Ronnie wrote:
On Aug 13, 10:11 pm, SHRED wrote:

Alex wrote:

What I do is pinch a bullet worm weight on the line with the point up.

Thanks for that tip!


If you will tie an overhand knot in the end of the line then toothpick
it on rather than pinch it on it will usually slide off when you get
hung and you can easily put another one on.

Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com


I've read all these replies about what to use instead of a real drop
shot weight with some degree of amusement. Been there, and done that
will just about all of them. I started rigging something akin to a
dropshot in the 80s, using a big split shot on the end of the line and
the hook on a 3" dropper off the main line. The dropper made it a major
pain to retie when you broke it off, and as often as not, I would just
tie on a jighead after the 2nd or third time, for convenience sake.

Then, in the mid-90s, I was 'reintroduced" to drop shotting by a
Japanese friend (Kota Kiriyama, back when he lived in this neck of the
woods and belonged to the same bass club as several of my fishing
buddies). But Kota showed us how to rig it without the dropper line to
the hook, tying the hook directly to the main line, and just using the
tag end for the sinker. That was much easier to rig, and got me
seriously into using the rig. He also used a special, Japanese sinker
(Bakudan) that cinched to the line, but those were not readily available
in the US, and my buddies and I devised all sorts of alternatives --
every one of which has been mentioned in this thread.

For a long time, I used a standard slip sinker on the line, with a split
shot crimped on beneath it, and a knot tied beneath that.

Hint -- if you're going to use this setup or Ronnie's variation above,
which is a great one, tie a loop knot instead of an overhand knot. The
loop gives you something to hook over the reel handle to secure the rig
without having the weight bounce all over the place when you run from
spot to spot or put the rig away for the day.

But my problem was still that there were too many steps in re-rigging
and too often, when it broke the 2nd or 3rd time, I would often just go
back to the tried and true jighead and worm combo.

Finally, when Kiriyama, Rich Tauber and Brent Ehler started Bakudan in
the US around 2000, I quickly switched to that setup, for the simple
reason that it's the simplest, and easiest to rig and re-rig. That means
when I lose a weight, I'm back fishing in seconds rather than minutes,
and I NEVER switch away from the DS just because rigging another one
would be a pain in the neck or too time consuming when the bite is hot &
heavy. Yes, it's more expensive than the homebrew alternatives. But
convenience and not wasting any of my all too limited fishing time is
well worth the difference in cost to me.

Of course I tried the cheaper copies of the Bakudan along the way. In my
experience, none of them are as good, and the reason is the swivel/line
cinch assembly. Basically, I've learned that there are three or four
different mfgs of these in the far east, and the 'real' one costs
several times as much as the knock-offs. But it also performs better.
You'd think that the minor changes in the shape of that little keyhole
cinch deal would be insignificant, but they aren't. The most common one
(as found on the BPS copies and others) requires you to tie a knot in
the end of the line, or it comes off too easily. If you're going to do
that, might as well save even more money, and use a pegged slip sinker
above the knot. Others cut the line instead of sliding off -- often just
from the force of the cast, which is a real bummer.

When the Bakudan company became available, I urged Lunker City to buy
it. They did. And they replaced all the crude an well worn molds with
new, but have stuck with the original swivel despite the ready
availability of lower cost (and inferior) knock-offs.

Using the real thing (and adopting nose hooking) has made DS fishing so
convenient that it's been my #1 presentation option for the past 6 years
or more, and has caught me thousands of fish. I can't imagine switching
away from the real skinny cylinder, Bakudan weight. But if and when I
run out on the water, It'll be Ronnie's variation -- the pegged slip
sinker supported by a knot (except I'll use a loop knot) that I go with.