| Home | Activities | Features | Guides & Outfitters | Shopping | Corporate |
|
FISHING ARTICLES FRESHWATER FISHING
Drop Shotting Crappie
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
For most days any type of jig or minnow fished around these brush piles will pull in as many fish as you and your fishing partners can handle. However, there are days that seem to be those where you should have stayed at home and cleaned the garage like your wife wanted you to. You know, the days when you start putting your hook in the minnow bucket just to know that a fish actually saw your hook? These are the days to try the drop shot technique. I came across this rig when watching the BASS Top 150 on Toledo Bend a few years back when Takohiro Omaora destroyed his competition with it. He explained it to me and others gathered around his boat as the ultimate teasing bait. With drop shotting, what happens is the bait stays in the fishes face for so long that it just can't take it anymore; therefore the fish attacks the bait.
This is the thing that anglers on Red River have adapted to crappie fishing. One day last year while my daughter and I were fishing for a mess of fish, a local let me in on the secret. We hadn't had a bite all day and were about to call it quits when we pulled up to a man who was pulling fish in the boat about every 3 to 4 minutes. I finally asked him what he was doing different. "I guess they just aren't around us today," I told him. "Oh they are there. If you've caught them here before, they are still there," he said. "Nine times out of ten they just need to be upset enough to bite. I've started using a modified drop shot to make them mad enough to get a mess," he further explained.
What he and others were doing were taking the normal drop shot rig and making a few small changes to make it crappie ready. In its basic form, drop shotting is taking a hook and placing it above your weight. Proper rigging is the key to this technique. You start by tying on the hook with a palomar knot, leaving a long tag end usually 10" to 36" long (I have used this rig with the hook tied as high as 5 foot above the weight). Pass the line through the hook eye from the topside down, which will keep the hook straight out. Next, tie your weight on the bottom, and you are ready to go. Nose hook the worm or tube you are using on the hook. This is critical, as the exposed hook is how the fish helps hook itself.
Instead of using the lighter weight, we started using a ½ ounce catfish weight and a small Mister Twister curly tail jig on a Daiichi bleeding bait Drop Shot'n hook just above the weight. What this allowed us to do was hang the weight in the brush and leave the bait in the fish's face for long periods of time. Picking up the jig and letting it slowly fall back towards the weight would drive the fish crazy. If the line starts moving or you feel just a little resistance, don't jerk hard. Instead, just start reeling up and the fish will hook itself. A slow sweep hookset is all you will need, as the principals of the hook are that as the fish inhales your bait, they turn away while chewing or killing its meal.
Another technique to target later in the month is moving shallow and trying the drop shot instead of jigs or shiners. Shorten your drop shot hook depth and look for the crappie moving in to spawn.
If you are looking for a way to learn a new technique that will help you catch not only crappie but bass as well, try the drop shot like the local anglers on Red River. Not only will you put another weapon in your fishing arsenal, but you are very likely to put some fish on the table on slow days.
| Featured Sites | |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|||
| ||||
 TOP OF PAGE | ||||
|
|
