Thread subject: Whaler Central - Boston Whaler Boat Information and Photos :: How to slow for drift fishing

Posted by Silentpardner on 08/19/14 - 11:12 AM
#21

It appears that several responders here in this thread do not understand what "Drift Fishing", "Mooching", and "trolling" actually means..
"Mooching" is not the same as drift fishing. Mooching requires that the boat move no faster, and in the same direction as, the current in the water being fished. This allows a fisherman to fish lines straight down from the boat with very little or no angle to the lines, although the fisherman can cast away from the boat for a position in the water body being fished... sort of like a satellite in geostationary orbit...the bait stays in the same position in the current as the boat.
Drift speed inhibitors, such as a drift sock and a sea anchor, are used to reduce or eliminate the effect of the wind from the boat drift speed. The size of the drift sock/parachute/bucket must be large enough to counter the wind effect on the boat it is used with, if it's to small, or it's pass through opening is too large, (the smaller diameter end of the sock), it won't work satisfactorily to eliminate the wind effect, but it will reduce this wind effect.
For mooching, I would assume that a fully closed sock would be desirable. This is called a sea anchor, and they have been used at sea for 1000's of years. In order to pass the USCG merchant marine exams, even at the basic levels of mate, you are required to understand this principle. The parachute that is being used by R&R above is a sea anchor, it is not a drift sock.

Drift Fishing is using the wind and currents in a body of water to move over the body of water being fished at a desired speed without using any power from an engine to achieve this. Drift fishing speed, as well as direction, is a function of both wind and current. Setting up a drift pattern that covers an area the fisherman wants to fish requires skills in boat positioning at the starting point of the drift, based on wind and current effects on the boat. Drift socks are used to assist in this control of the drift pattern and speed after the engine power is shut down, usually for stealth. Think of a wind sock as an underwater sail, working to decrease speed of a vessel using wind instead of increasing speed using the wind. The sock will resist the wind.
Drift socks are like conical tube underwater kites. The smaller the opening that water passes through during a drift pattern, the greater the effect of the reduction on the speed of the vessel's drift. If you close a drift sock all the way off, you have a sea anchor. If the sock is properly sized for the boat, when closed off completely, it will only allow the vessel to be moved by current, and wind will have no effect on the speed of the boat.

Trolling is using the vessels power to pull fishing lines/lures through a body of water behind the vessel. This imitates live baits following a boat. I have never heard of using a drift sock or bag to reduce the speed of a vessel underway while trolling until I read about this in another thread here. It seems to be absurd to me, as it would seem to directly interfere with the whole point of trolling: pulling lures from fishing rods off the stern of the boat, having a fish strike one of these lures and become hooked, and then reeling the fish to the boat and putting it on ice or in a livewell.

I would have to see this "trolling bag" thing actually work successfully, i.e., actually see a fisherman put fish into the boat without tangling lines with this apparatus, before I would recommend one of these. Frankly, from my 40 years of trolling experience perspective, I don't think this method is practical at all.

I hope these definitions of fishing methods, terminologies, and techniques help clear up this discussion, as the original poster apparently wishes to discuss "mooching" as opposed to conventional drift fishing or trolling.

You need a sea anchor to mooch.

Edited by Silentpardner on 08/19/14 - 11:29 AM