Fish Doctors

[Ham]

I've never caught a fish on a fish doctor. I'd like to change that this spring. I like to hear how, when and where I should consider using it.

I'm assuming spinning with light line a piece of split shot. I'm not sure about what type hook is preferred.

Not sure about depth ranges preferred or types of bank that it works best on.

So please share a little if this is a technique you use and enjoy.

[rps]

Fish it as a very light Carolina rig. Set the hook early as they love to swallow the bait.

[dtrs5kprs]

All your basic smallmouth grub or Ned places. Flat gravel, light mixed rock, between docks, points. From water all the way out to 25-30'. I use 8#, a 1/4oz football shaped weight, and usually a 1/0 or 2/0 hook. Used to use the cylindrical mojo weights but had to run a lot of different sizes to account for depth and keep from hanging up. The FB weight seems to just plow through everything. I actually did it a lot before the little rig. Love the way brown fish pound it if you drag it through a deep nest.

Dragging the Dr. So easy a kid can do it.

[Ham]

J hook or offset? Egg weight or the jewel football weights? 6lb or 8 lb?

[dtrs5kprs]

J hook or offset? Egg weight or the jewel football weights? 6lb or 8 lb?

I use a variety of hooks- EWG, G-Lock, Round Bend. All work. A sproat hook will work too. I make my own FB weights (shocker right?). Use a FB shakey head mold and run a piece of wire or straight wire lure shaft down through the sprue and out the shank cut. Pour around it and pull out the wire like it is a worm weight pull pin. Easier than it sounds.

Jewel weights would work fine, but I am too cheap to go that route. The mojo weights or BPS cylindrical weights work. I just like the simplicity I have found in the 1/4oz FB option. With the others you pretty much have to go down to 1/8oz to fish less than 10'. For whatever reason the 1/4oz FB works fine even right up on the bank. I poured a ton of 1/8oz FB weights and hardly use them. Used to keep 2-3 rods rigged with 1/8, 3/16, 1/4.

Not sure Jewel makes a weight smaller than 1/4oz. Not sure you need one either.

[dtrs5kprs]

It is worthwhile to play with hook sizes during a day. Think it affects the way it floats and kicks around behind the weight.

[fishinwrench]

I like the Centipede in "bluegill" on a 1/2oz. C-rig. Pretty deadly on LO midsummer bass. And oddly enough almost irresistible to big flatheads.

I tried the FD years ago but stuck with the 'pede.

[dtrs5kprs]

For reasons I do not understand that darned doctor will eat the centipedes lunch on Table Rock. Has to be something about the glide with that wider, flat belly. Never used it until I started fishing TR regularly. Before that it was all centipedes on a big c-rig as Wrench described.

[Ham]

I've caught fish on centipedes back in the day on the c rig, and I've used finesse versions we dubbed California rigs with small weight and small baits.

I sort of thought ppl were throwing the Fish Doc on a split shot rig. I also thought it was likely a 1/0 round bend j hook would be the hook of choice hmmmm

That's why I asked.

[dtrs5kprs]

I've caught fish on centipedes back in the day on the c rig, and I've used finesse versions we dubbed California rigs with small weight and small baits.

I sort of thought ppl were throwing the Fish Doc on a split shot rig. I also thought it was likely a 1/0 round bend j hook would be the hook of choice hmmmm

That's why I asked.

Some people do. You will see Pete Wenners showing a lot of true split shots in his fish reports. Mostly when we say we are using split shots it is some kind of pegged finesse weight due to concerns about pinching the line with a crimped weight. It is more accurately a version of mojo rigging, or a finesse c-rig.

Other than size I am not sure the hook is a big deal. Sharp and light are probably the biggest parts. I use a lot of small EWGs because I might switch between a doctor and a fry, or a double ringer.

Keep it simple to start. Dial it in later. Turn around and go back down a place where you just caught them on a Ned or grub and run the split shot.