I only Bubba Shot using a 6'9", 11 guide baitcaster, 16# Sugoi Fluorocarbon and either a 5/16 or 3/8oz Mojo dropshot weight. Typically, when using this technique, I'm fishing the grass beds on either Clear Lake or the Delta. When using this combination and set up, I feel and detect almost every single bite, no matter what weight I'm using. The sensitivity of the 16# Sugoi on this particular rod, is extreme.
On many occasions, especially those when I don't actually feel the strike, I see that line jump or twitch. This is one of the benefits of fluorocarbon with it being a stiffer and denser line.
From my experience, the level to which we detect strikes, is dependant upon which of the species of bass your targeting. Spotted and smallmouth bass will typically strike a drop shot rig with far less aggression than a largemouth. My guess is that many anglers are primarily targeting spots and smallies with their drop shots, hence we hear of the "mush" bite. I just spent this past weekend drop shotting on Lake of the Pines in Auburn, those northern bass up there were just hammering that 5 3/4" 157 Yamamoto cut tail worm.
The two pressure bites I got all day, were both 15" smallies! I started out using the heavier Mojo weights, but then lost the three that I had and had to revert to a much smaller weight because it was all I had. It made no difference in detecting the bite when these fish bit as to which weight I had on.
Scientifically, one might assume that the force generated from a strike, much like current and electricity, would take the path of least resistance. Hence, that force would be absorbed by the weight, since it is only 2-24" away from the hook, versus being absorbed by your rod, which may be 6-60' feet away. This is the beauty of fluorocarbon line and it's capability to telepath the strike to the rod. Much like the newer high tech CAT5 shielded electronic cabling we have today, it better funnels that force through the line, even over longer distances. No matter how much of that strike force is absorbed by the weight.
The force to which a fish strikes our bait, does not change just because we go up or down in weight. If a bass hits the bait at .04Gs, that force is felt in both directions. When it goes one direction, it dead ends at your weight, what force travels the other way, goes to you rod and eventually the nerve endings in your hand. What you feel in your hands is paramount to the detection tools you are using between you and the fish, not the fish and your weight.
So, the initial strike force goes both ways, no matter what weight your using. How much the weight absorbs really doesn't matter because what is important, is what's between you and the fish!
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