There is a finesse soft plastic lure technique that is tailor-made for sunny, calm winter afternoons. This past balmy Jan. 4 gave me and Lake Travis High School student Colton Etheridge the opportunity to enjoy the fun of drop shotting with 4-inch finesse worms.

Happiness is pulling up on our first stop, an offshore ledge, turning on my sonar and seeing a massive school of bass lurking 25-feet deep. A large school of bass usually means their competitive nature will create a feeding frenzy once you drop a natural looking plastic creature in front of their noses.

Bass can be cautious during clear, calm conditions with bright sun penetration. A metal jigging spoon works best during overcast, windy conditions when bass are most gullible. A drop-shot plastic will trigger so much more action when bass are more discriminating.

Etheridge mastered the art of drop-shotting rather quickly. His first six drops resulted in six largemouth bass. Then, he hooked into a huge fish that pulled off after an exciting minute of me holding the landing net.

A few minutes later, Etheridge hooked and landed a chunky 3-pound class bass a little deeper down the ledge. That was soon followed by a big Guadalupe bass.

All this time, I never had a bite. My Texas rigged crawfish lure, so productive the previous week, was totally ignored by this deep school of bass. I felt this was the best way to have Etheridge get confidence in the drop-shot. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

The drop-shot rig consists of a small hook positioned about a foot above a drop-shot weight clipped on the end of your line. Gently shaking the nose hooked plastic worm, while the weight rests on the bottom, is the key.