How to rig a drop shot with Kevin VanDam

I love the power fish I mean spinnerbaits crankbaits jerkbaits fast-moving stuff that's how I've made a living but I'll just tell you this that a drop shot rig has become a super important part of my arsenal you know once I've got fish located it's just a deadly deadly technique and everybody needs to have this one in their back hip pocket so if you don't know how to rig a drop shot I'm going to show you you know some of the things that I like to do with it first off you want to have a good drop shot hook this is a must add double wide drop shot hook it's got a super wide gap to it you know comes in a wide variety sizes because anyone use and a lot of different baits on my rig you know I may use you know a small soft plastic tube a small you know minnow type bait things like that so this extra wide gap it's better for these bigger bulkier baits when your drop shot catch a lot of big fish using oversized baits on this rig so all I'm going to do is tie a Palomar knot to it and it's very important that you start from the hook point side first when you start your tag end in that's going to make the hook stand out on the line so we start a Palomar knot this way run it through give yourself a lot of extra line run it back through and I'm using fluorocarbon line with my drop shot right here I can get that through there and seeing the lightning got it tie nice you know big loop to it the bigger the loop the bigger the tag in and that's going to control your leader length so got again a nice long loop here time I pay lavona very critical to wet the whole thing when you're pulling it down so now I've got this on my line and I've got you know 14 15 inches behind it I'm going to take this line right here and run it back through the same way from the eye and by doing that when I pull it tight it's going to make the hook stand out on the line see how the hook if you look real close right now hook stands straight out with the hook point up right on your line that's going to make your bait stand out to the side that really enhances a lot of the action very critical important part of your drop shot great then all I got to do is add my weight and I use two different types of weights you know I've got a little cylinder shape of XPS type drops out plate and I got a tungsten little round weight and the advantages of each are dependent on the type of bottom you're fishing you know if I've got hard rocky bottom real clean bottom I like this tungsten weight it sinks faster and it makes a lot of noise as its bouncing on the bottom the problem with it is if it's super thick rocks and things like that it will hang up a little more often if I'm fishing snaggy bottom or Grassi bottom it's longer thinner shaped weight right here gives me a lot better contact and it's just not going to hang up as much so if grass and things like that super rough rock this style weight the tungsten in any other clean bottom situation in all you do is you know just put it on your line and what I like to do instead of just using the clip to pinch it on is I'll tie a little square knot around it too that way we got a fish on it's not going to throw that throw that way so just tie little square knot pull it into it and that's there you have it take your your bait that you're going to fish with on it I've got my rig tight now the hook standing straight out got my way down there you're just the leader lengths by how far you want it off the bottom and you know most of the time when I'm fishing a drop shot rig I use a fairly short leader this is this is a long leader to me you know if I've seen a lot of fish suspended way off the bottom I will you know I may make it 3 feet long you know give that bait up a little higher most of the time I run it pretty close you know I use a lot of baits to attract big fish you know one of my favorites is this little four-inch caffeine chip and you just you know take this double-wide live bait hook and run it right through it when you rig a bait soft plastic especially a straight tail worm you know a minnow type bait like this very important to make sure that the hook point comes straight out the notes you started behind it and have it come straight out the nose of it it's going to keep it from twisting your line and it's going to swim much more naturally so instead of just hooking it right through the whole front end of the body and coming off the top of the bait like you know most people do again start that back in there and make it come right out it knows your bait if it's a plastic worm right out the dead center of the nose you'll see if you drop it in the water it's going to swim much more naturally and it's not going to spin and twist your line that is a very critical part of your drop shot rig this right here when you've got it down you down on the bottom does a great job of adding a lot of action because the weight is tight down here on the bottom when every time you shake it it really makes that bait move up there and that's the advantage of a drop shot you've got a ton of action you can keep it the strike zone for a long time the only thing you have to decide is what size weight to use I want to use a heavy enough weight just to do good bottom contact so if it's windy or fishing real deep water you may want to use a half ounce weight if you're fishing in shallow water and it's not very windy you might want to use an eighth ounce weight so use just enough weight to keep good contact with the bottom for the depth that you're fishing this is something you can catch you can fish vertically you can fish it fast you can fish it slow that doesn't really matter because that rig has got tension you know with that sinker behind it it just gets tons of action to your bait and that's what drives the best crazy

Channel: Kevin VanDam

Views: 381,604

Keywords: Kevin, VanDam, Bassmaster, Drop, Shot, Rig, Mustad, bass, fishing, elite, series

Id: jgUXfVPhKII

Length: 5min 52sec (352 seconds)

Published: Thu May 19 2011