Do you use a sea anchor for drifting over reefs? Is it a good idea to slow down the drift or not?
What about sinker sizes? Would you need a heavier sinker for a drift, compared to being on the pick?If Im targeting snapper, with a floatline/pilly on one rod and a paternoster on the other rod, how much lead would you use ?
Would rigs vary for 15-20 fathoms, compared to 30 fathoms, or for different currents?
Many thank in advance.
i tend use as mninimal amount of lead as possible, when on the drift, especially across reefs due to the snag factor, and you're going to want your bait to travel with you as you drift not anchor you and the boat, but each to their own as well
We use a sea anchor if drifting too fast, to slow down the drift. generally slows you down 50%.
Use as little sinker as possible to get you to the bottom.
Rigs are usually the same no matter what depth you are fishing, just the lead size varies.
for a nice slow drift i put a bucket over the back
Hi, Gogecko.
I normally always use a parachute, unless the drift is real slow. It is one of the most valued peices of equipment on my boat, as I always drift fish the reefs.
I drift fish because I find it quite uncomfortable and nauseating on the end of an anchor. I figure that sure I might be missing out on fish by not burleying and sitting on a school or good show, but I'm getting to more fish by moving and covering more ground. Plus I reckon the fish hit a moving bait harder.
As of late we have been getting good fish on the Barwon banks off the structure on ground that seems baron, but obviously not.
We have been fishing with about a 10oz dropper leadon a patternoster in about 60m of water. This has allowed us to stay near the bottom with about 1knt of current. on the floater rigs a 8oz ball has been keeping us about 5m off the bottom. (I should add that we are totally mono fishermen, so of course the diameter of the line means slightly bigger sinkers).
I normally wouldn't use a patternoster rig but my deckie has bee killing me early in the day as he uses a patternoster and I normally start with a floater. So I've changed tactics for the moment.
We enjoy not having to stuff around with ananchor, and will frequently drift lines that are productive or there is a good show. Sometimes we will have troubles with the drift especially if there is a wind or current change upsetting the drift pattern. To fully cover anarea I will travel back up the drift line then go say 20 - 30 m to one side and see whats there. Sometimes this works sometimes not.
Anyway I am in favour of parachutes. They take a bit of getting use to ,and fishing around but once this is acheived they work great.
Cheers Pual
"as little lead as possible to get to the bottom" - so how do you know when you are on the bottom? Is it just the angle of the line. Should it look like its going almost straight down? Mine looked like it was almost parrelel to the surface, so I stuck a second No 3 sinker on it, and that looked better at about 45 degrees. I could still have been a few mettres off the bottom tho, how would you know?
" a floater with a sinker was 5 m off the bottom" - so a light sinker on a floater is better than none at all? My first floater was on or near the surface for 20-30 mins. Might try a small sinker.
Thanks guys.I'll do more practice.Only been outside once for a quick look around. Will get out agian as soon as the weather allows. I know, today is great, but Im at work for a few days.maybe Fri or Sat will be good.
Sounds like the bucket out the back is the go for the drift.
what size bucket? is it bridle roped or just a single rope off the back? I'm keen to try.
Any fishing is good fishing(should probably say Any fishing is...probably going to be illegal soon)
HI nonibbles. As stated, Im new at this too, but a mate of mine sails a 30ft yacht a lot, and he reckons a standard household bucket with a single piece of rope hanging about 10ft out the back is a very effective slower downer.Just make sure it has strong hinges.
I see parachutes and drogue sea anchors average around $80-90 each, and I reckon they would have to have 2-3 times the slowing power, due to the larger surface area. Just guessing tho.
If one had a gps, you would measure the time it takes to cover a drift with ,and then without a bucket. Then you would know for sure. All I know, is that Im drifting for 15-20 mins, and covered about 2 miles.Im guessing the reef is less then 1 mile wide, so Im wasting a lot of time floating baits over sand.
It was only a quick look outside. Got no fishfinder yet (its on order) or gps (also coming soon). I was just happy my little boat could make it to the 15 fathom mark. Might even get out further yet.
Jees I hope you guys have some good quality buckets. the sea anchor is the best method to slow your drift down cost about $60 money well spent.
You can normally feel when you're on the bottom but it depends on the depth of water and drift running on how much sinker to use. As a guide in 60mtrs on a good day drifting at .5 of a knot I would be looking at using either a 8 or 10 ball.
Hope this helps.
Wayne
Hi Gogecko, In response to the above.
The angle of the line is a good indication and you do learn to recognise how much line has gone off the spool - the reduced rate at which the line comes off the spool as it is influenced by the current and not by the weight of the sinker - the drag of the sinker across the reef (especially of the snapper lead which can sometimes be confused with bites) - the loss of sinker weight on the rig as you touch the bottom 9don't forget if the current is slow to wind up about 1m to avoid snags and watch the sounder depth so as not to get snagged as you come up onto a ledge or rise)
All these things are learned by practise and a willingness to change weights until you get the desired affect.
Practice will allow you to determine how much line needs to be let out, and when to feed out more line to stay in the strike zone or feed back to a fish.
Ofcourse it is no use letting out heaps of line uncontrolled as it will give the rig to much time to get snagged or it will just end up with a big belly of line in the water reducing any angler sensitivity to feal bites and subtle weight changes such as what some times will indicate that a fish is interested.
As above, I used buckets of each transom corner attached to the ski hooks to slow the drift in the beginning, then moved to a (uncollapsible)conical shaped sea anchor, then onto a para-anchor (collapsible) attached to each ski hook. In most situations this will keep the transom square onto the current, unless a side wind effects things where the parachute can be attached to just one corner of the transom.
Hope this helps
Cheers Pual
Just following this thread it looks like the main attachment point of the sea anchor is at the transom. Is this the case? In what siutaions would one vary the attachement point to say the front bollard? Or is it the case that it is never the front bollard.
In an emergency situation such as dangerously rough weather finding you or motor failure I would personaly only ever tie off to the front bollard,I have tied off to midship before in what I've deemed to be safe conditions but I would be loathed to tie off to the back corner of the boat,but plenty do without drama.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote