(Editor's note: Industry rep Alan McGucking submitted this short feature from this week's Bassmaster Classic Bracket event.)
During the unique 8-man Bassmaster Classic Bracket tournament on New York’s Niagara River, Jacob Powroznik showcased the importance of going big with your dropshot weights when conditions call for it - like when hunkered down behind a bridge pier in 25 feet of water with the current raging past, not far from plunging over Niagara Falls.
“I realize that normally we think of small 1/8- and 3/16-ounce weights for dropshotting – it’s a finesse technique – but this river current is so extreme that I had to go big with my weight in order to keep the lure near the bottom,” he explained. "I was actually using a 1/2-ounce weight. And heck, that’s no big deal, really. Elite Tungsten just came out with a 1-ounce drop shot weight.
“Whatever the conditions, the bottom line is, if you’re not keeping your bait near the bottom, you’re probably not going to get a bite when dropshotting."
Highly accomplished New York B.A.S.S. Nation angler Brad Brodnicki is quick to support Powroznik’s claims that sometimes super-sizing a dropshot weight is simply a necessity.
“When you’re on Lake Erie riding 4- or 5-foot waves over 30 feet of water, and those smallies are near the bottom eating gobies, the only way to keep a bait in their face and maintain contact with your lure is with a 3/4- or 1-ounce dropshot weight,” said the highly likeable school teacher and successful big-water bass angler.
What about “power-shotting?”
“You wanna talk about big drop shot weights? Heck, they use a big 1/2- or 3/4-ounce weight and 20-pound line on a dropshot rig with baitcasting equipment all the time to pitch around tules and other heavy cover in the California Delta,” said Powroznik. “They call it ‘power-shotting’ – and trust me, it works.
“That’s the cool thing about bass fishing – just when we think we’ve got a standard way of doing things, somebody adds a little innovation or experimentation and proves there’s a better or different way, and using a big weight instead of a tiny weight on a dropshot rig is a great example of that.”
Powroznik’s typical dropshot rod, reel, and line: “Day in and day out, I use a 6-foot-10 medium-light spinning rod, with a 6-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon leader tied to 10-pound Hi -eas braid on a super-fast Quantum Speed Freak reel,” he said. “I love that reel because it picks up 33 inches of line with every turn of the handle, and when you’re dealing with crazy smallmouth, you better pick up all the line you can in a hurry when you hook one in deep water.”
