Drop-Shottin’—new rigging trick for your bassin’

Only every five or ten years does a technique come along that’s so different from what we’ve been fishing, and more effective in certain fishing situations. Weightless soft plastic jerkbaits certainly fit this mold. Before that, Carolina rigging comes to mind. While some early observers of drop-shot fishing called it “reverse Carolina rigging,” this isn’t an accurate description, and drop-shot rigging, or down-shot rigging, is its own genre.

And in the three or four years that we’ve been aware of its potential, applications have grown fast, as they did with other then-novel tactics. If you want to see evolution happen fast, offer a new bait to a bunch of avid bassers and see what emerges in a year or so.

Basics

In its simplest form, drop-shotting involves setting a weight at the end of the line, with a hook and plastic bait set some distance above. The concept is the same as what’s long been used by crappie anglers, who often set several dropper lines and baits off a main line, as well as saltwater rigging, sometimes called a fish-finder rig.

By placing the weight at the bottom, the angler has full control of the lure’s working depth, which makes it effective when fish hold some distance above the bottom. The angler also assumes full control of the lure’s action, as it hangs lifeless on a taut line. But jiggle the line a bit, or release slack and then snap the bait upward, and the lure’s suddenly alive, in a way no other presentation can produce. To get the picture, drop one into a large aquarium or swimming pool and watch it work.

To get the best lure action, tie a Palomar knot, leaving a long tag end, which becomes the lead to the sinker. Make sure in tying that the hook point points upward, in the normal position to hook a small plastic jerkbait, worm, or tube. The technique originally involved small, subtle baits that worked well in deep, clear waters, but anglers have found that all sorts of lures can be fished this way, in many different waters.

Choice of line has also expanded from the initial use of thin, low-visibility brands, to heavier stuff as anglers tried the technique in thick vegetation and timber. Similarly, medium-action spinning rods from 6 to 7 feet were standard, but baitcasting tackle works with appropriately upsized line and lure, in thicker cover.

Origins

Dave Mitchell, president of Sweetwater Tackle in California, notes that the technique had its beginnings in Japan. “I was producing special drop-shot baits for the Japanese market more than 12 years ago,” he says. “And there was huge demand at that time.” Masaki Murayama, American correspondent for Tackle Box, a major Japanese fishing magazine, noted that down-shot rigging is the predominant technique in his country. “When any new technique comes along, Japanese anglers compare its effectiveness to down-shot rigging,” he notes. “It’s hard to convince many anglers that anything else can work so well.”

As Japanese anglers moved to or visited the United States, the technique was seeded. West Coast impoundments seemed ideally suited to this finesseful tactic. They offered deep rock, with largemouth and spotted bass frequently holding in water from 18 to 40 feet deep. Here, the lure could be worked meticulously on a small piece of structure, to entice bites.