All over the nation we are seeing more and more fish pull off the banks and start to move to their summer haunts as they finish the spawn. There’s plenty of fish that stay shallow, or relatively shallow, but this is a super effective way for anyone to target those fish that have moved off! The drop shot is a super-effective way to get big bass in the boat, and is perfect for fishing offshore structure.

Video transcript:

Travis Manson:
Hello, it's Travis Manson. Today, we're fishing deep brush piles. I'm actually on a lake down in Florida, and we're going to be drop shotting, one of my favorite techniques. It's a very effective way to put some fish in a boat, and we're going to be talking about that.

Travis Manson:
There's a lot of different ways to rig a drop shot, and fish a drop shot effectively. All it is, is a bait with the weight, and the bait's actually above the weight, and so I'm able to fish this bait and have it suspend up off the bottom.

Travis Manson:
Now, there's a lot of benefits to fishing in the drop shot. One, I'm going to be able to fish it, and show those fish just a little bit different look. So, instead of actually having that bait on the bottom, I'm actually working that bait just above the structure and a lot of times I'll be able to decide where those fish are positioned. And, sometimes you may want that bait only four or five inches above the weight. In this situation here, we're probably a good 18 to 19 inches, but you really just want experiment on the length from the hook to the weight itself.

Travis Manson:
So, let me run down the exact setup that I'm using today. I do like a seven-foot medium, or even a medium-heavy rod, when you're fishing heavier cover. So, we're in Florida, these fish can get big, eight, 10-pound bass. You never know what you're going to catch. And, because we're fishing around a lot of brush, a lot of times, if you get a big fish, you want to be able to get them out of that cover quickly. So, I beefed it up a little bit with a heavier rod. I'm using 12-pound fluorocarbon line. I would go 10, 12, even as high as 14 in certain situations.

Travis Manson:
So, you notice I'm using the Finesse bait. There's a lot of great colors. Morning Dawn, being one of them, green pumpkin, June bug. You really just want to throw what you're comfortable with. I'm actually Texas rigging this bait, and that's going to allow me to fish these brush piles and really get deep into the brush pile. Not really worried about getting hung up, or losing my whole rig, or my whole setup. Because it's Texas Rig it's going to come through that brush a lot easier, because that hook is actually pushed back into the plastic, which is going to allow me to get that bait down into that structure.

Travis Manson:
So, looking for offshore structure, I rely a lot on my electronics, and right now I'm just side image. Basically I'm shooting out about 80 feet on both directions, and I'm really just looking for little bits and pieces of structure, scattered structure out here. That's where these fish are going to be keyed in on. I'm actually coming up off of a large drop-off onto a flat, but the flat's fairly deep. We're in about 22, 25 feet of water, and it's just sea time. It's putting sea time in, meaning idling and just spending the time to find that offshore structure. That's the key. Catching them is the easy part. It's finding where these fish are living. And then, once I do find a piece of structure, I'll just mark it, put a GPS way point on it, and I'll be able to circle back around and fish those.

Travis Manson:
Ultimately, I'm trying to find a handful of piles right now. I'm going to mark them and then we're going to go back over and fish them with that drop shot. All right. So, I found some brush and what I'm going to do is line it up here with the graph of, it's about 25, 30 feet out, so I'm going to make a nice little pitch to it. I can actually see the drop shot falling down and then once it hits the bottom here in 23 feet of water, I'm not really going to put a whole lot of movement on that bait. I'm just going to keep that line semi-tight so I can feel any type of bite. I might shake it and just lift it up just a little bit, reel up the slack and really just wait for that fish to bite my bait. I'm just working it in and around that structure.

Travis Manson:
Again, because it's Texas rig, I'm able to go right into that brush. I can definitely feel it. So, I don't put a whole lot of movement, and right there's a bite. Watch how I set the hook. I just reel into the fish and lift the rod up, and there he is.

Travis Manson:
So, I do have the 360 up that gives me a full 360. I can see all the structure around me, and then I'm really fine tuning it with this live scope, the forward-facing sonar. I'm actually able to see how these fish are relating to this structure. Once I see a fish like this one, that's out 30 feet, I kind of line myself up with the arrow. I make that little pitch, let that fade fall, and I let it get all the way down to the bottom. Not a lot of movement once I get down there. I just want to keep that line tight, little bit of shake. I'm just waiting for that bite.

Travis Manson:
All right. Drop shotting deep brush, extremely effective technique. Do yourself a favor, try this next time you're on the water. I promise you're going to catch more fish.