Catching fish mostly

Look I wasn't putting people down, but I know for a fact, alot of people just go put there boat in the water and let the wind take them. And this is not as productive of a method as focusing on specfic areas of the lake, points, humps, transitions ect.

Sure I drift, I do it all the time, but I focus on a peice of structure, using my motor and drift socks to fish all parts of it. This is completly differnt than driving all the way acrossed a lake, and letting the wind take me back to the other side.



The fact that you still don't fish like this, means you have learned something from being out on the water, you use this knowledge to catch more fish, and still have fun doing it. Some people don't have the knowledge or means to fish like others do.

Right it's all about having fun, just ask anyone who's fished with me, I know how to have fun...

I agree with kato guy , years ago we used to do the same thing and usually with a high rate of success .It was an adventure , cause you never knew what was swimming under that next wave . As I look back , maybe we even had more fun "aimlessly drifting" than today when we 'know what we are doing'
Bud

Just trying to answer the Muddog's question, but thanks for telling me I'm putting people down.

Being a dedicated fisherman, it's sometimes hard to imagine that many people just go out with chance & luck as their guide & they're ok with that, they aen't looking to make too much of it & they may strike gold with no real intentions to learn or repeat. I have a son that bowls & he is very good at it, but he finds it odd that there are so many people that just throw the ball & sometimes do well & other times poorly with out a real clue why that happened, but they have fun & don't really care about the specifics. A man once said to another after a round of golf, " so what was you're score?" The man said " now why would I ruin a perfect outing by keeping score?"
L2f

Well said love2fish4ever.

Drifting is a nice technique that is often overlooked. When guiding with three in the boat, this is a good way to cover a shoreline or basin area with three different techniques at three different depths; pitched crank bait or plastic, jig and leech hopped along and a spinner and crawler harness. As for putting people down, etc, from what I know about the people responding to this post, of which most I do know, it is not their intention to put someone down for how they fish. MD asked if it worked because it didn't seem to make a lot sense to him to do it. There have been explanations to this but we could also turn and ask MD why and the heck he and his fishing partner troll all the time. Many pick their poison and go with it, so there is certainly no need to get bent out of shape.

Not my intention Riverrat, I just didn't get that from the post is all...........

Alrighty, I'm back to being myself again, just got a bit worked up before...sorry if I offended any drifters...

As I said; I'm from the school of Buck Perry. I'm a spoonpluger. Before I go to a new lake I get a map look it over find the areas that have "structure" of the most intrest. Start shallow and work my way deep. once I fine an area that holds active fish I work the area for a few fish. Then I find another spot like it (inside turn, outside turn, wind blown hump or what ever) on the lake and work it while as the first spot settles down. Once fish are found then I start to think if it would be better to drop the bow mount motor or keep the big motor down and cover more water. This is why I have a boat and motor.

So that is why I ask; Does this drift at the wind mercy work? I'm not try to make fun of them. I do not see people posting of there success fishing in this way and I see no tips on how to tweek it. As a matter of fact I see no goto bait for this style of fishing. I'm just trying to understand why it is so popular.

In Buck Perry book Spoonpluging you may see that as he developed this style of fishing he though that the Fish-Locator (Green Box) was just a distraction.

The people who I see doing the drift fishing almost all have better boats then I do. A dingy with a motor, GPS, a hand full of crankbait (tip, This time of year with the summer sun in the sky on a clear day gold and black is hard to beat) and a flasher. That is all it takes.

Last summer i motored (electric) across the center of a local bowl lake by my house rigging a leech and 10' snell and picked up a 24" walleye in the middle of the lake. No structure only deep water, just thought i'd try deep water and it hit. I couldn't for the life of me repeat my success, so i went back to the tried and true of working structure.

i agree with katoguy, when walleyes are hard to find and not feeding actively drifting has put more fish in my boat than any other way of fishing, once i pick up a few fish in one area i will drop a jig down but when only producing one fish here and there a crawler on a lindy rig can really produce when nothing else will and have alot of fun doing it

josh

MD, All you had to do was ask. I was "drifting" on 2 diferent lakes over the extended weekend. For myself, it works well. small boat,? motor, and a POS trolling motor. I personally feel that I can cover ground, check different depths, and structure changes, when not knowing the lake real well. But I can sure take the time to study and learn alot about that lake by doing it. To me, it's not much different then using the trolling motor, just can't stay on a particular weedline, or transition. Starting the motor to move forward or back helps me follow a path, rather then just random floating. Short drifts/long drifts depend on the wind direction/structure I'm trying to stay on.
My personal lure of choice is bottom bouncing with Lindys and live bait to floating jig heads with slip sinkers. Your at the mercey of the wind as far as speed goes, but that why they make drift socks( I don't have one).
I found the crappies and sunfish on one of the lakes this weekend, (Sat morning before the whitecaps and all the boat traffic) a slow drift starting in 6ft, drifting out to 12ft. Pulling/dragging small plastics,(ratsos, paddletails) with a lead weight 18" up the line, to get down to 5-7'. After a few drifts, We found that if we started our drift in one spot everytime, (not 50ft over) we stayed on the fish. By the time we hit 12 ft, we were moving to fast. We did try anchoring, pitching and slip bobbers in the same area, but that produced nothing.
Growing up, it was troll, drift or anchor. Guess I'm just a drifter that wants to put the anchor down!

Oh yeah, Nice fish.
Lonnie

I hate to break it to some of ya, but i have some nice flats that i fish on more than 1 lake where a drift works as good as anything. Walleyes arent always finetuned and honed in on very specific structure. Come fish Winnie in a couple weeks with me. I'll catch more walleyes that week on the most stuctureless piece of water on that lake, but the emerald shiners set up shop in the area and the eyes and bigger northerns are right with them. Troll it, drift it, anything to cover a little water does the trick. This scenario sets up all across the state. If your not fishing feeding flats your missing out. Use your electronics to find the pods of baitfish. The walleyes and other predators will be right with them. I like honing in on a nice piece of structure just as much as the next guy, but if that is all you do, your missing out. A nice drift across these areas with a spinner rig can be dynamite.

All I know is drifting produces fish for me AND it really saves the battery for the trolling motor.