Fish-Hawk.Net

Alright so if the moons line up I make a early morning run to St-Francis this thursday . I have fished there only once and had little success. I am hoping there will be some smallies swimming on the shallow flats that surround the south lancaster area .

If thats not the case I plan on doing a little drop shotting for them. Last time I had a hard time telling myself that I was presenting the bait properly . I didnt have trouble with bottom contact but was constantly dragging the tungsten wait as the current pulled us a long at over 1mph .

What is the proper way to fish these heavy currents? I have an anchor but hate using it while bass fishing. Should I nose into the current and use the TM to try and hold my ground or is it alright to drag bottom with it ?

Off the drop shot topic but when do the fish usualy move on to the flats ? I know where I normaly fish as the season gets later they get deeper all the way into the fall. But I thought I heard late fall is when these guys moved in shallow .

All I want is to get into some big smallies . If there shallow any techniques that you recomend?

You will need an electric motor so you can match the current speed as you drift. You will have to adjust the speed of the electric motor to match the current speed. This may take some practice but will allow you to make the verticle presentation. We use the same method in the Detroit River jig fishing for walleye.

Hey Seabass81, find them with the spinnerbait/jerkbait, then tossed them the drop shot/jig, don't worry you'll find them.

Hey Seabass81, throw them the spinnerbait/jerkbait and once they've showed themselves, then you can finish them off with the drop shot/jig. Don't worry you'll get them.

I'm not an expert on St Francis. However, I do fish smallmouth quite extensively on several other waterbodies.
I doubt you'll tie into many big smallies shallow unless you're night fishing. Esp with the heat this week - and certainly if it is bright & sunny, I'd recommend fishing deeper off the shoals. Start at 10' and work down until you find them. My $$ would be on 20'-30' mid-day.
Heavy Torpedo jigs w/ tubes would be my choice, with a dozen minnows as emergency backup.

FWIW

Seabass81, trust me, try 4 - 10 fow., you'll be surprised. My buddy won a tournament when the weather was hot, humid and sunny, and the water depth was 4-8 fow. Been practising for the B1, you can still get them pretty shallow.

One of the unfortunate problems faced with dropshotting is that most comercially produced weights top out at 1/2oz.

1/2oz is for the most part a boy doing a man's job in the St. Lawrence.

When I dropshot the St. Lawrence I usually start with a 5/8oz. D/S weight which is the heaviest I can pour from my Do-it D/S mold. I have some home made 3/4 & 1oz D/S weights that I use on the St. Lawrence. I prefer to fish vertical to keep the hang-ups to a minimum.

You need to control your boat's drift to match the speed of your D/S rig's drift in the current.


DS

i fish the niagara river all the time and most of the time, its hard to hold a bait verticle. we drag out dropshot rigs quite often, just as u would a tube and catch a lot of fish that way. thing to remember is, when ur dragging a dropshot rig, u need to extend ur lead. the more of an angle u have on ur line, the longer ur lead needs to be to keep it off the bottom and holding at the depth u want it too.

Lots of good Drop Shot'n info here... great stuff - thanks fellas.

Have you tried carolina rigging? You can match weight to current easier and don't need to remain vertical,it will produce huge fish with live bait or you can twitch tubes along a shoal or dropoff,or walk it out into deeper water.