Finesse Rigging

GET THE DROP

“Drop-shotting,” interjects Aaron Martens, the man Guido Hibdon calls the best drop-shotter in the world, “is most effective when bass are suspended off the bottom. A drop-shot rig lets you adjust the weight of your sinker and the length of your leader. In that respect, it’s the most versatile setup.”

Martens says that while many anglers believe drop-shotting to be a vertical, straight up-and-down, deepwater presentation, it’s just as effective when cast and retrieved. And he says there are no depth limits to its effectiveness. He has drop-shotted bass in water as deep as 80 feet and as shallow as 2.

“But,” he emphasizes, “I don’t shake a drop-shot worm. I use a heavy enough weight so that I'm ticking the cover on the bottom about one third of the time that I’m retrieving the lure. The bouncing sinker provides all the action you require. Sometimes I’ll even go to a heavier weight and retrieve the lure as fast as I’d retrieve a crankbait.”

Martens cautions about two things: knot failure and worm rigging. “Because of the way you tie a drop-shot rig,” he says, “the knot frays more quickly than with a shaking or split-shot setup. If you’re not careful, you’ll break off fish, especially if you use fluorocarbon line as I do. I check my knot and retie often.”

Martens also is a stickler when it comes to threading on a worm. It must be arrow straight. “If it’s crooked,” he says, holding it up to the light like a jeweller inspecting a fine cut diamond, “it’ll spin, twist your line, and impair the action of the worm.”

And has the 32-year old San Fernando Valley native, who has fished the Bassmaster Classic four times in the past five years, finishing second on Lay Lake and winning the FLW event on Lake Wheeler last June, noticed any differences or made any drop-shot adjustments since moving to Alabama?

“The lakes out east are bigger,” he says, “and the bass are more spread out. There aren’t a hundred fish in one spot as in California. And they’re not there all the time as they are out west. As far as adjustments are concerned, I use heavier drop-shot weights when I’m fishing in the east, typically 3/16 and 1/4 ounce, and I often use 10- and 12-pound-test line, especially around cover.”

Still, the main difference he’s seen is the way bass react to the sinker. Out west, they shy away from a heavy, noisy sinker. “But that’s not a problem in the east,” he says. “They literally eat it when you move it.”

ONE-TON TUBING

While Aaron and Carol Martens are noted for using light lines, compact weights, and slim soft plastic lures, all the top western anglers caution against equating fishing for finesse bass in clear water with light terminal tackle. Indeed, Nevada angler Roy Hawk, Utah lure maker Jerry Hansen, and even light-line specialist Jarrett Edwards epitomize this new wave of thinking. They typically throw super-heavy lures on powerful baitcasting outfits to catch finesse bass from crystal clear water.