Drop Shot w/Live Bait?

[CEMcGee]

I've been trying out the drop shot method the last week and was curious if anyone has tried this with nightcrawlers or other live bait instead of soft plastics and what kind of results you've had. Usually using nightcrawlers it's just a bobber and a foot or two under the water, wonder if the big boys would be more prone to bite if you got that worm down deep closer to them. Just a random idea that I think I'm gonna try tomarrow
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[BigBassaholic]

I was at Jordanelle last friday with wife and yes this works great also for bass but only problem is you will have alot of small perch, bass and whatever is in the water sucking the worms off your hook... I think I only hooked 1 or 2 bass and lost many..... They pull the worm off in pieces..... good luck
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[tubeN2]

Baby Bass love that technique and will steal you blind. It scares the heck out of Blue Gills though.

The bigger Bass would prefer to see it on the bottom of the lake or otherwise catch it on the drop.[cool]
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[CEMcGee]

How about a minnow instead of the worms? Baby bass still gonna rip it apart? I have had no success with the soft plastic drop shots these last 2 weeks. I can leave it down there and just jiggle away like I chugged a gallon of coffee all day and no matter where I throw I'm not getting bites. Trying to get creative to finally get some action on the other end of my line.

I typically spend 3-4 hours every day at one of the several local lakes and not finding a working strategy. Spinners, senkos, drop-shot, cranks, nothing. Minnows is the only thing I haven't tried this year but the guy I usually go with has been and his luck hasn't been any better. My favorite lake is listed at 85 acres and is stocked with over 9000 total fish each fall with cats, walleye, bass, pike, and muskies. There were 4 of us out there today from 6pm until about 9:30 and none of us got a single bite. We all spread out and try different lures through the day but they just seem to be lethargic right now. There was a +/- 14" LM about 15 feet out from me a few days ago and it just let my spinner run into it and it slowly swam away. Any advice is appreciated
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[gdn443]

Try dead sticking when you dropshot. It's the only way I get any fish with that system. It is the dogdays of summer, so bites will be hard to get. Work topwater first thing in the am and pull a frog over pads after that. Doesn't work head for deep water or a dropoff. Still nothing, crack a beer.
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[CEMcGee]

[indent]By dead-sticking you mean just throw it out there and don't twitch it? For the drop shots I have pumpkin and black 4" senkos, and 6" brown w/yellow tip swimming roboworms and purple w/yellow tip regular roboworms. I'll give it a shot, thanks for the tips, I know I keep asking a lot of questions.
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[tubeN2]

You could try live minnows but then again it would make them look un-natural.

My favorite to use on live bait is to tie a dropper loop but use a perfection loop knot so that the minnow can swim around more naturally.

The drop shot was intended to make a plastic minnow look like a real minnow in a suspended state.

Sometimes the Bass prefer little or no motion at all. You can throw a weightless worm out and just let it fall to the bottom of the lake.

Let it sit there motionless for up to a minute. Give it a slight twitch, wait for another minute, twitch again.

This will usually get the most curiosity from the Bass and sometimes piss them off which forces them to strike.

When using the spinners or other crank baits, you will need to try all different kinds of speed as you pass it by them. In warm water, you want to go faster, cold water slower. Certain times you will need to crawl it, others you will rip it.

Try all different speeds in between crawl and burning fast. Water clarity will play the next factor as well on color.

Stained water......darker colors
Clear water..........lighter colors

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[Ex-Cheesehead]

I went out last two weekends (only time I can get someone to pull my boat!), first East Canyon then Rockport, in search of Smallies. I had set up a new rig for drop shotting, and tried everything, especially the Gulp plastic minnows. Nothing.
The clear choice of the Smallies was 4" Senko wacky rigged, in light green watermelon on top, cream on the bottom. When I would hook one with a Senko, I would switch to the drop shot. Again nothing. Each time I went back to the waky rigged Senko, I eventually hooked up. Sizes ran from 8" to about 12". No trophies, but lots of fun. Others in the boat tried all kinds of lures and artificals - Final score: Senko 14, all others 0.

They were in 20' or shallower, and at Rockport, only had luck in the weedbeds on east side of inlet side.
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[LittleLuey]

I dropshoo with nightcrawlers, I use a small live bait hook and just put the crawler in the hook all the way to the knot, I gotten panfish doing that.
When I use plastic worms I always use Roboworms in Aaron's magic color, they work in my area, I have tried other worms but no luck.
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[gdn443]

These last two weeks I've had luck drop shotting over structure. Actually caught more this way then crawl or senco type. This is the first year I've had success at it due to letting the bait just sit there. Assualt and Yamamoto 4" kut tail in cinamen have worked for me lately. Just another tool to use in your arsonal. Sure is a lazy mans way to fish.[]
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[AshAid]

I've had success with some mid-size Bass using the drop shot techinque with some huge Nightcrawlers, but I actually wacky rigged it as well.......and used a 10sec rule......(bob once or twice, then delay 10sec, then repeat process) but this was in roughly 10-12ft of water...not deep
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