In 1857, Vodopić was appointed a parish priest in Gruž, where he remained for twenty-two years. This period of his life was the most prolific. Politically, Vodopić supported the People's Party. In this period he became politically involved. Vodopić was a proponent of the political unification of Dalmatia and Bosnia with the rest of Croatia. For most of his life, Vodopić supported Yugoslavism, however, since the 1880s, he became less and less enthusiastic about the idea. His view of Serbs changed since then, mostly because of their cooperation with the Italian nationalist Autonomist Party in Dalmatia. Since 1862, Vodopić worked as a teacher of Croatian for the Municipality of Dubrovnik, and after the school reform of 1870, he taught Croatian in Gruž. While in Gruž, Vodopić wrote "Tužna Jela" (English: Tearful Jela) i "Robinjica" (English: The Slavewoman), with the latter novel being inspired by the Herzegovina Uprising.