Drifting too fast

[Fish_More]

Went out of Bermagui on Saturday.  Started east of Camel Rock drifting for flathead and got 5 keepers.

Tried moving to 4 mile for a bottom bounce, however was drifting too fast to hold bottom even with a decent sinker.  Any suggestions how could slow the drift to be able to hold the bottom?  Do I need a sea anchor or just more lead?  What do others do?

Ended up heading back to Camel Rock for some more flathead including my PB before heading back in for the afternoon as the kids had enough.

 

 

[Fish_More]

Flathead photos

[PaddyT]

Sea anchor-worth their weight in gold

[Fish_More]

Thanks, I have one but have never used it.  Is the is common problem around Bermagui?

[kingie chaser]

I think its a problem anywhere at times.

I even use my drift chute inside botany bay when the wind starts getting over 15knts.

 

Mine is rates to 21ft & using it on a 13ft tinny & its still not big enough at times.

 

Could also be current in addition to the wind as well?  

 

 

[frankS]

Fishing the 4 mile reef you are in 60 metres plus of water depth so you will need a decent amount of lead at the best of times, It runs from east of Camel rock to Bermi entrance so a long drift, a decent sea anchor will slow the drift and a couple of 20 ltr buckets dragged close to the boat will aid you in keeping the drift in the direction that you want, if you are drifting too much to port pull in port bucket and vise versa for starboard. Bit of extra work involved but you will find it pays dividends. 

My preferred method is to anchor once you have found the fish.

Frank

[Pickles]

I use my MinKota and can adjust the drift by using the bow mount - best investment to my fishing ever - expensive, but has revolutionised my fishing

[Rebel]

Great haul. Well done.

[GoingFishing]

Hey champ - drift speed is a function of wind and current. it happens everywhere.

Sea anchor is an absolute must. On my boat with a hardtop i carry two sea anchors. I dont always use two but its there if i need some extra anchor to slow me down.

Have a read of this:

 

[JonD]

I fish this area on the south coast mostly in the 40-80m, even though I have a sea anchor I never bother with it. I mostly fish soft plastics and jigs between 20g and 60g. I slightly trim my outboard up and nudge in and out of gear to slow my drift reversing against the drift direction, this is what we also do when we target broadbill with baits 600m + deep (unweighted).

[GoingFishing]

9 minutes ago, JonD said:

I fish this area on the south coast mostly in the 40-80m, even though I have a sea anchor I never bother with it. I mostly fish soft plastics and jigs between 20g and 60g. I slightly trim my outboard up and nudge in and out of gear to slow my drift reversing against the drift direction, this is what we also do when we target broadbill with baits 600m + deep (unweighted).

Seems like alot of unecessary fuel consumption and wear and tear on the gearbox.

Out of curiousity - why opt for this over a sea anchor? 

[kingie chaser]

2 hours ago, JonD said:

I fish this area on the south coast mostly in the 40-80m, even though I have a sea anchor I never bother with it. I mostly fish soft plastics and jigs between 20g and 60g. I slightly trim my outboard up and nudge in and out of gear to slow my drift reversing against the drift direction, this is what we also do when we target broadbill with baits 600m + deep (unweighted).

I guess it all about how you fish, where you fish & how much coin you have. 

There is quite often discussion on here plenty about electric motors as well which I see as being a great solution but also an expensive solution, imo a drift chute is a poor mans partial solution, 20lt buckets well that the no name no brand solution I guess that I have heard being used but how effective it works with a large boat & how many buckets do will you need out??

The only time I have ever been a long way out was with @zmk1962 fishing in 500mtrs of water he was doing a similar thing on the day, more actually having the motor just sitting in forward idle to keep the baits fairly up & down with the wind & current working against us, but we were bottom fishing.

It worked for sure but of course used fuel in the process.

 

Ideally it would be great to get to a spot & hit spot lock on the electric or at least use it to work out a correct slow drift pattern.

 

 

 

 

[campr]

Drift anchors are only affetive against wind drift.  I have a 5.6m Quintrex and use one of those bags they use to crane sand etc that are about a cubic metre in size.  Ron 

[bessell1955]

Drifting fast or not, what a great catch of Flatties!  Well done.

 

[JonD]

On 4/12/2021 at 2:40 PM, GoingFishing said:

Seems like alot of unecessary fuel consumption and wear and tear on the gearbox.

Out of curiousity - why opt for this over a sea anchor? 

 

23 hours ago, kingie chaser said:

I guess it all about how you fish, where you fish & how much coin you have. 

There is quite often discussion on here plenty about electric motors as well which I see as being a great solution but also an expensive solution, imo a drift chute is a poor mans partial solution, 20lt buckets well that the no name no brand solution I guess that I have heard being used but how effective it works with a large boat & how many buckets do will you need out??

The only time I have ever been a long way out was with @zmk1962 fishing in 500mtrs of water he was doing a similar thing on the day, more actually having the motor just sitting in forward idle to keep the baits fairly up & down with the wind & current working against us, but we were bottom fishing.

It worked for sure but of course used fuel in the process.

 

Ideally it would be great to get to a spot & hit spot lock on the electric or at least use it to work out a correct slow drift pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

My take on it. I drive boats often all day in and out of gear with divers on hooka collecting urchin or abalone (or should I say I have done in the past, not so much since covid).

The cost of Ellectric and battery's is simply out of the question for me. 

The cost of running an engine at around 500rpm all day is maybe 3-4litres of fuel but for me I seldom fish this way all day. Yes my services come around more often but I have a good mobile mechanic that rarely hits me for more than $200. The fact that an engine running all day compared to a cold engine run short high rpm distances and stopped often results in an overall longer lifespan of an engine.

Using aluminium props rather than stainless and engaging into gear at low rpm isn't likely to do any harm at all, this is something tour boats do all day long in such places as the Daintree and other crocodile tour operators in the NT. Those boats clock up over 7000hrs per year without gearbox problems. In saying that I did speak with one company who had had issues with Suzuki gearboxes which seems to be an issue with that manufacturer.

So why not sea anchors even though I carry them (2). Simple reason is Im targeting fish that are normally in one very small area and the fact I can quickly and easily control my boat. If my drift looks like I might be 20m off the fish I can simply nudge into gear and move 20m rather than pull in the sea anchor and start again. 

Mako will often grab my snapper, so a sea anchor is just something that gets in the way if I decide to have some fun with one.

As for basic flathead drifting, well things have greatly changed down here for those thanks to leather jackets. If I suddenly get snipped,  which happens regularly, I just want to move on quickly to another spot. Also with flathead I tend to use 10-15lb braid with sinkers in the 2-4oz max, if the current is pushing to hard to use these its not worth fishing. The flathead grounds I fish I expect a bite within 30 seconds which gives plenty of time to get those sinkers down and stay in contact with. 

As for deep dropping and broadbill fishing, its the common way to slow the drift down here.