Can't catch anything on DropShot

C

Chris1

New member
Hi guys
It's nice 2 be back. I finally got my Adsl line Yesterday, so now I'm back in bussiness.
Well I moved to L'Agulas, and just started to fish :fishn again last week, since a lot off fish :f1shy came out in the area.

I'v seen the postings on drop shot. I have everything I need, camo / blood worm,
2 tipes of prawn, but still NO hook up.
My problem is, I would like to up my skills / catch in drop shot, but its knot working for me. Sunday I tried blood & camo worm, = result ( 0 ). So I went back to pillshards and got a lot of small pear fish. What a hell am I doing wrong :cry1????

Chris1
 
G

ghost

Senior Member
Patience Chris1. Believe in your bait/lure. If you think it wont work, it wont. If you think it will, it will.
 
L

Little Green Fish

Sealiner
Chris1

I'm yet to try this dropshot thing in the salt next year March, so I dunno much, but I watched a dvd last night on dropshot for kingies and these guys were retrieving their minnow lures with a whole lot of speed, now, what is this little :f1shy, (that doesn't know much about this) want to say?  I do some serious bass-fishing, and perhaps you should stick with the bait and change your retrieve for one before you change your bait and not the retrieve.  Tactics sometimes (freshwater speaking) are much more critical than the choice in bait, but having said that, also if you've got the wrong bait then tactics might not work as they would when a better choice or the absolute on the spot lure is tied to the end of your line.

In short try and play around with retrieves before you play around with all different lures... anyhow that's just my 1/2 a Zim dollars' worth.

Hope this helps

:f1shy
 
D

Dingleberry

Senior Member
Chris1, it seems most beginners to the "dropshot" technique focus on the worms. They do look great and smell even better, however, I would certainly not count them as among the most effective of the lures. How does one imitate the movement of a marine worm? Granted some takes do occur while the worm is static, but is often rejected without a hookup due to the length of the worm and the positioning of the hook. Rather focus on the smaller fluke style plastics. Their generic design can represent a wider variety of bait types and combined with different retrieves and colour combinations are extremely successful. Consider too, the position of the jig hook. The longer shank designs are certainly more effective as the take is more often than not from the rear, where the point should be. The line tension whilst retrieving will also ensure a better chance of a hookup than drifting worms. A fluke/minnow style plastic can represent prawn, small fish or small squid, depending on what colour and retrieval style is used. The most consistantly successful combination I have found is the 1/8 ounce, 1/0 jighead with a Gulp 2" Pearl Minnow and retieved with a slow double tap. I have caught over 20 species now with this combination, including some of the Cape species and seldom blank. I am also particularly fond of the Maria paddle tail worms with a straight retrieve.  I have landed grunter, wildeperd and blacktail on these combinations, so persevere and fish with confidence.

 
 
P

POIZN

Senior Member
Well im fairly new to dropshot myself but i agree that perseverence is the ultimate key to getting a hookup.there aint nothing beter than cathing a fish on soft plastics,to me its somewhat of an achievment,so dont give up.the camo worm is the best to start of with,try 1/8th ounce jigheads on a no 4 or 6 hook.the best way is to let it drift around,best fished in gullies around reefs in working water.its the best way to start,requires little or no action.let us kno how it goes.hope this helps.cheers_poizn
 
S

StantonR

New member
HI Chris

I also was having alot of trouble with drop shotting,I was trying every lure available with no luck.What I realised my problem was ,was that I was fishing with a nylon line that was too heavy and and was not using a leader.
Since I have put on the Berkley Fireline(10 pound) and a 12 pound fluro carbon leader I have been getting alot of hookups.
The fireline allowed me to get a better feel of what was happening underneath the water with my jig head and allowed me to play the fish.The fireline also gives the lures a nice action.Also with the invisible fluro carbon the fish were less hesitant to go for the bait.
I dont know if you are already using this kind of setup but it definately worked for me.
 
G

ghost

Senior Member
Ag no:temp:Who opened Land Locked's cage again:headb

(LL says: "I used a very small blob of dynamite" :spite)
 
S

Snoek

New member
I agree with LGF. Try using different retrieves with the same bait. Funny enough I have a lot of success with the brushhog in the sea - the brushhog is a bass lure. When I retrieve I picture what the lure is doing under the water and the more movement it makes the more it attracts. Hopefully these tips help :) Enjoy!
 
D

Dingleberry

Senior Member
Hey Snoek, that's very interesting! What have you caught on it so far and what colour do you find to be most productive.
 
