Drop Shot Rigging in Fishing: Advanced Angling Techniques

Drop Shot Rigging in Fishing: Advanced Angling Techniques
Ron Colby, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits. One of the most questions I get a lot about, being out here on the west is being asked about drop shotting and how I rig a line, what do I use, how we hook the hooks up, the weights, etc. What I’m going to show you real quick is some quick stuff on drop shotting. Now, something new that’s been going on and it’s very sensitive is to do a braid into a flora carbon. Make sure it’s flora carbon leader. This will help keep your line twist out of your line on your spinning reel because one problem you have a lot with drop shotting is line twist, and if you use braid, you’re going to help eliminate a lot of that. You want to just use a general surgeon knot up here to put the 2 lines together. It’s a nice, good, strong know. Then you’re going to want to get yourself about 10 twelve foot of flora carbon leader. If you use you a long piece, then you’re going to be able to cut it off 3 or 4 times, 5-6 hundred times, whatever we need to do. Basically, all you’re going to really do is tie a hook on with a nice Palomar knot. The hooks I like to use is Gamakatsu. Gamakatsu makes an extra wide gap hook. Some of them have a little weed guard on here. If you’re fishing a lot of weeds, you can put the little weed guard back down on there and put your bait in right there. That’s what we’re going to use today. The trick with drop shotting is you always, always have got to start your line into the top of the hook. Always have to start it into the top. You pull it back through a Palomar knot. There’s good websites out there to show you how to tie a Palomar. A pretty simple knot. Over hand knot, just like you’re tying your shoe. Form a loop with the line, bring your bait or your hook back down through that loop, and synch it up tight. What you want to be doing is if you’re fishing deep, you’re seeing fish suspended on your graph or bait, you want to have this bait maybe a little bit higher so you want a longer tag in. Next thing we need to do is get the tag in. You’ve got to put it back through the top of the hook and pull it back down. Then you have one of these cool little drop shot weights that have a nice little swivel on them already. Put that line out through there, pull it down tight so it just snags on in there. Nice little drop shot weight. Put you weight on there, you’re holding that through the water, and the hook stays stands straight out away from the line.