Hi Fishraiders,
I've been a member for a few years and enjoy reading all the posts on here, love it 🙂
I haven't shared much about my fishing but here's a disaster from last year in Sydney.
I was spending a fair bit of time on the North Shore and started fishing the ledges at Curl Curl with some success and other days I would watch the more experienced guys hauling in these massive Kings. I thought I was somewhat in with a chance using fresh squid but I just couldn't reach the distance these guys were managing. Then I had a lightbulb moment, I'll rig my drone with a simple hook so I'd be able to deploy my bait out further than these guys! So, back the next day with my squid and drone, I managed to get the bait out after a few attempts. Now, I would say that I am experienced and licensed to fly a remote aircraft and this really tested my resolve. Will I get it back? Anyway, I drop the squid and fly the drone back to the ledge safely. I thought 'mission accomplished'. I'll be back to try again.
A few days after that, I decided to fish up at North Curl Curl with the drone. After spending a few minutes getting the rig ready, I flew it out comfortably until there was a jag in the spool. Horror struck me as I looked at my screen, the drone was out a couple hundred meters so it was out of sight but the last vision I got was this spiralling video and then the drone hitting the water. Black screen and signal lost...it was gone and I knew there was no coming back this time.
So now I am left with 250m of braid attached to my drone out there, I knew it was pointless but I just didn't want to say goodbye. I ended up cutting the line after much disappointment in myself.
Hopefully anyone thinking about using a drone to fish with, it is high risk and it only takes a second or a slight pull on the line to send it down. It's not worth it.
Oh well, it's resting in about 40m and maybe someone will hook it up one day 🙂