D

Deceiver

New member
Brushhogs in the bass world imitate crabs, no reason why this cannot apply to salwater species, although i would rig it differently. In my humble opinion the key to dropshotting ANYWHERE, Fresh or saltwater, is understanding the species you are targeting and what they feed on... From there it is upto the angler to understand the movements and habits of the prey and imitate these. Once you get that little part right, you catchs will improve dramatically. Sometimes it is a reaction bite... sometimes it is an aggresive feeding bite. You need to vary your retrieve until you find a pattern, and then stick to it. I know that if i am targeting kingies, shad, queenfish (game species) they like it fast and erratic, for those species like stonebream, Blacktails, rockcod, snappers and other rock or reef species, they like it slower with a little hopping action, or just a slow steady retrieve with the current or wave action. As mnetioned in some messeges above, imiatating and pictureing what your lure is doing is key... when last did you see a sandworm, crab or prawn scootling along the surface? The answer is you didnt. however you may have seen baitfish jumping on the surface, in the middle water column and wounded (slightly twitching) on the bottom. This would look natural to the fish and will provoke a bite. My 3 cents...
 
T

TMR

New member
Deceiver, I could not agree with you more.;)
The way you retrieve your chosen lure should resemble the chosen bait. eg. For a prawn, you should have a slow retrieve with a jerk every so often. In real live prawns move slowly but jump by using their tails if they feel threatened. The jerk every so often simulates a prawn that feels threatened.
Further more it depends on what specie you are targeting. For Kingies and Garrick using a power jerk shad you should use a fast retrieve with jerks every so often letting the lure actually break water, this simulates a mullet trying to escape. How many times have we seen a mullet jump out of the water when its been chased.
Using a sand worm use a very slow retrieve and let the currant do most of the work. They seem to almost float in the water in real live.
The bottom line is try and imitate using what ever lure to how it will react in real live.

 
 

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F

false bayer

New member
Hi Dingleberry

I'm off to dropshot falsebay from the 15th of Desember.  Could you please enlighten me on what plastics to use (what would work best) and their partnering jigheads.  I'd also like to know where i could try my luck and what species to expect.

Looking forward to hearing from you

False bayer
 
D

DropNut

New member
[color=#006600]Chris1[/color] wrote:
Hi guys
It's nice 2 be back. I finally got my Adsl line Yesterday, so now I'm back in bussiness.
Well I moved to L'Agulas, and just started to fish :fishn again last week, since a lot off fish :f1shy came out in the area.

I'v seen the postings on drop shot. I have everything I need, camo / blood worm,
2 tipes of prawn, but still NO hook up.
My problem is, I would like to up my skills / catch in drop shot, but its knot working for me. Sunday I tried blood & camo worm, = result ( 0 ). So I went back to pillshards and got a lot of small pear fish. What a hell am I doing wrong :cry1????

Chris1
Click to expand...
 Hi Chris,

Although I have not had as much success as I  wanted, we must remember that we are trying to entice a fish to take a bait that is a false bait and we are trying to make it beleive that it is the real thing which is really difficult.

So lets start the process:

1. What are you targetting? You said that you got a few smaller fish when using pilchard, so thereofore how big was the bait and the hooks that you were using? You cant catch a 500g fish on 1/0 hook too easily.

2. I found that when I used my worms, I would just let them wash in the tide, and this worked for me with a 1/8jighook with a no.4 on. (4 Blacktail and 1 Steenbras with this method in 2 outings)

3.THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT:shock:PERSEVERE AND LEAVE THE PILCHARD AT HOME !!!!!

The moment you start doubting yourself and the bait, you will go back to your pilchard. I am sure that you are in it for the challenge as well as the enjoyment. Give yourself the chance to experiment and learn as all of us are, and then we come back and give feedback to each other about what worked and what didn't.

4. Lastly, I found that I have a better succes and strike rate during a low tide.


 
 
O

Orange Elephant

New member
Hi All
I have found that the mussel worm paten on a 3/16 jighead bounced slowly along the bottom works for blacktail and bronze bream. the smaller fish paterns seem to work. when fishing on sand try to get to the side of the sandbank where the tide is washing off the bait/food. try to let your dropshot present naturaly asif it has been washed into the dropoff. Nomatter what the tide is doing try and try again. If you want to cheat get a can of pilchards in tomato sauce and rub onto your hands. this just adds to the flavour. If you are a smoker like me and bite your line off have a bite of the pilchards to hide the smoke smell.
hope this helps you some.
 
C

Chris1

New member
Guys

I got my 2de fish on Drop shot. It's small but is mine. 1ste 1 was a small Steenbras.
2 on the cards, and going for 3 tomorow.
 

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