How To Fishing Guides – Page 8 – Backcountry Cariboo

Using a drop shot rig is one of the best ways to land fish when they're being picky about what to eat. It's a little bit more complicated than your weightless rig but in this post, I'm going to be showing you how to easily set up a drop shot rig. I don't use this rig a whole lot but it definitely has its time and place. I'll use a Texas rig or split shot setup more often but each of them has a slightly different action through the water and sometimes they'll prefer a drop shot setup. What is a drop shot rig? It's a pretty simple concept where you have a weight at the very bottom of your line and then a hook about 2 feet above. The hook will float above the ground and the most common bait to use is some sort of worm. You'll let the weight sink to the bottom and you can give the rod a few twitches to give the worm some action (you don't need to go crazy with it). You'll want to use a drop shot rig when the fish are being picky. When you use a Texas rig or something like it the bait will sit along the bottom and imitate something crawling along the bottom. When the fish are going after the baitfish you'll want something that's swimming in the water and not crawling along the ground. This is a good setup to use in clearer water but if you are in a weeded area then you'll want to make sure you have a hook with a weed guard or you can bury the hook just like you would on a Texas rig. The knot you use to tie this rig is pretty much just a Palomar Knot with a long tag end. All you have to do is take the long tag end and feed it through the top of the eye. Tie on your weight and you're good to go. How do you set up a drop shot rig? When you're setting up a drop shot rig you'll need three things: A standard hook. Drop shot weights. Soft plastic worm (see our favorite here). Once you have those you're ready to get started. You can watch the video below or I'll list the steps below. The first step will be to put the line through your hook (I use a braided line with a fluoro leader). Make sure you leave 2-3 feet of extra line on the tag end (this is where your weight will go). Then you'll want to put the line back through the opposite side so you have a loop on one side of the hook. You'll then want to take that loop and tie an overhand knot using the other two strands of line. Be sure to not pull the knot tight yet. This is exactly as if you were tying the Palomar Knot. Then you'll want to take the loop (the top loop in the picture above) and bring it over the hook and then up over the knot as well. Put a bit of moisture on the knot and pull it tight. Take your tag end of the line and bring it back through the hook side of the eye. There should be around 2 feet of the extra line below the hook. You can then take your drop shot weight and attach it to the end of the line. The final step is to take your worm and put the hook through the bottom of the nose and out the top. You can rig it Texas-style if you have a lot of weeds but this setup will give you the best action in the water. All you have to do now is cast your line out, let the weight sink to the bottom, and give it a bit of movement. You can twitch the rod or lift it up and down to help the worm move. It'll move on its own so you don't have to do a whole lot. You can adjust the distance between the weight and the hook but I prefer somewhere around 1-2 feet (closer to the 2). Until next time, happy fishing. If you want to catch more fish, use more hooks. Let me know your thoughts and any questions you have. Like this article? Feel free to give it a share! Want to enter into our fishing gear giveaway? We'll be doing giveaways on our YouTube channel and all you have to do to enter is click here to subscribe to our channel, like a video, and comment giveaway. More comments = more chances to win.