After watching fish after fish taken on drop-shot at the Tourney, I decided I have to give this technique a better try than I had in the past. I went out to my favorite lake after work yesterday and on the 4th cast I made, which was the 1st cast to this particular point which always has atleast one fish somewhere on it, I felt something different. I never felt a hit or saw the line move, but when I tightened up the line for the 3rd time to raise the 6" Grandpa's Weenie in bass color it just didn't feel the same as the previous few times. I pulled harder to see if it was just sliding through rocks and it moved,...away! I reared back as hard as I could with the flimsy 7'10" medium light rod that I had. For a few seconds nothing really happened. Then all #ell broke loose! The bass shot up from the depths and did a full cartwheel! Then it took about 10 yards of line and jumped again! Its been a while since I've caught a bass on line that wasn't close to twice the weight of the bass or more. I was using 6# line with 2# of drag and this fish had all the power it needed to make a mockery of the gear for a while. It greyhounded across the surface for about 5 yards next and them dove and rubbed across the bottom. One more Jump with a massive head shake and it was starting to tire out. I carefully worked it to hand and had a nice 5.75# bass for my first drop-shot fish. I transferred the fish onto my flippin stick and wedged it in a log so I could go get my camera and scale from the car and discovered that I had the scale but the camera was sitting on my desk at work. ;( After I got it weighed I released it and while it seemed to have a slight problem diving, it swam away strong and quickly disappeared into the depths. :7
Next I picked up the flippin stick with a Woodsac Delta Money Reeper on a 5/0 offset Gammie and a 3/8oz rattling Florida weight screwed in and punched it through some nearby brush. I pulled out the small tangle on my spool and gave it 1 hard twitch and was letting the bait fall back to the bottom when it just kept going. I set into another solid fish and it went straight up into the brush and over a few limbs. it came back down and went right back up getting stuck with its head hanging just out of the water. Then it really went nuts and after 30 seconds it fell off the hook, leaving my line and the brush looking like a kindergarten macrame gone wrong. The bass wasn't quite as big as the first one going probably 3.5-4# but it fought just as impressively in that confined space. Thanks to John Lake and Jake Woodsac for a great fight even if I didn't get the fish.
So, now I need to get a real drop-shot rod and work on that technique. Any suggestions for a rod in the under $70 range?
Tight lines,
Wade