Lanier - Dropping Deep!

Got out a few hours this afternoon to drop shot a little. After a few years, the original LJ's Obsession and LJ' Passion are back and catching them!

Concentrated on deep humps in bays and creeks...well, a few deep points too. Fish were down in the areas I fished...schooled up on the bottom...and dropping had them eating.

Ended up with 12 and lost an absolute toad on the Sweet Rosey color....just pulled off right at the boat. It's starting to get serious good folks. Hey - if you see this boat, come say hello. LJ

Answering some questions.......

*Weight is 3/8oz 95% of the time. I will drop down to a 1/4 when casting it - mainly on long points, docks under 20', and on steep banks.

*Tag end is important...I start with around a 15" tag....depending on how fish are reacting to bait once I get them to chase or if they're suspended. If chasing but turning away - I'll drop down to about an 8"-10" tag to get it closer to bottom. I just feel that it looks unnatural for a bait fish to stop up off the bottom when running for cover. I also think fish use the bottom like the surface. They'll trap fish on top....why not the bottom.

*Hook - 90% of the time, I use a rebarb 1/0 light or medium wire hook. The other 10%, I use a #4 VMC spinshot to nose hook or a VMC wide gap #4.

*Most times....I use straight flourocarbon 7# FC Sniper. I will drop down 5# if water is super clear like it is in winter at times. Now - I do use braid (10# Sunline SX1 or Sufix Performance - NOT the 832) at times if fish are deep and on the bottom. I use an Alberto knot with 7# Sniper. I use a long leader though...science tells us a fishes eyesight is 8x better than a humans underwater...so I feel they can see it. So - I'll leave the flouro on the spool and tie the knot outside the eyes down around the reel. Then reel up until the knot is between the reel and first rod eye. Then cut leader down around the bottom of the rod. This gives me about a 8'-10' leader.

*Rod - Okuma EVX spinning rod medium action....with the braid, I really like the Okuma Reflexion Medium Light. Great feel with both and don't be fooled by the price point - these are serious good rods for dropping or shakey head fishing. Do some research on them...great performance and quality materials

*Reel - Okuma RTX 30S or Pflueger President (PressP30X) - both have great drag systems and both have a good line twist system.

*Line Twist - the Okuma rods and reels (Pflueger too) work together to help with line twist. Two things to do....one is to make sure you always have a good straight worm and when you reel up to drop again - don't reel to fast. These two things will cause the worm to spin coming up. Second, use a #10 swivel...I use these for customers a lot of times....very small and with a 35# break strength. Rig them up the line about 2' above the hook.

and Last....Spybait fishing.....I use the same Okuma Reflexion Rod (med light) and 5# Sunline FC Sniper for the Duo Realis 80 or 80 G-Fix. For the Duo 90 series....I use a 7# Sniper. At times this past summer - I used the same braid with a the same size flouro above as a leader. Worked great but you have to loosen up the drag a little....and don't be fooled - that 5# Sniper and med light rod work great together to boat some big fish. Jim Farmer posted up a video during the summer of me catching some good spybait fish....those were 10# braid with 7# flouro - 90 series fish.

Hope this answers the questions - LJ

Those were some Toad spots we caught this summer while spybaiting. Great post LJ!!

Do you feel like the spybait bait dies off as the water cools? It certainly has for me lately.

what is the status with turnover? Done? Done on the south end?

Any info would help.

thanks,

Great info ,I for sure just learn somethings that I'm going to try on allatoona. Thanks Jl.

Lanier Jim said:

I'll drop down to about an 8"-10" tag to get it closer to bottom. I just feel that it looks unnatural for a bait fish to stop up off the bottom when running for cover. I also think fish use the bottom like the surface. They'll trap fish on top....why not the bottom. - LJ

Click to expand...

Where and when I fish the drop shot it's shallow so I'm casting out instead of dropping down. I usually use a fairly long tag because of the more horizontal presentation, but I think I'll tie one up really short for next time and see how it goes. You're definitely right about them using the bottom to pin down prey.

Lets see....yes and no on the spybait. If the sun is up with a little wind - spybait is still on fire at times. But it has slowed at times right now but I feel it's due to turnover.

Tag end - 61BelAir....When casting, I will use a longer tag end at times due to the angle.....that is a good point I left out. I do like a shorter tag end even when casting if I'm fishing one of our craws though.

Thanks Jim....yep, we did catch some toads on the spybait the last few months.