Sarley: Recent developments have revolutionized fishing with plastic lures

I started fishing with live bait. I grew into using lures on a regular basis.

To this day, I still think that live bait out-catches artificials. I think that fishing with lures is more challenging and I think it is safer for the fish, and you know I am a big catch-and-release guy. Fish don’t usually swallow lures deeply like they will often do with live bait. A deeply swallowed hook is usually fatal. Lures usually hook a fish in the lips.

I recall taking my oldest son, Steve, fishing with a guide at a theme park in Orlando many years ago, I shivered in fear when the guide told me we’d be fishing exclusively with grape-colored plastic worms fished Texas rigged. I didn’t like the method and wasn’t comfortable doing it.

Of course, the fish were biting like mad, but I was unable to hook any. I couldn’t feel the bites. I didn’t set the hook right. If it was a wrong way, then I was doing it. I was totally inept. If I was alone, I would have stopped long ago, but the guide had only the one way of fishing. He forced me to stick with it and I Iearned the method correctly. I ended the day rallying with a beautiful 6½-pound largemouth. Hurrah, I was now a plastics fishermen.

Recent developments in plastics fishing have changed my life. The use of “wacky worms” and the use of “drop shots” have revolutionized fishing for me. These two methods have put more fish on the end of my line than all other methods combined.

First, the drop shot is a truly unique method because it lets you put the weight underneath the bait. This allows what you are trying to tempt the fish with to travel above the bottom where your weight is.

You place your weight at the very end of your line. You can use a split shot or whatever, but a specially made drop shot weight is the best method.

Before you install the weight, you need to attach a hook. Attach it 18 inches above where you will be placing the weight. It’s tough to tie a hook to a line in a way that the hook sticks out away from the line in a level fashion.

I cheat by using drop shot hooks that are specially designed to hold a bait out from your line and to stand out perpendicular to the line at the same time. My hat is off to whomever it was that invented these babies.

So that’s it, my friends. You’ve got your hook and weight set up and all you need do is to decide what is going to tempt a fish into biting your bait. Actually, you can even attach like bait to a drop shot rig, but I don’t think that’s fair play. Too easy.

I like to impale a soft plastic minnow imitator onto the hook and jiggle it while it stands in the water. Almost any plastic will work and you can even rig a plastic through the middle and present you bait sideways.

Imagine you are fishing off a dock or from a boat. Drop your drop shot rig into the water and watch that it falls correctly with the weight below the bait and the bait standing out from your line. You’re ready to go.

Now cast the rig out and let it hit the bottom. Reel in until the line is taut. The bait will be closer to the bottom the further you get away from your rod. The bait will be higher in the water column as you bring it back in.

People will tell you that you can’t use a drop shot when you are fishing from shore, but they are wrong. A big plus here is when fishing a mucky or weedy bottom. The weight will ride through the muck and weeds while the hook and bait stays clean above the bottom.

Next week: Wacky worming 101.

• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.