What line should I use?

[Jason Daoust]

I use 3 setups currently all with straight flouro. 1st one is 6 pound for up to 20 FOW with very little weeds, 8 pound up to 30 feet with weeds , and 10 pound on a baitcasters for 15 feet + with a heavier weight to get down quick. On the 6 and 8 I use 1/4 and 3/8 weights . And all my flouro is sunline .

[toobinator]

I use the braid/fluoro setup. I tried straight fluoro a couple of years ago and seemed to be missing way more fish. I found the fluoro twisted up way more than the braid as well. I've noticed in the store that it's pretty much 50/50 braid vs fluoro when spooling up reels for people.

Ed

[DropShot’r]

My old D/S rod was a BPS Pro Finesse 6 1/2ft. M/L action rod.

That rod had various line combinations such as mono, too many fluorocarbon lines and braid mainline with a fluorocarbon leader. I settled on 10lb braid with a fluoro leader. I could fish a 5/8oz. D/S weight and Slammer in 30ft+ water and could drive a 1/0 Gammy Splitshot/dropshot hook through the jaws of a smallie or walleye.

Last year I did a D/S rod & reel up-grade to a custom wrapped DX742 and 3000 series Ci4. I decided to try the rod with 8lb fluoro. This Friday when I go to Paddletales to spool the Winch and re-spool the Ci4 I will be putting (hopefully) 10lb braid on the Ci4. I will be running a 7lb. fluoro leader with this set-up.

I just prefer the feel of a braid mainline over a fluoro mainline, but that's me not you.

I have experimented with fluoro leader material and fluoro line as leader material. Yes, the leader material is tougher and more abrasion resistant(stiffer) than fluoro line and does have its place in fishing applications, but not for dropshotting in my opinion. You can get a 100yd spool or two of various weights of line and have a cornucopia of leaders to cover the bases for the year.

I attach a small solid ring ball bearing swivel to my main line, then attach my leader to the swivel. I keep the line from the hook to the swivel short so I'm not reeling the swivel into my tip guide. If you prefer a longer leader just use your favorite knot such as the uni to uni knot to attach the lines.

THE most important thing in D/S fishing hooksets is to have the hook point in upwards position on your line. I have struggled over the years in tying hook up Palomar knots. Then in one of those rare moment of clarity it came to me, tie the Palomar knot first there Steve.....then attach the proper end to the main line. 100% hook point up 100% of the time.

Good luck in your choice,
Drop

[Jimmy_1]

Anyone have some 8lb flouro laying around?

How far up from the weight do you usually put the hook?

[BradGuenette]

Anyone have some 8lb flouro laying around?

How far up from the weight do you usually put the hook?

It really comes down to personal preference for most it's 12"+. If I'm fishing shallow I'll shorten my drop weight up to about 6-8", there is also days when fishing deep that I'll go 15-20". Best thing you can do is start at 12" and then figure out what works for you.

[Tip-up]

Another advantage of braid to flurocarbon is you can swap your leaders fast and go from say a 8lb to 6 or 5lb if need be in minutes. This season I've been using 6lb - 12lb leads for jigging trout and everything in between. I like the ''Sure set'' feeling you get with braid and the added sensitivity. Played with full fluro mainline before and it wasn't for me, maybe it was crap line. Another thing is there is no reason for monster hook sets using this technique. Drop-shot specific hooks now are so sharp out of the package and the thin diameter it takes nearly no pressure to embed them. Most of the time there pinned just turning on the bait or by picking up any slack and lifting the rod. I like to give it a little snap to make sure it in there but nothing heavy.

12'' is pretty much a standard distance from to hook to weight. You can play with the distance depending on how long the grass in the area is if any. Electronics work perfect for that. Best case would have your bait presented right over the top of it. Some spots I fish I'll literally drag a bait through the stuff and pick up a bunch of weeds to see what's exactly down there. Also experimented with a double drop-shot and had a number of break-offs with the addition of the added weak point. I don't think it helped to get any more bites either.

Can't think of the last time(If ever) I opened up a hook drop-shotting bass and man, I've caught some big fish doing it

[Jimmy_1]

I got the gamakatsu drop shot rigs....
Basically I tie a line from bottom of rig to weight.

Should I have flouro tied to the braid and then attach the flouro to top of the gama rig??

Thanks guys...very new to this.

[RJ]

I should qualify my statement I guess. I have to use fluro because I use a light wire hook. Braid will open it up every hookset.

RJ

I've herd you also set like a BOSS!!!! Not sure who told me that

I certainly don't set the hook hard while drop shotting, quite the opposite. A simple upward sweep does it every time, Owner DownShot hook sticks em good. My drag is always is quite loose too.

I start at 14 to 16 inches on the St. Lawrence. When it's around 12 inches the Gobies beat the snot outta my bait...

RJ

[Tip-up]

Lots of good hooks out but Owners are one of my favorites as well and is probably the hook I use most. I find myself staying away from those anti- line twist hooks. My brother likes them, I find them bulky and a pain to tie, especially when its cold out.

[lape0019]

That is great advice RJ. Those gobies are nuts.

I am trying some new hooks this year. They were designed by one of the Renegade anglers. Eric Clément is the person who designed them if I remember correctly and they were designed to ensure the hook always stays straight out from the line with the barb up.

[CNs]

Lots of good hooks out but Owners are one of my favorites as well and is probably the hook I use most. I find myself staying away from those anti- line twist hooks. My brother likes them, I find them bulky and a pain to tie, especially when its cold out.

Those spin shot hooks with the swivel built it. I stopped using them as I started to miss too many fish. As soon as I switched back to Gammy 1/0 and 2/0 (don't like the owner downshot hooks either, although I do use owners for almost everything else) stopped missing fish. The are also very fiddly to tie on.


I tried the spin shots to reduce line twist in the mono and flouro I was using for drop shotting. I switched to light (15lbs ) braid and a flouro leader - no more problems with line twist.

[CNs]

THE most important thing in D/S fishing hooksets is to have the hook point in upwards position on your line. I have struggled over the years in tying hook up Palomar knots. Then in one of those rare moment of clarity it came to me, tie the Palomar knot first there Steve.....then attach the proper end to the main line. 100% hook point up 100% of the time.


Drop

GENIUS! I bow to your wisdom o dropper one!

Why did I knot figure that out??????