, deep reservoirs is often productive in depths from 40- to 80-feet of water. a dropshot rig is ideal when fishing vertical presentations common in the winter, since the worm is above the weight, making strike detection easier. The best way to detect sluggish bites by cold, lethargic bass is to keep your fishing line as straight as possible between your rod tip and your weight. a heavy weight sinks as fast as possible, and the design of a quickdrop is hydrodynamic so it sinks perfectly straight. When a bass strikes, you will feel the strike when your line does not snake back and forth (like lighter, less hydrodynamic weights act). Heavyweight dropshot sinkers cast farther. Casting into a headwind with a lightweight dropshot results in less distance and control. in calm conditions bass are easily spooked by boats and anglers, so the added distance of a heavyweight dropshot can be the difference between loading the boat and striking out. one day when fishing for smallmouth bass, i learned a dropshot rig can provoke a reaction strike from lethargic bass. My lowrance graph showed bass were sedentary on the bottom in 28-feet of water during a cold front. The bass would not touch my 1/4-ounce dropshot rig. Since the wind was blowing and i was adjusting my boat position with the electric motor, i moved up to a 3/4-ounce quickdrop. i opened the bail of my Shimano 2500 reel loaded with 6-pound-test and vertically dropped the wacky-rigged dropshot Senko below the boat. immediately after the heavy weight slammed into the bottom, a 3-pound smallmouth slammed my Senko! in the next half hour i put five nice smallmouths into my ranger, all by provoking a heavyweight dropshot reaction strike.
anywhere you would normally throw a heavy Carolina-rig, consider instead using a heavyweight dropshot rig. a popular technique in the west is “dropSwimming,” where the weight constantly moves across or even above the bottom and the worm appears to swim through the water. to employ this technique, the rod is held no higher than the nine or ten o’clock position and the reel handle is steadily turned while the rod tip is shaken (imparting action to the worm). This is a great technique for covering a lot of water in a hurry and provokes reaction strikes and feeding strikes in a horizontal presentation. Using a heavyweight dropshot weight is the key to achieving a fast retrieve and covering deep water. When sight fishing, one of the biggest problems is that lure movement (necessary to induce a reaction strike) also moves the lure out of the strike zone. enter the heavyweight dropshot sinker. try punching weed beds and floating debris with an ounce quickdrop weight for a different look. The weight punches the hole and then pulls the lure through the hole. lifting the bait and shaking it in place provides action no other punching presentation can create. Using the lightest weight you can get away with makes sense for texas-rigs, but not for dropshot rigs. Think outside the box and of all the situations you normally would not use a dropshot rig, and likely you found a reason for heavyweight dropshots. Then, when your friends ask you why you are using heavyweight dropshots, answer back “Why not?” Ciao!
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