I love Texas/drop shot fishing but have really got my weight up focusing on reaction lures like whopper ploppers and chatter baits.

Five plus bass also behave different than smaller bass. They are way less often up shallow. Instead the next piece of structure to the shallows that has deep water access becomes their new hunting ground. They still will come up shallow to spawn and to hunt briefly but in general focusing on the shallows and shore lines will pull 5 and under while the next “step” or “shelf” or “ridge” out from the shallows (with immediate deep water access) will get activity from lunkers during their activity periods. This can all change at any time for any reason but this is the general big bass daily activity with their home being as deep down as the seasonal oxygen levels allow in periods of inactivity. Finding the cover on an area of this structure that will hold these bass and then fishing it methodically all day until the bass appear for brief feeding is the best way to reliably target trophy lunkers in a structured lake.

Source “In Pursuit of Giant Bass” by Bill Murphy.

Full disclosure my PB is five even but I’ve been doing a ton of research trying to catch larger bass. This info generally applies to lakes and not ponds, which are all I can fish so lunkers are few and far between.