Every once in a while, something comes along that is so much more than just a little tweak to an old established fishing tool that it really gets us excited to write about.
The reason is simple. It makes a time tested technique more effective by a huge leap as opposed to an incremental move forward.One of those kind of products is the subject of our review today. The Team Davies, Bill Siemantel designed, Ventana Drop Shot Sinker. For those of you familiar with the Spanish language, el ventana translates to: “the window.”
Why Ventana for the name? All you have to do is look at this weight and, pardon the pun, it becomes crystal clear. There is a window in the structure of the lead that houses a single ball glass rattle. So why is this so significant? Sound!
What advantage does this give the angler
Now the angler has the ability to incorporate sound into their drop-shot presentation without having to add any extra goodies to the rig which, in my humble opinion, is almost never a good idea when employing the drop-shot.
Before we get into our experience with the Ventana Drop Shot Sinker, we’re going to let the man himself speak on his recommendations for using this new product.
With no further ado, here are Bill Seimantel’s tips for drop-shotting and I quote.
Tips from the man himself!
“The shape of these are some of the most versatile in all of the drop shots I have used in the past, weeds, brush, grass and even rocks I lose less of these than other.
You work these no different than any other other drop shots in standard areas, drag…. pause….. and shake. Shaking excels when you are around cover elements.
In mud, sand and small gravel when you work these drop shots the clicking sound it makes can not be duplicated (tungsten does not create sound dragging through mud)
While using plastics that represent crawdads, sculpin, baitfish, or worms that are bottom oriented I use a short tag (around 3 to 4 inches) and do shake a little harder and then drop my rod and let the bait fall right on top of the sinker. The sound and bait being so close to each other and the dead fall drop of that few inches is incredible.
When using these in grass/weeds I like a little longer tag and shake hard the dead stick for a longer time. This technique has put thousands in both Steve and my wallet for eight years, from night fishing to daylight, it did not matter. Fish run into the grass looking for the sound and they just start chewing on your bait.
Remember you really do not have to shake hard. Sound travels more in water and even with the lightest rod movement the high pitch click is truly amazing.
Do not over think this …..if you drop shot, just do the same thing and see the difference.”
Thanks Bill for your time in putting together this lesson in how to use the Ventana Drop Shot Sinker. I know that all of our readers are gonna’ appreciate this one. So now on to our review.
Our experience with the Ventana
First off, I gotta’ tell you that since we received these sinkers about 2 months ago, we haven’t been fishing without them. We have used them on every trip. Consequently we are now down to our last couple as you do tend to lose one once in a while.
As we alluded to earlier, the design of the Ventana is a single ball glass rattle encased in lead but with “windows” front and back that assist in transmitting sound.
It also uses premium line clips along with a shape that is its own. Not quite cylindrical, not quite a teardrop but more like a cigar.
We have used any number of soft plastics with the Ventana as well as varying our tag distance. We have used it day and night, in cold and hot weather, when the bite was easy or tough and on every bottom composition we could find. The results have been consistently excellent.
When put side by side with our former gold standard, the Ventana has outshined it in every way other than size.
It is larger than a tungsten sinker of the same weight. You might think that this would amount to a huge disadvantage but it hasn’t.
You might also wonder if using lead as opposed to tungsten makes a significant difference in what the angler feels through their hands. Yes, there is a difference, but not one that is so pronounced that you don’t feel the bites. You do with the Ventana and, in our experience, you get more.
The bottom line
The bottom line here is that the Ventana, through its use of sound, has out performed our other drop shot sinkers. It is everything a drop shot weight should be.
It gets your bait down quickly, provides a solid base for you to shake your bait in the faces of fish, reduces line twist at the bottom of the rig due to the use of a quality swivel below the line tie and does something that other weights don’t.
It provides sound. All of this at a reasonable price!
There isn’t much more that we can add to that. If you enjoy using the drop shot or only go to it when the bite is tough or for catching numbers of fish, this sinker will make your time with the drop shot more productive. It certainly has ours.
| Team Davies Ventana Drop Shot Sinker | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |  |
| The best thing to happen to drop shot sinkers in a long time! | |
See ya’ on the water …
