OUTDOORS: The drop-shot rig catches fish

Published 8:00 am Saturday, December 26, 2015

The drop-shot rig has been around for a good number of years but anglers are still finding ways to catch fish with the rig. The technique often referred to as drop-shot fishing first became popular in 1999 on the West Coast in clear deep lakes and due to its success there, it spread across the entire country.

However, if you asked a dozen bass local anglers to describe the drop-shot rig, a large number would tell you they have never tried the rig, only a few would even be able to correctly describe the drop-shot rig in any detail and a few might even tell you they’ve never heard of the drop-shot rig.

Originally the drop-shot rig was used in clear lakes to catch largemouth and smallmouth bass. But since its arrival on the fishing scene many savvy anglers now use the rig to successfully catch all types of fish in all types of water conditions.

Since most of the publicity surrounding the drop-shot rig involved using the rig in deep clear lakes, many anglers assumed the rig would not work on lakes like Oconee and Sinclair. Compared to our area lakes where most largemouth bass reside in water depths from 14-30 feet and the water is dingy, West Coast lakes produce fish from over 100-foot depths and from water that in many cases is crystal clear.

Hence the drop-shot rig was slow to catch on locally and only recently have anglers begun catching fish regularly on the rig. The drop-shot rig is now being used by anglers on local lakes with good success for catching several species of fish.

Some local anglers are now using the drop-shot rig in almost all water conditions and water depths. The rig’s principles and set up make a lot of sense and will over time prove to be one of the several successful techniques for catching a variety of fish species on Sinclair and Oconee.

As I have stated, the rig was originally thought to be primarily a deep-water technique bait and that means 14-30 feet deep or so on Sinclair and Oconee. However, many anglers have begun to see the versatility of the drop-shot rig even in shallow water.

The action of the plastic bait used on the Texas rig and the Carolina rig is directly related to action or movement of the weight used on those rigs. As you move the weight the plastic bait moves in conjunction with the weight. The weight on both the Texas-rig and the Carolina-rig are in front of the plastic bait.

That is precisely what makes the drop-shot rig different. The drop-shot rig’s weight is below the plastic bait and the plastic bait is well above the weight and floating freely in the water column.

This creates a more natural action and allows the angler to shake and move the bait without actually changing its location or the angler can simply let the bait’s movement be controlled by the water current. This allows you to keep the lure in the spot where the fish are located much longer than with a Carolina-rig or Texas-rig.

Unlike the Carolina-rig or the Texas-rig, the drop-shot rig was originally intended to be fish vertically straight under the boat. With the Carolina-rig and Texas-rig, you are primarily casting the weight and the plastic bait to the location horizontally and then dragging the rig across the bottom where the fish are located. However anglers are now successfully using the drop-shot in shallow water using that same dragging technique.

The bottom of Sinclair and Oconee, like many other Georgia lakes, are silted over and I believe this is what makes the Carolina-rig such a good lure for largemouth bass. Much of the lake’s bottom is silt and that silt may be a foot or more thick.

With the Carolina-rig, the sinker stirs up the silt while the soft plastic bait floats above the silt. That same effectiveness can occur with the drop-shot rig since the height the plastic bait rides off the lake’s bottom can be determined by choosing a longer or shorted leader.

The drop-shot rig is still undergoing changes and now tackle manufactures are marketing special sinkers and hooks to be used with these rigs. However the drop-shot rig can be used with already available terminal tackle products that you likely already have in your tackle box.

The drop-shot rig is primarily a finesse or light tackle application and that means 6-10 pound test line, 1/16 to 3/8 ounce weights, thin wire 1/0 or 2/0 wide-gap worm hooks and small plastic finesse baits in sizes 4-6 inches.

Those finesse baits can be tube baits, worms, lizards or any of the plastic finesse baits that are available. Basically if you already use either the Carolina-rig or the Texas-rig you likely have everything to rig the drop-shot rig without buying anything extra.

Next week’s article will look more extensively at rigging the drop-shot and how and where to use the drop-shot rig to catch largemouth bass and other fish species. The rig can be used to catch crappie and next week I will also discuss using the rig to entice crappie using both live bait and jigs. Happy New Year and see you next week.

Bobby Peoples can be reached at brpeoples@windstream.net.