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And that's why I had to chase 'em down – Drew Gill and Marshall Robinson (Marty's son). I mean, shallow-water dropshotting (aka, Bubba-shotting or power-shotting) to beat 6 other experienced hammers including the FL-native Lane bros? Sounds legit crazy. Let's find out mo':
1. Did you guys really dropshot muddy water in the Stick Marsh?
> Marshall: "Absolutely. And don't think I didn't try other stuff. I tried every bait I've been known to try to catch fish in FL.
> "What I think it was – me and Drew seemed to both agree...that morning wasn't quite as cold as Championship Day, but it was a cold front.... And those fish in that lake don't have grass...the bottom is slick...they all resorted to those bushes. Hard cover.
> "And they were all lethargic. We were trying to pitch a dropshot super quiet at the base of the bushes, and just shake it in place.
> "I think that day over 80% of our weight was just blind-fishing at the bushes. We didn't Scope many that day. They were just so tight to the base of [the bushes]."
> Drew: "Heck yeah we did, we absolutely did.
> "When you look at the characteristics of any technique, you're looking at the purpose. What is the purpose of the technique. ...is my purpose to make a cast at a target? Am I assuming this fish doesn't want to leave where it is, or do I assume it wants to follow something over distance and try and kill it?
> "Am I taking this technique and trying to make a fish react in an aggressive or fast manner? Or...am I trying to get a bass to chew and eat?
> "Whenever you have cooler water in FL, I'm going to operate on the assumption that...take a precision approach, and put a bait right on a fish's head and try to entice it. So I need something that's precise, and allows me to use a small zone to make a fish bite.
> "The 2nd thing...if I'm fishing around cover, especially dirty water, and I'm fishing for largemouth, I'm generally going to choose something that maintains its place in the water column very well to where a bass can engage with that bait and its chances of losing it are not very high. Which a dropshot is great for....
> "So in dirty water, that allows a fish to zone in on a bait and really keep its focus on it rather than losing it like if I was throwing a TX-rigged worm...throw it out there and it sinks a little bit down in the silt, hop it and it sinks [down in the silt again].
> "In dirty water I like a bait that is very visible, that doesn't get really tight to the cover like a bait on the bottom would, but something that does not move far....
> "He's not gonna leave and run away from it and vacate where he wants to live. He's either gonna have to live there and stare at it and eat it, or he's gonna have to...not eat it.
> "...that weight keeps...in contact with the bottom so it doesn't require nearly as much movement to make that bait entice a bass."
2. How deep was the water you were fishing there and on Garcia?
> Marshall: "Both places were flat [and] shallow. We were looking for the deeper water, so both days we were were trying to find something deeper than the normal 2-3'.
> "At Stick Marsh I think it was 6-8 where the boat was sitting, and we were pitching baits to bushes in probably 3.5' – so pretty deep for FL. In Garcia the little...spots we were fishing were probably 4.5-5'...."
> Drew: "Stick Marsh we were fishing 1.5' to 4'. Garcia we were fishing 3.5-4.5'. For Stick Marsh that was a little bit on the shallower side, but we were fishing a long stretch of bushes and reed clumps that were adjacent to the shoreline. And Garcia was on the deeper end of some of those [I think he said 'flat areas']."
3. Was that your plan coming in, to dropshot in FL??
> Marshall: "Well before we went to Headwaters, no. Drew always has one tied on because that's what he likes to do. But I was planning on catching them with a swim-jig and ChatterBait mainly, and maybe a topwater. That's what I caught them on on day 1 at Headwaters.
> "The dropshot was okay that day – Drew caught some on it – but it was not good enough to compete. Because those fish were in a really good mood. They would eat that ChatterBait and you could cover so much water with it.
> "The plan...was to fish our strengths and I planned on power-fishing. But after that cold front rolled through...I still tried to catch them on a ChatterBait but it did not work. By the time we got to Garcia, we had 4 dropshots tied on. We knew what we were going to do."
> Drew: "That was not originally the plan. I'm not saying that wasn't part of the plan.
> "...when we went to Headwaters [they had] conditions that make bite percentages go up. After we got out of Headwaters...they're really liking to orient around a steep contour...or a really steep edge of cover if have a very hard edge. ...I saw an emphases on clean bottoms. And better average water quality was definitely higher percentage in terms of frequency of bites.
> "...steeper...more open/clean bottom adjacent to steep cover, and cleaner water.... As soon as I saw that happen – it's not the first time I went to FL and smoked them on a worm...and a dropshot is just an awesome option because it's a worm that I can keep above the bottom. Which means it never comes out of their line of sight, and it stays clear of all the silt and muck on the bottom."
4. What were your primary rigs?
> Marshall: "I had 2 primary rigs that caught pretty much every bass I weighed on."
> 3/8 bladed jig (gold shiner) with a 4" Yamamoto Zako (TN shad), 17-lb P-Line 100% Pure Fluoro, 7:1 reel, 7' 2" MH Phenix M 1 Rod. "That caught everything the 1st day for me."
> 6" Roboworm Straight and 6" Roboworm Fat Straight (both "margarita mutilator"), #1 Roboworm Rebarb Hook, 1/4-oz dropshot weight, 10-lb P-Line TCB-8 Braid (green) to 12-lb P-Line 100% Fluoro, 7' 1" ML Phenix K2 Torzite Spin Rod.
> On Garcia: "...fishing open ponds with a hard bottom and a grass edge that circled the pond. I would catch all my fish blind-casting at that grass edge. I think Drew caught most of them picking them off [with FFS]."
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