Quick Fire Dropshotting Tips

Video by Fox Rage Fox Raid sponsored angler Albert Pretorius offers some advice on the best dropshotting techniques. He looks at the rigging, hooks and lures that can help you catch more fish Full Text Transcription

Tip #1 -Rigging

Hi there guys I’m Albert Pretorius, Fox raid sponsored angler and what I thought I’d do today is give you a quick tip on how to rig up a drop shot rig. What I’ll be using is a drop ‘n’ jig fluorocarbon from Fox rage. You need about three and a half to four feet so get the length you need and then the hooks. I’ll be using are the dropshot hooks. The knot that will be using it’s going be a Palomar knot. So what I’ll do is I’ll rig it through the hook first and then make sure that you’re roughly in the middle of where you need to be and we’ll loop it through again into the back end of the hook eye. Okay, so now you’ve got the loop what you want to do is you want to do an overhand knot with a loop so push it through and once you’ve done the overhand loop you’re left with another loop. The hook needs to go through that a loop over the eye and this is where you need to be careful. Just work it down evenly, itis all about a delicate presentation. There you go and also what you need to make sure of is that the line doesn’t form a little knot over the eye of the hook. So once you’ve tighten the knot you just want to lift your rig up just to see which way you hook this pointing. It should be pointing upwards because that’ll then give you a top and a bottom end of the line. Now once you’ve got the bottom of the line another great little tip to ensure that hook kicks up nice and tidy is to thread the bottom end of the line up through the top of the hook. Then by putting that straight down it will help that hook to kick up nice and tidy

Tip #1 – the hook

We’ve already had a look at the perfect way to rig up a rig for dropshotting now we’re going to have a look at the hooks. Specifically, we’ll be looking at dropshot hooks from Fox rage. You might think any hook will do but that’s not the case. Now these hooks are specifically designed for dropshotting and they include features such as an out turned eye which kicks the hook away from the line, which gives you better lure presentation. It also includes a non-reflective coating which ensure the fish will see the lure rather than the hook. They’re also super strong and super sharp with that sharpness coming from the armour point technology from Fox. With any lure technique sharp hooks are key and these hooks will get brilliant penetration even in the boniest of mouths. The other feature of this hook is the wide gate that will help you to hook up the lure body and leave enough hook point out to help with those hook ups. Okay, let’s talk about the way you would hook your lures. With this being a large hook I can use it to hook it up like a jig head or little jig or depending on the size of the lure, if you use smaller lures you can just lip hook it. This is also very effective and it does show a lot of the hook and it’ll help with your hook up rate. Which hooking style you choose to use will depend on the size of the lures and the presentation that you want on the water.

Tip #3 – Lures

So we’ve already had a quick look at some of the things you need for dropshotting like how to rig it and what hooks to use. What we going to do now is to have a look at what the lures you can use. Some people may say that when there are dropshotting they use split tail and pintails only. However, that might be the case for them when I’m out I like to try a different variety of lures to get the presentation I need on the day. Obviously the pin tail is a must for any dropshotter’s tackle box and this is my go-to lure when you just need something really slow in the midst of winter when the fish aren’t that active.The pin tail doesn’t have an inherent action when it’s a straight retrieve but just with a little tap on the blank or on your rod that will give that lure a lot of movement and that’s what you need. Everybody knows the paddle tail and on a steady retrieve that tail gives it a lot of action and vibration. It’s also a great choice on dropshotting when the fish are chasing. It just means that you have to give it a slightly faster retrieve to get that paddle tail moving. The curly tail like the paddle tail has a lot of movement and vibration on the retrieve and it needs slightly less speed to make it work. So again you need some speed in the retrieve to get that tail working. One of the things you can do to get a lot more movement in the tail is to use a tungsten bead from Fox rage and that’ll help the lure drop through the water layers quicker and create that movement on the tail. Another great choice is the recently launched dropshot fly from Fox rage and this is unlike anything else you’ve used before. You get a lot of action on this lure either on a slow retrieve or as fast retrieve. My advice is to give it a go. For more predator action view our other predator fishing videos.