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Any Experienced Dropshot Fisherman?


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Hello all,

Looking for some advice. I have recently been lure fishing whilst living on my Narrowboat in the Midlands (normally between Milton Keynes and Welford). I have recently been drop-shotting and even though apparently more of a winter method had some great fish in the summer dropping it in at likely structural points where you'd expect to find perch waiting to pounce.

My problem is now that winter is well and truly here and the water is quite clear I've managed to watch sizable perch approach my dropshot jelly, have a good look, bob around it, nudge it and bugger off....countless times.  I'm currently using braided mainline with a fluro-carbon-leader (10Ib strength) and tried multiple size and colour of lure. In summer I've caught good perch out of the same area but would love to get better at the dropshot technique...anyone know where i'm going wrong?

I would be keen to do catch these on a jelly rather than just popping a worm on or going back to floating a maggot......any experienced dropshot heads here??

cheers,

Pete

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Drop shot techniques are not my area of expertise,  but I'd only use the sort of line your using to moor the boat. For rod and line fishing, my main line for canal perch in winter, when the water can be gin clear, would probably be 1.5 lb with a bottom of 12oz to 1lb, and lighter still for pole fishing.  Clearly, that's not what you'd get away with when lure fishing, but I think your problem is you're fishing far too heavy. Additionally,  fish digest very slowly in winter, so they don't want to disable themselves with a full belly for a long period. Tiny baits and fine lines do the job on canals in winter, so try going fine on line and hook and use a small lure.

  • Greenie 1
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While your at it can you advise us all why fisher folk buy rod thingies about forty feet long and fish inches from the opposite bank? Why not just go and fish that side and buy a shorter rod it would surely work out much cheaper?

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2 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

While your at it can you advise us all why fisher folk buy rod thingies about forty feet long and fish inches from the opposite bank? Why not just go and fish that side and buy a shorter rod it would surely work out much cheaper?

They do fish on the deeper water in the middle and the shallows and drop off of the near bank too, but it's not so good closer to the angler or towpath traffic because movement and vibrations scare fish. There's a saying that fish scare at half an hour per pound, so a 2 pound fish will take an hour to become bold enough to get caught. For this reason you tend to catch the better fish in the far bank margins where they feel safe and the near side catch is usually small stuff. In fact most match anglers will try the far bank every now and then rather than fish there all the time.

Any help?

  • Greenie 1
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5 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

They do fish on the deeper water in the middle and the shallows and drop off of the near bank too, but it's not so good closer to the angler or towpath traffic because movement and vibrations scare fish. There's a saying that fish scare at half an hour per pound, so a 2 pound fish will take an hour to become bold enough to get caught. For this reason you tend to catch the better fish in the far bank margins where they feel safe and the near side catch is usually small stuff. In fact most match anglers will try the far bank every now and then rather than fish there all the time.

Any help?

Did you used to catch millions of Mackrel int dockyard and at sea by just dipping shiney hooks in? didn't need to even bait em and caught literaly hundreds in minutes>

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5 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I think ships got a bit prissy about folk fishing over the side latterly. Health and safety probably, the chefs not being allowed to cook anything not supplied through the passer. Tut.

Jeeeeeeeeeeesus.........bring back the seventies.............

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2 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

They do fish on the deeper water in the middle and the shallows and drop off of the near bank too, but it's not so good closer to the angler or towpath traffic because movement and vibrations scare fish. There's a saying that fish scare at half an hour per pound, so a 2 pound fish will take an hour to become bold enough to get caught. For this reason you tend to catch the better fish in the far bank margins where they feel safe and the near side catch is usually small stuff. In fact most match anglers will try the far bank every now and then rather than fish there all the time.

Any help?

i used to fish canals a lot and i will forever say that the far bank is the best, but if you know how to fish a canal, infatc any smaller water then you will get to know how to catch the best catch. 

I fish a lot of small lodges, so same area as a canal, i always have at least two spots and always works. every half hour i swap over swims. 

when i flost fish for carp, non of this sitting for days to try to catch a fish as i see that as just an excuse to camp out from the Mrs, i will catch in one spot and then leave it for a good hour before i go back to try again and 50% of the time will catch or get takes again.

 

See fishing is not as easy as folk may think if you want an eventfull day. 

 

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5 hours ago, cutsurfer said:

Hello all,

Looking for some advice. I have recently been lure fishing whilst living on my Narrowboat in the Midlands (normally between Milton Keynes and Welford). I have recently been drop-shotting and even though apparently more of a winter method had some great fish in the summer dropping it in at likely structural points where you'd expect to find perch waiting to pounce.

My problem is now that winter is well and truly here and the water is quite clear I've managed to watch sizable perch approach my dropshot jelly, have a good look, bob around it, nudge it and bugger off....countless times.  I'm currently using braided mainline with a fluro-carbon-leader (10Ib strength) and tried multiple size and colour of lure. In summer I've caught good perch out of the same area but would love to get better at the dropshot technique...anyone know where i'm going wrong?

I would be keen to do catch these on a jelly rather than just popping a worm on or going back to floating a maggot......any experienced dropshot heads here??

cheers,

Pete

sorry, to answer your Q, fishing to to heavy as said above by seadog. i would go 6ld max straight through with a fine trace if pike are about. in the canal they will be but may only be Jack`s so still 6lb will be fun. had a few high doubles on 10lb line.

 

try spinners, they will do the trick for all size Perch and Pilke ;)

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13 hours ago, W+T said:

sorry, to answer your Q, fishing to to heavy as said above by seadog. i would go 6ld max straight through with a fine trace if pike are about. in the canal they will be but may only be Jack`s so still 6lb will be fun. had a few high doubles on 10lb line.

Luckily for me, I don't need to understand a word of this!

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Thanks very much for the replies. I thought as it was fluro-carbon that I may get away with the heavier line and actually since then never gave it another thought, seems obvious so i'll change that up :-) thanks for the advice. Hope the canal clears up again so I can see them chasing it about again, definitely fun fishing the dropshot even when I don't catch.

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Numbers wise you will catch more fishing small paddle tail shads around an inch long on a 3 gram jig head jigged across the bottom ,twitch and wind and stop watch the line most plucks on the fall of the lure 

Yellow coloured braid helps see the pick ups better and 8 lab bs braid is a good starting point ,floor trace to jig hook and if Pike become problematic then a wire trace in say 15lb soft wire is better 

Let the jig settle properly after casting before retrieving ,HTO Rockfish ul lure rod to a 1000 size reel and your away

I have done a lot of UL lure fishing in the last few years and drops hotting just doesn't compete number of fish wise with Jigging on the canal imo

  • Greenie 1
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In my experience perch are very fickle. One day they'll grab anything within reach of them but on other days they are interested in very little.

My experience, 5 years living on board, fishing most winter days for an hour or two, is that the best way is to use bigger lures (3-4 inch). 5 casts fanned around each spot, working the lure close to the bottom in an erratic but not to violent motion. Move 15 yards, repeat. Lure fished weedless on an offset hook to minimise snagging up. If you catch a fish return it 50 yards back up the way you've come from, there's every chance of getting one or two more from the same spot. Return it where you've caught it, you will not catch another.

Drop shotting might be more effective if you're certain where the fish are but on my local canal (Macc) they are just as likely to be in the middle of the canal in a straight, featureless length as in the 'classic' areas with cover. In my book drop shotting just doesn't allow you to cover enough water, so is inferior to the approach I use. Having said that, it's been a very poor winter, this canal seems to be a shadow of what it was 2 or 3 years ago for perch. Even if I use bait, I get very few.    

  • Greenie 1
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