To clarify a sketch of the system. Dropshot
Hurrah, there is a new technique available. It came from the U.S.A., but originates from Japan as far as I know. It is a great way to fish in troublesome water, where there are lot of obstacles or where your lure easily can get stuck at the bottom. That is because your hook comes nowhere near the bottom. The hook is attached to the main line and a small turnbuckle –lead hanging on approximately 2 ft below. When you tap with the lead on the bottom, your shad gently follows the movement and drives the walleye crazy. You can really feel the fish bite quite hard, because your lure ia=s way above the bottom. Even though you think you missed and lost everything, because you don’t feel anything anymore, turn up some loose line to get contact again with the fish.
It is very important to have a loose line. When your lead touches the bottom you need to lower the tip of your rod a few inches, so the dropshot sinks slowly. This way you give the walleye the chance to suck up the bait without a tight line bothering it. No loose line and you will miss far more often.
I use a worm -hook with a bend handle and tie it to the underline off 35/oo fluocarbon with a palomar knot . I strengthen the knot with a touch of glue, because it is a feeble knot. Don’t forget to pull the line a second time trough the eye of the hook from top to bottom. It makes the shad topple a lot better. It also works with Dyneema instead of Fluocarbon, but you still need to use a touch of glue for the effect.
Personally I use a normal shad, like AA, FT or Assassin instead of a turnbuckle – lead. It gives me two chances to catch . This way we catch about 60 % with the lower bait and 40 % on the top lure. Sometimes we catch 80 % on the top and 20 % on the lower lure. So far I always caught some.
We tried several types of bait and find the wildeye ripping minnow of Storm lures the best. The small Bass Assessin turbo walleye is also very good on the dropshot. Further more we used the smaller sizes of Finn S en Salty Shaker of 4 en 3 inch.
We make the same movement: move the top of the rod few inches up and down or diagonal. It makes no difference which movement as long as you vary, because you never know what lies there, so: pull up a bit, hold for a sec and lower again onto the bottom, vary and repeat.
In the mean time a lot of commerce has come into existence in dropshot material, including special rods. There is no need what so ever to buy a special rod, just use your spinrod or baitcaster with a turnbuckle –lead or the way I described above. To bad the ripping minnow isn’t for sale anymore, but there is enough small stuff available.
To clarify a sketch of the system.
Have fun
Translated by Tonny Fijenenberg