Today's technique video comes from Travis with @SmallmouthCrush. Travis shares with us how he covers water with a drop shot for MONSTER BASS. This technique, known as power finesse drop shotting, keeps you mobile and allows you to find aggressive fish and a number of different conditions.

Try it the next time you go out! To get yourself a box before they sell out, CLICK HERE and use code SAVE10, to get $10 off!

Click here to subscribe to our channel for Pro tips and Bait breakdowns on a monthly basis.

#MONSTERBASS #thebetterbox #smallmouthcrush #powerfinesse #dropshot

Video Transcript:

Travis Manson:
Yo, Hey guys, Smallmouth Crush. On behalf of MONSTERBASS, I want to make a quick video about a technique I use quite a bit that maybe you're not familiar with or something you can incorporate in your fishing moving forward, but it's really effective. It's a way for me to cover a lot of water, but still fish very finesse-y, if you will. So we're going to call it finesse power drop shotting. Intriguing. It's all coming up.

Travis Manson:
So power finesse drop shotting is a technique I've been using for years, and there's a lot of different ways to cover water effectively. You can throw a lot of reaction baits, crank baits, spinner baits, chatter baits, baits like that jerk baits even. But I found that a lot of times, especially in the waters that I fish. And this technique really excels if you have somewhat clear water, because these fish need to see your bait falling in the water column, they need to be able to see that bait from far away. So you got to have pretty good visibility. In fact, I prefer to be able to see the bottom, at least be able to make out the bottom, what's on the bottom, whether it be some rocks, sand spots, things like that, in order for this technique to work.

Travis Manson:
And it's effective both on large mouth and small mouth. In this video, we're going to head on the lake where I'm fishing, and I'm going to show you how I use it for small mouth. And it is pretty clear water, so that's really important because they need to see that bait. Because what I'm actually doing is I'm taking the drop shot. And for you guys that don't know, drop shot is just basically has a weight and a hook above the weight that presents that bait in the water column. And so I have a drop shot in my hand, and I'm basically making long cast with it, letting the bait fall. So I want to be in like 12 feet of water or less.

Travis Manson:
So picture a flat or any area where these fish might get up on and you want to cover water, open water most of the time is where I'm using this. Not a lot of grass, but there can be. And I'm just making long casts, letting that bait fall. I'm giving a couple shakes, shake that bait in place just a little bit. And then I'm either going to reel up, make another cast in a different direction and just fan cast, or keep the boat moving or however you're fishing. And then just continue making those casts. I want that bait to drop and I want any fish that's in that 12 to 15 to 20 feet away from that area where that bait fell, to see that bait fall and go over there and investigate it. And ultimately, obviously bite it, is the end goal.

Travis Manson:
And so we just have to keep throwing it, but we have to fish it fast, but we will want to drop it, shake it, give that fish enough time if he's in the area to make up his mind. Or I'll make a really long cast, drop it, shake it a few times. And then real it real quick, maybe five, 10 feet back towards you and then drop it again and continue. I might do that once or twice before I just reel up and fling out another cast, if you will.

Travis Manson:
So here I am on a pretty massive shallow flat, and I'm constantly looking while casting. So I threw that drop shot way out there, nothing. Now I'm going to make another random pitch. This time there's a fish around it and he hits me. Guess what? I lose him, he's a monster. Check it out, he comes out of the water, actually. Man, I wish I could have caught him.

Travis Manson:
So for me personally, I'm a little bit taller. I prefer a longer rod, so I'm using at least a seven foot spinning rod. And I have braid to a fluorocarbon leader. And then like eight pound fluorocarbon leader, you don't want to have a braid on your drop shot. You want to be able to have just a fluorocarbon leader so they don't get line shy and it's a little bit more manageable. And then I'll just throw in the variety of plastics. In this video, I was using a Senko, so really a three, four, five inch Senko, depending on what you have confidence in. And I'll wacky rig that oftentimes, of course you can nose hook it and fish it different ways. But I really like some type of stick bait when I'm making those long casts and just kind of searching for fish with a drop shot.

Travis Manson:
Another good bait, I'm a big fan of Z-Man. The finesse worms is a really good bait to nose hook and just make fan cast. I mean, you can literally use anything, any type of plastic that you have confidence in, any type of worm. So here's a Zoom finesse worm, that's going to work good. Zoom centipedes, another great choice for me. So I'll have a variety of different plastics that I'll throw and colors really based on the lakes that you fish. I like natural colors oftentimes in clear water. But you can get crazy, too. There's nothing wrong with throwing ... I don't know if I got anything close by here. But, I mean, heck we can take a Morning Dawn kind of a pink bait as well, that'll work too.

Travis Manson:
So this is the drop shot, so it's just a small weight. Oftentimes for this technique, I'm only going to use about a quarter ounce weight. I have a size one drop shot hook, and that's basically just tied above the weight. And so the length from the hook to the weight in this instance is about a foot and a half, maybe a foot and three quarters. Because when that bait falls and I let slack line in it, I really want to let that bait just kind of shimmer down.

Travis Manson:
All right, so let's head down on the water. I'll show you how I use this technique and see if we can get a couple of fish.

Travis Manson:
So know this right here, I made a cast, nothing. I reel up and just make another random cast in the direction that the boats head. And when that bait falls, you can see I'm still looking though because sometimes I can actually see some fish swimming around. I might be looking for my next target to pitch to. And so that bait I threw and I'm just kind of shaking it, just a little bit. And there was a fish right there, he's going to come over there and grab it. Simple as that.

Travis Manson:
And so it also works really good to cover water when you have a lot of wind. A lot of times it's hard to fish a finesse bait, but with this finesse power drop shot or power finesse drop shot, whatever you want to call it. Just bomb and cast out, and hoping that there's a fish around that's going to see that bait fall. And so I work it for a couple feet. And then again, I'll either reel it in 10, 15 feet or I'll just reel it back and just make another pitch. I actually had to mute because a lot of wind noise here in the microphone. But it was blowing this afternoon out here. But it was the perfect conditions to just randomly try to grab some aggressive fish on the drop shot. I'm not sitting in one spot, I'm just moving along, making cast, continuously covering water.

Travis Manson:
And when I am using this technique, I'm looking for different types of structure on the bottom. So any type of rock cluster, sand spot, grass patch, those are areas where I'm going to be chucking that drop shot, checking to see if there's any fish in that area. And I'll keep moving, I can cover a lot of water with this technique. Where a lot of people that throw a drop shot think you've got to sit there, make a long cast, really work the bait, slow, take forever to bring it back to the boat. And yes, there is a time and a place for that technique. But here, when we're just moving along, that's the best way to go. So a lot of times you can catch some really good fish doing this.

Travis Manson:
All right, that's going to wrap up this video. Don't forget to subscribe to the MONSTERBASS YouTube channel. Also check out my YouTube channel, Smallmouth Crush. We got a lot of videos, we're doing a lot of live, we got a lot of stuff going on. Tournament videos, teaching you all about big old bass and lot of times, big, small mouth. So as always until next time, we'll see you guys on the water.