Ultimate guide to drop shotting

Like fuck you're going to read a guide to drop shotting on my page. I've never done it and don't intend doing it. If you're a drop shotter and you're enjoying it, crack on ar kid, have a ball. If you're new to "lure" fishing, then let me tell you this. Drop shotting isn't lure fishing, simple as that old sparra. You can argue until the cows come home, tha won't convince me there's any art or skill in it and thas not luring anything, tha's ledgering pal. Might as well stick a lobby on it.

Wait a minute, let me say a few words to promote drop shot fishing. It will catch you fish, it is a great method and the reason is this. Your big old ledger on the bottom helps you keep the "lure" (I still laugh at that) in the zone. The method is used to target perch, and this time of year especially they are grouped up in huge numbers and they also can be a little less aggressive. Holding your lure right in the zone and gently twitching it, even just by the wind moving your rod tip ever so slightly, is enough to make a "lure" dance and eventually one of the little buggers just has to have a bite, fish on! Whoop de fucking do. Sounds about as interesting as a night in with me talking about flour milling in India. Local farmers or buyers take their wheat to the "Chakki" (local mill) to make chapati flour. Sorry, what the hell am I talking about here? Oh yeah, flour milling in India. I'm kidding, back to ledgering, it's boring too!

I'm probably just in a mood because I can't get out fishing. Oh yeah and the few times I have it's been damned hard work. But I'm a lure man and I expect that it is hard at times, in fact most disciplines and styles of fishing can be. Drop on a bad day or the wrong peg and you can have a shocker. Even chucking out your super dooper ledger lure rig won't work. You know what, you're going to have to get off your arse and go make it happen. Go on, go lure them in.

People are losing the thrill of fishing, the fun, the art, the excitement, the enjoyment, everything. Stop putting Facebook on, seeing a 3lber and then expecting to go out in the morning and bag a big Sargent in the first five minutes. Yes that does happen, done it myself. Had a three on the first chuck while half asleep, before I'd even wiped the gunk from the corner of my eyes. Any style of fishing you can do that but I'll tell you this, it doesn't happen all the time, In fact it doesn't happen most of the time. Most of the time it's hard graft, do your homework, put in the time and also, more importantly to me, have a bit of fun along the way.

If you've bought a gorgeous lure rod and a superbly engineered reel, why the hell do you want to sit there motionless? Use your lovely bit of kit. Enjoy the cast, just dropping the lure under the tree right next to the root. Use the rod to work the lure through the current, all the while trying to picture and understand what your lure is doing right now. Work that lure in such a way that a monstrous perch can't do anything to resist surging out and absolutely smacking it, nearly ripping the shiny new rod from your grasp. Or you could cast out the ledger and just hold it there for half an hour until something grabs it.

If you have a box of lures, you want to use them. Get back to that under tree root system again. what lure are you going to pick mate? Hmm, that copper spinner. They always work but can I get it there and down in to the zone, then start it spinning before the current has taken it away? Doubt it, but a couple of chucks and something might see the flash and charge out. What about this gorgeous, hand crafted, hand paint MH crank? I could cast that upstream a little, a few tugs of the reel and it's down a couple of feet. Using the current I could get it right past those roots. The flash of gold Tennessee shad dancing and fluttering through the swim could be just enough to entice the fish of my dreams. Wait, I have some of these fancy soft lures. If I put it on a light jig head i can work it right through the swim, but If I use a bigger weight I think I could get it right under that tree, get it right down and slowly bounce it across the river bed, kicking up dust as it goes along and alerting the biggest fish of them all to an easy meal. Fuck yeah, lure fishing is awesome! Rock star gangster salute an' all that shit. Feck me I'm growing a goatee tomorrow.

Or I could go ledgering under that bush for an hour.

Seriously, I've even heard of people drop shotting on a pole. Somebody shoot me for fucks sake. I hear some big tackle company is already bringing out the drop shot special, three rod pod, multi alarm drop back indicator hooked up to Facebook and Twitter so you get instant notifications of a bite and 23 likes. Sail the fooking "lure" out on your bait boat and drop it under that root system why don't you?

Special thanks to Leo.