Drop one for the Team
An art of fishing that you don’t hear too much of anymore is that of Dropshot. There is so much noise being made about micro jigs and slow pitch, and rightly so because it works insanely well, but we forget as South African anglers, where it all started for us. One of the pioneers of this form of angling, for me anyway, is a guy by the name of Brad Arthur.
Now for those of you who haven’t heard this name uttered around fishing clubs or whispered with great disdain, at events, as anglers realise, they are now fishing for second place when Brad rocks up, you are about to hear from a legend of the sport. Brad turned fishing on its head for me when I first started kayak fishing, and he has always been an angler I have looked up to, but it was when I shared a chalet with him and a few other mates in Paindane in 2008 that I fully realised just how far ahead of the pack this guy actually was, and still is. We pretty much comparing Tiger Woods to your weekend hacker here chaps. The following article is specifically targeted at the Ponto area, a spot that Brad knows pretty extensively. So, sit vas chaps and enjoy, class is in session.
GF – When fishing the area of Ponta do Ouro what sizes and colours would you look at?
B.A. – In Ponta a lot of the fishing that you are doing is between 25 and 40 m of water so what you would ideally want to look at getting is 2oz and 4oz dropshot heads. A 1oz will work, and you will get 80% more bites if you can actually hit the floor. But the go to size is a 2oz with a 5/0 hook and a 5inch dropshot body. You will get a lot more action out of a 2oz and 5 inch minnow than you will out of a 4oz and 7inch minnow. I have found that a lot of the action that you impart on the dropshot comes from the wrist and it is a lot easier to work a 2oz than it is to work a 4oz. As far as colours go I am a big fan of pearl and I find that in the bright sun, you do get away with catching on a lot of different colours but under the bright sun and with the clear water of Ponta my favourite is a pearl and if you have got fish that are not hanging on structure, chartreuse works extremely well, but pearl is my go to colour for there.
G.F. – Brad I have seen you pimping up your dropshots with markers before. Let’s not keep the boys in the dark here, WARRAPEN THERE TONY?
B.A. – As far as pimping dropshot goes, that came more out of necessity than trying to be clever. So when we used to fish those paddleski comps you were limited as to how much you could take on your ski. You can’t take 5 packets of each colour, so what I would do is take a few packets of the pearl one a two or three markers because you can always change a pearl into a chartreuse and then I would take a few other packets of other colours. Chartreuse, pearl and a darker colour like a pearl watermelon. As far as the dropshot heads go, if you can paint your dropshot heads red, it made a massive difference to the amount of bites we got. Obviously , a lot of your lures on the market that are red work well and I found that with having the dropshot head coloured red we got much better hook up ratio. I don’t know whether it could be because the fish now has something to aim at. I just found the hook up ratio with coloured jig heads were much better, I also fished glow jig heads in green water or early in the morning but red was definitely my favourite.
G.F. – What makes you decid- right, now it’s time to put the brakes and drop the shot? And how long do you go on a specific spot until you call it and move on?
B.A. - Generally I will look for a showing two to three metres above the floor. If the showing is on the floor it’s not really the fish you looking for. Kingies and those types of fish tend to hold a little higher off the bottom and give you a definite distinct gap between floor and fish. But I am also happy to throw a drop shot on anywhere, where I can see a shelf, so where I can see a two to three metre difference, a slight wall or something like that. I will have a throw to check because you are not going to pick up things like Couta or Tuna, or Bonnies on your finder as easily. So you need to have a go on the areas that look like they could hold fish even if you don’t see any. How long I try a specific spots depends on what I am doing. If I am fishing a bait and I am doing a drift along a ledge then I will dropshot that entire ledge because I definitely found that the fish are drawn into you spread by your dropshot and they often take your bait and that will often happen with a Tuna or a Couta.
G.F. – Tell us about your retrievals?
B.A. – What you want to do with a drop shot is impart as much action as you can without pulling it to far through the water column. So you want to twitch it often but you don’t want to wind it through the water column that much. If you have a 5000 or 6000 size reel and it has a gear ratio of 5.5 to one or higher, every handle turn you will move that dropshot up through the water by almost a metre. I fish with a Shimano 8000 PG which is a much slower retrieval and for me to move it a metre with the PG I will probably have to wind the handle one and a half to two times as opposed to the higher ratio’s one. This essentially means that I can get another three or four twitches without flying it up through the water column which means I spend more time in the zone where the fish are. So lots of action without coming far through the water is key. In saying that, it’s also best to start off with a slower retrieve off the bottom, and as you get to mid water start to speed up because your fish are going to change drastically. So within the first 10 metres of water column you going to get a Kakaap or a Kingy and after that you come into Tuna, Couta and Bonnito territory and they prefer a fast retrieve.
G.F. – Do you prefer any specific colours for any specific species? And do you any specific sized dropshots work better than others?
B.A. – With regards to Couta, Tuna and Jobfish, the go to colours don’t seem to change. As long as you have that pearl dropshot with the red head you can catch anything on that, or pearl with a glow or a little bit of Chartreuse on it, it generally depends on the water colour. If you fishing in the right area you can catch them on a lot of different things, but the aforementioned colours are what works and you will catch anything on that. With regards to sizes of dropshot, I prefer the 5 inch because I can give it a lot more action. If you can fish a seven inch and impart a lot of action on it then you will do well and maybe with a seven you will get better quality fis, but I have found you will catch more Bonnies and yellowfin on the 5 inch. In saying that, the multiplier part of a comp is your most important part and it’s not really about the weight as much as it is about the species. So rather fish the 5 inch and get the bite and possibly another species than risk not getting a bite and waiting for a larger fish to come along and take the seven inch.
G.F. – Let’s talk outfits.
B.A. – I take a 5000 size reel with 30 to 35lb braid on a seven inch rod and use it to cast spoons and if I can get to the bottom I will put a 1oz dropshot head on and put it down, but this isn’t my go to rig. My go to rig however is a trevalla 6ft6 rod and an 8000 to 10 000 reel with 50 to 55lb braid and 60lb leader and attach that to a 2ounce or 4 ounce leader with a Rapala knot. My rule with wire is I will have a few made up but I will only use them if I get bitten off twice in a row, if its once I don’t really take too much notice. Often in Ponta it’s the Seapike that bite you off. If someone catches one of those barracuda’s I will generally move unless they big enough to weigh.
G.F. – Which jig heads do you prefer?
B.A. – I prefer the Nitro jigheads or any jighead with the triangle top because what happens is as you work it through the water column it starts darting from side to side, in an almost walk the dog motion as opposed to a round head which will just come straight up. The same will apply if you tie the dropshot onto the eye that sits straight on the tip of the head as opposed to the eye that sit 90 degrees to the dropshot head.
G.F. – Any tips or tricks?
B.A. – As far as this goes, one of the most important things for me is always fish up current of the structure, sometime up to 100 metres up current of it. Sometime those fish are sitting way up current of the structure and the heavier the current, the further up current they will sit. Don’t think of them as fresh water fish where they tend to hide behind a rock form the current, the fish you want will be sitting in the front, head on into the current at the side where the current is pushing onto. I would generally take some assist hooks with me as sometimes sharks can become an issue and you have to pull a bit harder so I will add an assist hook onto the drop shot head.
