The Dropshot - Making It Simple

A friend, let's call him Joe, asked me how to dropshot. It was a couple years ago. He picked me up at the Springfield, Illinos airport. In his car on our way to his house, he asked me about dropshotting, something Joe had just began to try out.

I wrote this story about our conversation.

A capable team tournament angler, Joe has been known to supplement his income with checks earned in local team events. Joe recently moved to Illinois from Michigan. His former home state, Michigan, does not allow anglers to dropshot. Michigan has regulations to prevent snagging fish and those rules restricted placement of a weight below a hook as in a dropshot rig. So Joe had never dropshot.

Although no other states have restrictions on the dropshot rig, it is amazing how few anglers have ever tried it. Even in the West where dropshot got its start in the USA, there are numerous good Western sticks who have never tried it. Many are married to their power fishing and reaction baits. Truth is, finesse is something few of us like to do. Like cavemen with clubs, we'd rather haul off and whack 'em with big baits and heavy gear.

It's not only Neanderthal power anglers who haven't tried to dropshot yet. Even good Western fishing guides who earn their living splitshotting with clients, some of these veteran cowboys just haven't turned that splitshot rig around to yoke the sinker below the hook yet. It goes to show how set we anglers get in our ways.

In Joe's case, relocating to Illinois, starting over in a new home with a new job was going to keep Joe off the water for a spell. He was excited however, at the prospect of being able to dropshot now. An adept Internet surfer, Joe set out to absorb every aspect of how to dropshot. In spare moments, Joe printed out and pored over every article he could find in print and online.

That's when things started to snowball. All that instant access to unbridled expertise bogged poor Joe down in a crippling quagmire of terms and conditions and facts and figures and minutia on how to properly dropshot. The book-learning confused and befuddled Joe. It paralyzed and robbed him of all confidence. Joe didn't dare try to dropshot on his own. It sounded far too complex and unlike any fishing that Joe had ever done before.

That's when he turned to me a bit sheepishly to ask, "How do you dropshot?"

"Joe, I don't dropshot any differently than I Texas, Carolina or Mojo rig. It's just a light line version of those techniques," said I.

This furrowed Joe's brow. He doubted me. Storm clouds of crinkled forehead darkened over his face. Joe couldn't fathom it was that simple. He had become influenced by too many expert articles.

"But how do you determine how high to tie the hook above the sinker?" posed Joe as if dropshot success or failure hung on that critical length, as all the articles had informed Joe.

Knowing he wanted a complicated answer, I refused him one. "I always use about twenty inches between hook and weight. It would be rare for me to use another length," was my callous response to Joe's unreasonable desire for complexity.

Not totally ready to accept such an easy answer, at the same time I could see that part of Joe was beginning to understand.

"Well, how do you shake it? Everything I read places importance on precisely how to shake a dropshot properly," said Joe to which I replied laughingly, "You know, Joe, I never understood why they always write that. I rarely shake a dropshot. I fish it the same as a Texas or Carolina rig, except with light line. Sometimes that means shaking. Other times a lift and drop. Often I just deadstick it. I don't do anything special or different with a dropshot."

Joe nodded understandably. He was on board now, but one last question lingered for which he needed to hear the answer. I waited for what both of us knew he would inevitably ask, "How about the best places to dropshot?"

"Find the restaurants," I encouraged Joe. "Find the underwater equivalent to a restaurant where crowds of gamefish go at meal time because there is plenty of good food available there. Then it doesn't matter whether you throw a dropshot or any other of the seven rods on your boat deck. As in any good restaurant, the hungry are going to sample a wide assortment of whatever offerings are presented well. Just find the restaurants at serving time, Joe. That's where to dropshot."

Joe smiled and nodded his head decisively in a way that meant he had no more questions. All Joe's confusion and concerns were gone.

"I guess they just write all that stuff in the articles to make them sound interesting," summarized Joe in a relaxed, matter-of-fact tone of voice. He spoke like the tough stick I had always known him to be.

I glanced at him and could see that Joe knew how to dropshot now. He always did.

This story has been about dropshot, but it's not. Making it simple is what it's all about.