Drop shot new flavour

B

benniejordaan

Sealiner
Right,
So yesterday (11th July 09) Myself, PieterH and Andre Elmira went fishing! We spent the later part of the day anchored on a reef while  "playing" with drop shot. All 3 of us working each corner with various jig heads, bait sizes and colours to see what we could raise from the depths below. The showings on the fish finder was evidence that there was good size fish to be had. However, they were not playing the same game!

Finally after NO success with the drop shot, I invented a new DS flavour. It's called CHOKKA. I cut a nice strip approximately 1,5cm wide X 20cm long. I threaded it onto the 2 Oz jig head which was powder coated red with a decent single tentacle and chucked it out up current. It slowly washed back towards us and as soon as it got back to the boat ZZZZZZZZ. A 2kg bronze bream! Did it a second time and as it got back to the boat ZZZZZZZZZ. The second 2kg+ bronze bream.

O.K. so now I knew the fish were there. Change the set up. A 6 Oz weight on a long sinker trace and a single 3/0 hook with a 30Lb hook snoot and the same chokka strip. All I got was peck, peck, peck! WTF!

So now some questions: What the hell were we doing wrong with the drop shot? It clearly wasn't working for us. Is there something in this? And why did the lead head work when the standard patternoster rig didn't with the same bait. Perhaps it is because of the movement which keeps it away from the peckers but gets the attention of the bigger fish.

I am loosing sleep over this one!
Any thoughs?
 
G

gerritp

Senior Member
Bennie, I think its the movement of the bait.

I like to "work" my bait when the peckers are around like karel groot oog. When the finder show good size fish and all we get is the little pecks we start to work the bait up and down a meter at a time.

Also found that when the big boys are not on the bite, working of bait help to get a strike, peckers are always on the bite.
 
B

benniejordaan

Sealiner
gerritp,
The peckers tend to keep close to the reef so another way to get the "bigger" bites is to rais your bait! You can increase the sinker line to raise your bait 1,5-2m off the reef and increase the hook snoot for more movement. The bigger fish tend to be a little more brave! I get that!

But is drop shot all it is cut out to be? A point made here is, everything is the same, use a jig head etc. but use a strip of chokka instead of a plastic fish. I recon you will increase your stike rate 10 fold! Granted it is not "as clean". But then if you use the scented gulp, you'll get juices on your fingers regardless.

Now this raises another question: What is drop shot? Do my 2 fish count as new species on drop shot, or is it just another 2 fish on bait?

Excuse my ignorance, I have only been dropshotting for about 6 months.
 
G

gerritp

Senior Member
We get peckers all the way from the bottom to 1m below the boat, by working the bait i dont raise it 1m, i work the bait up in down 1m to 2m above the bottom non stop.

As to dropshot, i dont buy it, highly overated(just my opinion). But what you did with chokka sound like a realy good idea. I had 1000% more sucess with bait than plastics, did not try chokka on a jighead yet.

I think the whole idea behind dropshot is to imetate live bait, using chokka or sardines would just work so much better. Did you try sardine as well?
 
B

benniejordaan

Sealiner
No, not sard. Bear in mind it was getting a little late and I resorted to what I know best probably a little out of desperation. The chokka also allowed me to place it on the jig head leaving a nice tail that worked in the water. I know they were eating chokka so I stuck to that but we pulled anchor shortly after that. Basically I still wanted to catch those 1-5kg fish on light tackle, which is a lot more fun, just getting a bit gatvol of the hard work with no results.
 
B

bravo71

Banned
Bennie I think we have all been conned into thinking this Gulp outfishes everything. Past few weeks I have spent a few hundred rand on gulp with no results except for being chowed finished by the peckers. Louis
 
A

Arrie D

Senior Member
Bennie - the nice thing is to have both options - plastic and bait jigging. Hooking a fish on a plastic is sometimes more of a thrill and challenge.

 
 
B

benniejordaan

Sealiner
Arrie D wrote:
Bennie - the nice thing is to have both options - plastic and bait jigging. Hooking a fish on a plastic is sometimes more of a thrill and challenge.

 
Click to expand...
Not sure about it being more of a thrill but I'll agree more challenging! Infact, a lot more challenging.
As I said everything was the same, same action, jig head, leader, rod, reel etc. Only difference was the bait! Chokka instead of a plastic fish!
 
A

Arrie D

Senior Member
Bennie - chokka just has something !!!  Fishing rock and surf we often come across this. Try all baits -  nothing - then try a piece of chokka beaten nice and pap and vas !! We dont fish rock and surf without it in our box - AND THE FRESHER THE BETTER !!!!
 
B

benniejordaan

Sealiner
Arrie D wrote:
Bennie - chokka just has something !!!  Fishing rock and surf we often come across this. Try all baits -  nothing - then try a piece of chokka beaten nice and pap and vas !! We dont fish rock and surf without it in our box - AND THE FRESHER THE BETTER !!!!
Click to expand...
My budget on chokka is R400 a month! If I don't have it, I might not go out!
 
N

neilg

Sealiner
Bennie
that's fishing, you improvised and it worked, that's great !

Funny thing is I though of something similiar a while ago aswell, especially when the fish don't wanne touch plastic. My idea was a plastic with a piece of tjokka ghost cottoned to it, just to add some flavour to it. Sometimes I think the fish swim next to your soft plastic and give it a lick, just to check and then leave it alone again. That way if they grab the plastic they will taste tjokka.
I believe that once a fish takes a soft plastic (whether you land it or not), after that they know it's not the real thing, and won't touch it easily again (on the day), maybe even telling his buddies not to take that silicone poopoo again aswell.

A few weeks ago myself and my brother went out to go help a boat, after we were done we spent an hour or so fishing,

in that time I tried Vertical jigging and vertical dropshot, I did not have one take, not even one knock, but my brother using chokka had bite after bite.

I've had days like that before, where the bait outfishes the lures from every possible angle, but I've also had days where I by myself have outfished 4 other anglers, all of them using bait and me using artificial baits.

Gerhard has seen me catching fish on both soft plastics and on vertical jigs, but funny thing is, they were catching the geelbek on bait and I was catching the red fish on artificials, it should have been other way around.

Bait spends more time in the water than artificials, and also have more smell than artificials, so fish are more "attracted" to them.

I have a new vertical jig that copies a tjokka, think it will be deadly, but will first have to give it a try.

That's fishing ...
 
B

benniejordaan

Sealiner
neilg,
You crack me up.
"after that they know it's not the real thing, and won't touch it easily again (on the day), maybe even telling his buddies not to take that silicone poopoo again aswell."

:hyst::hyst::hyst::hyst:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top