Dropshot fishing

Targeting Bottom Fish on Dropshot

(by ESA)

Dropshot angling in saltwater has grown in leaps in bounds. By dropshot I mean the use of artificial soft plastic baits, flavoured or unflavoured, to target just about any species of saltwater fish one could possibly imagine. In order to successfully catch your target species, these artificial baits can be presented in many different ways.

The trace
When targeting bottom-dwelling species, one would often be fishing in deeper waters, usually ranging in depth from 12 metres to around 70 metres. Because of the drift and current, nine times out of ten it is impossible to get the jig head to the desired depth. In this case, we use a bottom-fishing style trace to present the artificial bait. This is a very basic, yet extremely effective, method
The bottom trace we use is made up of

• three-way swivel
• a hook snoot around 600mm in length
• and a longer sinker line of about 800mm, which is of much lighter breaking strain than your mainline. This helps if your sinker gets snagged on the bottom, as the light sinker line will part with more ease than any other part of your tackle, thus losing only the sinker and not the entire trace.

The bait
The hook size can vary depending on the size of the artificial bait you are using. Once again, the larger the bait, the bigger the hook and vice versa. Generally we use either 4/0 or 6/0 hooks. These cover just about all variations in bait sizes. The typical method of baiting up with the artificial bait is to push the hook into the plastic as though one were using a jig head, then thread the bait up the hook shank, making sure to leave the hook point as proud as possible. Another simple method is to hook the bait on through the top of the bait. Using this method, however, means that one will usually lose the bait when hooking into a fish.

Dropping the bait
Once you have got the trace and the bait in place, it’s time to drop it onto the reef. This is where one or two methods can ensure a successful day’s fishing. One can either drop the bait onto the bottom, leaving it static, as when employing normal bottom-fishing techniques. (This can be effective because of the irresistible flavour and smell that most of these baits have.) This does produce bites. However, giving the bait some movement usually ensures a quicker, more aggressive bite. A great way of doing this is to drop the bait onto the bottom, then give it two to three vertical lifts and then release it to drop back onto the bottom. This technique gives your bait a more realistic and lifelike appearance, often enticing the fish into a vicious strike. The secret to a successful hook-up is to allow the fish to engulf your artificial bait before setting the hook. The trick is to dip your rod slightly when you feel the fish enquiring and starting to eat your bait.

The tackle
Your tackle choice is also of great importance. We generally enjoy fishing as light as possible when on shallower reefs. Our tackle in this case varies between a 6-8lb Fireline loaded on a smaller spinning reel; something like the Daiwa Exceler 3000 or the Abu Garcia T Alloy 3500, matched with a 6’6-8” Berkley Tactix. Leaders would generally be 17-20lb fluorocarbon.
When on the deeper reefs, we step up slightly, using the BG30 reel loaded with 10-15lb Fireline, matched with a Berkley 12kg dropshot series rod. Leaders in this case are also stepped up slightly to 33lb Siglon fluorocarbon. When fishing on this light tackle, one often hooks up with a big, strong fish. With a little patience and care, even the larger fish can be landed on this tackle.

The species
We have found that most species and sizes of bottom fish will readily pounce on a dropshot bait. Soldiers, Romans, black musselcracker, Rockcod, snappers, slinger, rosy and green jobfish, emperors, Hottentots and geelbek are some of the species we have caught on dropshot. From time to time, while fishing over the reef, various different species of kingfish grab hold of your bait, particularly on the retrieve. Couta (king mackerel) have also been known to have a go at your bait as you wind it back, with the couta usually biting it off. Even trigger fish can sometimes be a nuisance, as they usually grab the minnow and bite chunks out of it with their incredibly sharp teeth. If you experience this often over a particular reef, here’s some advice: It’s usually best to move on to the next one. Rockcod are particularly fond of the dropshot method. Something to remember when catching Rockcod is that they are very territorial and seem to be resident on specific reefs. It is of utmost importance that one keeps this in mind when keeping fish. I’m not demanding that you let everything go. Just keep to the limits set by the Fisheries Act and release what you won’t eat.

Most popular on the menu
We have found various artificials baits work exceptionally well for particular species of fish.

Rockcod tend to enjoy the 5-inch Gulp squid in new penny, chartreuse and white colours.

Slinger and soldiers definitely show a preference for the 5-inch Gulp minnows in nuclear chicken and chartreuse.

Hottentots enjoy the camo worm baited in short sections of around 3cm on smaller hooks.

Geelbek seem to love the 5-inch Gulp minnow in a chartreuse glow colour. We often target geelbek in the dark, so that’s probably why the glowing, luminous minnow does the trick.