Dropshot panfish success

[Spoonminnow]

Yesterday was perfect - partly sunny, breeze, water temp low 70's, water a green stain.
I wanted to perfect a dropshot hook-up rate for any species, but especially small fish because they present the biggest challenge keeping them hooked.

choices had to be made regarding:
which hook, line, sinker and lure size to use
hookset type
leader length
type of retrieve

At first I tried an Octopus hook but my hook-up ratio stunk. (A circle hook would have done just as bad.) So, I went to a light wire Eagle Claw Aberdeen bronze hook (#6) with its slightly longer shank and happily caught different species (small largemouth bass, yellow perch, sunfish and a crappie).

I used a leader length-to-weight that was too short, under 10". After casting jigs and catching many perch in an area, I had an idea of the depth they were striking and it wasn't near bottom. The depth was between 4 and 5' with the fish down only 2' which meant using a leader between hook and weight 2' or greater.

I've always read that you need flourcarbon or thin mono to feel the strike and started with both on different rods but I wasn't impressed so I retied directly to thin braid (2lb test diameter). Not only did I feel the strike bettter but hooked fish easily by only raising the rod tip.

My initial weight was 1/4 oz. but I found out that the lighter the weight, the more repsonsive the lure action to rod twitches, so I went to a 1/8. (My weight consists of a brass or lead bullet sinker used for plastic worms, tied to a swivel beneath it or I'll cut off the hook of an unusable jighead.)

I started with a 2 3/4 - 3" soft plastic minnow (I designed) and fish were biting the tails but not taking the hook near the head so I downsized to using minnows 2" or less. Immediately there was a big difference in hook-up ratio and fish aggression. (It seems fish are competitive bullies that can't help themselves chewing on an itsy bitsy prey fish or worm.)

At first I worked the lure slowly, sometimes vertically, twitching the bait in place. Few bites with that technique, so I started power dropshotting with the usual pauses and slight twitches. That made all the difference! (With power dropshotting, you work a lure horizontally similar to using a jig, except slower, but still not stationary as you would regular d/s.)

Sonar was indispensable finding the structure, depth and active fish. I beat the banks and caught a few, but the majority of 50 or more fish were caught in 4-5' near drops that fell to 7'. In the furture I think I'll start taking pictures of the sonar screen to show you what I mean. I'm usually not interested in fish directly beneath the tranducer, but I have caught fish that way. Rather, I want to know how hard the bottom and what it contains (rock wall, rocks, stumps).

What a wonderful day and a challenge was met successfully. Now I need to try other bait designs and nose-hook them to see how versatile the d/s is. Too bad I could only catch 9" perch, preferring to feed my pond bass 5" or less. Don't want them getting fat!

[Blackhawk19]

Great post.

[chucktx]

excellent post........thanks!!!!!!!!

[1fishmike]

Are you using spoon minnows?

[shipahoy41]

Nive report. Glad that you had fun and caught fish.

[Spoonminnow]

Are you using spoon minnows?

The spoon minnow accounted for 95% of all species caught either using a 1/32 or 1/16 oz jig or dropshot hook.
I love catching fish on lures I make that actually work! LOL

[fishtoeat1]

Hello Everyone,

I am a newbie to this forum one of many Anakin Skywalkers here to learn from the Obi Wan Kenobi's of Panfishing. I love Crappie,WhiteBass,Yellow Perch,RockBass,Walleye and Stripers. Spoonminnow do you know where I could view a diagram of your dropshot rig I have never tried this method and would love to?

I would also like to know if anyone has ever fished Lake Wheeler in Cary NC. I am going to fish it soon from a row boat and wondered what type of techniques I could use to catch crappies? I am a jig fisherman primarily and fish with mister twister jigs primarily because they require less work and I have caught Smallmouth,Largemouth,Rockbass,Walleye,Yellow Perch,Bluegill and King Salmon on these lures. When I fish for Panfish I always 2" curly tails grubs in White,Yellow or Chartreuse and generally do well. I also use Luck E strike Swimmin Minnow,Bobby Garland,Bass Assassin(Panfish)K&E Stopper,Charlie Brewer,Berkley Panfish,Lindy Fishing Tackle and Southern Pro.

I love lures that have lots of movement and legs. The Crappie Nibbles by berkley are awesome. I have caught bluegill and catfish on them.

I am open to any information that I can use on any given lake. Unfortunately, there are not many places where I can rent boats at a fair price in my area. I do not know of any good lakes that I could fish from shore and catch big crappie in Raleigh or Cary NC.

If anyone knows of Lakes where I can fish from shore or rent boats at a fair price I would appreciate feed back?

I also would like to learn some fall crappie strategies that I can use now. My favorite fishing line is P-line Original,it is so strong. I just ordered a 1000yd spool of 4 and 6lb test. The diameter is small,line is very limp and cast a country mile. I have caught salmon on the 8lb and 10lb test back in Michigan.



I look forward to learning from the best and I'm sure many of you are


P.S...I fish to eat,but I am conservationist

[deathb4disco]

I would also like to know if anyone has ever fished Lake Wheeler in Cary NC.

Generally, if you ask about a particular lake, you will get a better response if you post your question to that state board. We have a very large and active NC board here.

There is loads of info at Crappie.com. Poke around in the different forums and read, read, read. :D

Welcome to the site.

[fishtoeat1]

Thank you, very much but where do I look to find the NC board?

Anakin

[fishtoeat1]

I apologize,I found North Carolina and posted my questions on that forum.

Thank you so much

Anakin