Rigging and Fishing The Dropshot Rig

Rigging and fishing the deadly dropshot rig is surprisingly easy once you learn how. A few years ago, Gary Klein learned it in just a few hours and caught bass that had escaped him the previous day in a tournament. Now the dropshot rig is in the arsenal of Klein and many other pros.

To help you put it in your bag of tricks, we enlisted the help of Zipper pro Ish Monroe, who like many West Coast anglers uses the dropshot rig all over the BASSMASTER Tour.

The Rig

Naturally, Monroe starts with the Zipper Dropshot Shaker worm, also known as "the Dropshotter" and the Dropshot worm.

"It's a skinny paddle-tail worm," he says. "I like it because the colors are awesome (his favorites are shad, watermelon and Aaron's Magic), the tail has a lot of vibration to it, and the ribs on the side give off extra vibration and push more water. There's also the garlic scent in it. It appeals to all the senses of the fish: sight, sound, feel and scent."

He rigs it with a No. 2 Gamakatsu split-shot hook. "The hook almost looks like a circle hook for steelhead or trout fishing," Monroe says. He nose-hooks the bait, leaving the hook point exposed.

The final piece of hardware is a 1/4-ounce Mojo Drop Shot weight. "It's like a splitshot, but it's long and skinny so it comes through brush and other cover more easily," Monroe explains. "Unlike some other weights, it also won't come off when you cast." That's by virtue of a clip that actually gets pulled inside the weight during the rigging process.

To put all of this together, Monroe first makes a long loop in his line. He likes 6-pound Silver Thread AN-40 in green "because it disappears better in water.

"Grab the hook first," he says. "Make sure the hook is pointing upwards -- tie a Palomar knot so it still faces upwards." That's done with the loop, and Monroe recommends tying the knot 12-14 inches up from the tag end of the line.

"Then slide the tag end of the line through the Mojo clip, pull the clip inside the weight, bend it and snip the tabs off the clip," he says.

For casting the dropshot rig he likes a 7 foot 6 inch Lamiglas Titanium spinning rod and Team Daiwa TDS reel.

When To Use It

"The dropshot works all-year long under just about any conditions," Monroe says. "You can use it for sight fishing, suspended fish, fishing in the fall -- you can do a lot of different things with it.

"I've pitched a dropshot in a foot of water for bedded fish and used it in 70- 100 feet of water for suspended bass. When fish don't want to eat a reaction bait, you throw it. And when bass are following bait, like in the fall, it's awesome."

Monroe says he uses a dropshot rig 20-30 percent of time he fishes in spring, 40-60 percent in summer, 70 percent in fall and 60-70 percent in winter. That's particularly good testimony about the effectiveness of the dropshot since Monroe is a power fisherman: he prefers to flip and pitch. "I have to use the dropshot because at times nothing can compare to it," he notes.

Though the dropshot rig originated in clear western lakes, Monroe says the water doesn't have to be clear to use it. "I've used it on lakes like Wheeler and Toho," he says. (He used 8-pound line at Wheeler and 12-pound line at Toho "because the fish were on beds and line size didn't matter.")

Likewise, water temperature typically isn't a factor, but wind can be. "The most effective way to fish a dropshot is vertically," Monroe says. "If the wind is blowing too hard, you can't fish it effectively and you can't fish it with confidence. The wind blows the line around and moves the boat up and down."

Next week: How to fish the dropshot rig.

- End of part 1 (of 2) -