lost bass dropshotting…

tough year dropshotting for me. lost a good first place this weekend, (got 3rd and lunker though). I ended up with 200$ less on the way home!! all year long smallmouth getting off my drop shot deal. cost me a few points in the standings of my club too. my set up is the same as years past. 6-10 Daiwa TDX drop shot rod, 5 or 6# sunline flouro, size 1 gammy hook. Some sort of roboworm…
just a crazy year. next year I’m setting up a Berkeley amp rod, some sort of braid leader deal, and maybe some sort of baitholder hook for a change.
I feel better now…

When were you losing the fish? on the hook up or on the reeling in? How do you set the hook and reel the fish in?

I have gone to a braid main line, attach a swivel and then tie a fluro leader to hook weight and that has seem to work well.

What si the difference between this new setup vs your old one?

Thanks,

Some get off after a little bit, others near the boat… others jump off… crazy… doing everything the same as I’ve done for years… not really setting the hook, more a surge and reel deal… FYI… fish I’m losing are bigger… gonna have to beef up…

I fish a bigger hook up too 3/0 for largemouths verses 1/0 or#1 when fishing smallmouths the bigger fish have a bigger mouth bone to get around when hooking up,I hope this helps
Stan

ice,

I’d say maybe you are getting the hook point into the fish on the set, but maybe not the barb. If you are losing too many fish, try setting harder and keep the pressure on.

Good Luck,

Jack

thanks Jack.. I’ve been going very light the last few years… hook, line, rod… gonna beef it up next year…
Also the fact I’m losing bigger bass… probably why they are bigger… Gonna take a Bob Izumi approach next year… big tackle for big fish…

Ice,
Not sure what you think “very light” would be. But I’ve used the same rod, and 8# mono to land 7 different Smallmouth 20 inches and over this year, including 2- 21’s and an unbelieveable 22 incher. I do a solid hook set, and keep the pressure on, I also do not use my drag, after the hookset, I turn the anti-reverse off and back reel when I need to give line. I’ve had a few friends in my club who use much heavier line, and still get broken off when big Smallies over pressure their drag settings.
Good Luck,
Jack

I’m using 5 and 6# sunline floro… lightwire small gammy hooks. pretty lightweight rod. I back reel also. most fish just coming unhooked or jumping off. no line breakage. I got a spool of 8 for next year. My big problem was tourneys on the St Lawrence river. since it takes a limit of 4’s just to get some money back, I’m gonna beef things up some. maybe even a 8 or 10# baitcasting dropshot set up. Thanks for the input!
FYI… the big smallmouth fell off easy, but the 35″ northerns stayed on for 10 minutes, enough time to mess up everything!

some thoughts….
Allow me to assume
1. That your lost fish are because the hook disconnects from the fishes mouth.
2. With your current setup sometimes you indeed land fish.

That demonstrates your setup can hook and land fish…so how do you increase your odds. I’d focus on your hook.
Is your hook the gamakatso finesse hook? IF so immediately change hooks…That one is a pos!!! If you don’t throw them away at least use a pliers to open the gap.
Is your hook smaller than a 1/0. If so consider that there is not much gap for your hook to accomodate the fish’s mouth. Let me explain…Many of your hooksets will only be crappy skin hook ones where the hook point never sees the light of day and just hooks the inner skin of the fishes mouth. If you see this on fish you land…I’d propose your hook is lame!
What size fish are you catching? Take note how wide the upper lip of your bass are. Is your hook gap wide enough to penetrate behind the lip of the bass you catch on average???. IF not you will just drill the point into the bony lip of the bass and it will fall out asap when the fish shakes its head or jumps. With wimpy rod and reel and line you can’t penetrate through bone = lost fish-I don’t care how sharp your hook is.
In my opinion a straight shank works good for casting applications, and an ewg when you fish under your boat. Try the roboworm rebarb or something like that 1/0 – 5/0 hook.

IF you are one of those ultra finesse guys and really believe light lines and tiny hooks are required for you to have success, may I suggest you try using circle hooks???? Don’t set the hook any more just reel reel reel. I say this because circle hooks will find their way to the corner of a fishes mouth every time, and the corner has no bony lips to penetrate, yet the corner of the mouth has real tuff tissue that won’t allow the hook to tear out during the fight. Thats why we use them for tuna. Just my thoughts and how we do things out west. We dshot for 1 – 10lb fish.
I personally will avoid catching (50) 2 lbers to land one 10 lber. So when you lose a toad with your wimpy set up realize maybe you caught more 1 lbers than me and be happy. Otherwise adjust your gear to accomdate a larger fish, and don’t complain about losing the big one. You can’t have it both ways my friend.

new hooks on the way! Gonna be ready for big fish next year in tourneys.

Iceman,
On an earlier post you mentioned maybe going to a casting rod for dropshotting, I’d say stay with the open face on dropshotting. Easier to use, you can still use the lighter lines 8 or 10 with the presentation, and you can flip a switch and turn off your drag and use backreeling when you need to give line. I never use drag when landing a big fish. My drag is set for the hookset, then I immediately turn it off and backreel when I need to to give line. I’ve caught and landed 7 Smallmouth over 20 inches up to 22 inches on 8 pound test mono this year. I”m already getting excited about next year.
Good Luck
Jack

Flawless performance from my XS69MLXF and Powell 732 DS rods, using Gammy DS 1/0 hooks, 6# 832 Ghost Braid, and an 8# Invizx leader. No lost fish and 90% hooked in the upper lip.
I am going to try these spin shot VMCs also this season

I like those spin shot hooks, nice shape to them. I got a few different set ups ready for next year. Beefing things up some. thanks for all the advice!