Fishing Drops?

[Todd2]

This summer I've been trying to leave the banks and fish the deeper drops, mostly channel drops and other deeper structure. I've had very little success. I have no problems marking fish, usually within a couple of feet from the bottom and I work the area throughly with plastics but usually get nothing. So I end up fishing shallow bank water close to some deep water and can usually get a few. I've been reading alot about structure fishing and it seems a little tougher than most articles let on. What are some of the techniques you guys use once you find the drops and mark the fish. Thanks for any info...

[bereabasser]

man im in the same boat you are...lets hear some tips guys

[Brick]

That makes 3 of us. I keep seeing people talk about catching them in 20-30 feet. I try it for a while, get 1 if I am lucky, and then move back to 5'-10'. The times I have been persistent, I have gotten skunked. Could use some pointers on this too!

[ChampioNinKY]

Look for the sweet spot on the drop thats where you find the fish. Dave Stewart is one of the people I learned from and he has a great article here on it. http://www.fishin.com/articles/ledges.htm

[Danny]

I read that article, and truthfully, and maybe it is just me, I still have the same problem as the first three. I rarely catch fish deeper than 10-15 feet. But if you ever believe in stats, I've read that 80% of all bass caught in BASS competition come in water less than 15 feet deep. That could be because those pros don't have time to locate the productive drops.

One thing I'll add is that the fish I catch around drops are on top of the drop. For instance, as you go into ... dang my mind went blank, but it is one of the bays on Barkley with a marina in it, and it has shallow shelves on each side of the main channel into the bay. I find my fish are on top. This goes along with what I've read about fish being generally a shallow water feeder.

I have a few productive humps and drops, but all the fish come off the drop. I have two humps on the main lake of barkley that I fish with CR, yet my friend who was fishing with me was slow rolling a spinner bait and caught a great smallie.

Lastly, the things I've read is that the deeper fish are generally not in a feeding mood, although you can sometimes stimulate them into feeding. I just don't know how either.

One thing, I've tried light weight plastics, but I can't keep in touch with the bait, especially if there is any wind. I've just been learning to fish tubes with jig heads in them, and I'm hopeful that this will be something new I can try on those calm days.

Good luck to you guys too.

Danny

PS, I just remembered the bay I am referring to is Poplar creek bay. Sorry for the brain freeze.

[fisherbry]

IMHO, finding AND fishing ledges require being methodical and patient to the extreme. Did I say methodical? If you find your mind going numb from the intense focus, then you are off to a good start...

[Lee]

Refering to Kentucky Lake, I look for underwater points (sometimes called corners) that have stumps. The best seem to be those that have a steep drop from 5-8' to 20+ feet then throw 10 to 12" worms w/3/4 ounce weights, 3/4 ounce jigs w/pork and big tubes, all generally in darker colors. Less time fishing and more time lookings with a good depth finder is required here.

[Devils Horse]

Remember this about drop fishing, I feel it's very important.

Fish will move up to feed and then back off with virtually unpredictable frequency. You can go for an hour or more with no bites, then something triggers them, and bam you'll catch 3 or 4 in a row. You may have slid down and hit a sweet spot, but often enough it'll happen on the same areas of a ledge you fished hard for 30 minutes or an hour with no bites. You may hammer 5, 10, or more in a 15 minute period, then it's back to nothing for a while. I've had this happen repeatedly on Barkley.

Barkley can also deliver them on the drops almost non stop all danged day when the first move out there. Once you have a 70 bass day you'll believe.

[elnutsmalljaws]

If you fish Ky and Barkley, check the generation schedule before you go out. Current will play a big part in the fish activity, especially the later in the summer you get after the first initial wave of bass head to the ledges. Dave Stewart taught me that the baitfish and bass will be in the area looking at each other, the baitfish waiting to be eaten and the bass waiting to eat. When they pull current, it stirs up the plankton and stuff on the bottom which gets the baitfish active which gets the Bass active. Find you a good milkrun of ledges and humps and run it back and forth, eventually you will catch them up there feeding and the fight is on from there. One other thing to try is fish "Up" the ledge, what I mean is put your boat shallow and drag the C Rig or T Rig up the ledge instead of off the ledge. You will get hung up more but certainly these fish see enough baits traveling "Down" the ledge that one coming a different direction will trigger one to hit.

[CTFSHWHISKER]

as champion cole said you have to find the sweet spot on a drop,and as Danny said when the fish are that deep usually they are not in feeding mode.
look for the place that will be a ambush spot,a rise on the drop rock pile log stump.a flat bottom that just drops sometimes will have fish but more times than not it won't hold good fish.watch bait activity on the surface.Use your depthfinder and spend more time looking and less time fishing for a day or two.remember too the deeper you are the harder it is to hit the spot every cast,use marker buoys they are your best friend.i have a little rock spot on a drop on nolin we had over a hundred fish in 2 days,a good limit both days,if you hit very far at all from it you wouldn't get bit but we could throw our jig on the spot 2 feet apart and doubled many times,lots of them were little 14" fish but fun.out of a 100 yard ledge you may have 5ft of productive fishing.
nota pro at all but just my experience.remember too bass are not the only fish in the lake some of what you mark may be other species just keep trying and if you mark fish come back every hour to see if they are biting.

[Danny]

Hey Whiskers,

Your Nolin spot sounds like one little point on Mid-lake Barkley. I have caught as many as 35 fish an hour there, and the action lasts all day, but they all seem to be 14.90 inches...LOL That is where I take folks in the summer who want to catch fish, just to be catching the fish. I'm sure the place has taken a pounding over the last few years as I've concentrated on KY Lake. And like yours, your lure had to hit a target about a 5 foot circle, otherwise nothing. Actually, I've tried to duplicate that pattern, it is almost perfect, and one spot almost exactly like it, I can not buy a bite, and another I get a lot of bites and catch a lot of small fish, but on a completely different bait.

Drops are the most interesting form of fishing because it seems to be such a changing type of fishing as Devilshorse mentioned.

I just wish I could get one of those whack 'em stack 'em periods on the type of fish Kelly Jordan found on UMF!! and not those 14 inchers I seem to always find.

Danny

[Dave Stewart]

Lots of good ledge advice here in this string..especially the advice on being patient.

There are a lot of different types of ledges....point ledges, humps, outside channel bends, road beds etc. One thing all the best ledges will have in common is that they will be associated with either a creek or river channel. As far as only shallow ledges are the better ones...can't agree with that...my best producing ledge for quality fish tops out at 26ft and drops into 40 ft. It is a feeding ledge...in that I mean that the fish do not hold on that ledge..they just come by and feed there now and then..but when they do it produces bigger fish because the shad they are feeding on that deep are gizzard shad...threadfin shad do not as a rule go that deep...on the shallow ledges the fish are usually feeding on threadfin shad...doesn't mean you can't get some quality fish there but you will tend to get more short fish. Just some food for thought.