Fishing Boat Drogue Article

Boats & Motors

WHERE SLOW IS GOOD, slower is often better. The theory applies to walleyes, crappie, and Great Lakes salmon, to salt-- water trout, grouper-even sailfish. A slow-moving fishing platform can be your best friend because, while it covers a lot of territory, it gives fish time to decide yours is an offer they can't refuse.

Drifting lets live baits swim naturally, and it allows lightweight, lively acting lures to get deep.

Walleye pro and tourney organizer Jim Kalkofen says he won't leave home without one. "Most pros make use of them at least part of the time," says Kalkofen. "Covering lots of water is key to successful walleye fishing, but you've got to do it deliberately and precisely. The drift anchor allows control."

The basic purpose of the device, to slow a drift, is a particular help in winter and spring, says walleye pro Sam Anderson. "The fish are cold, the bait is cold, and you really need a slow presentation to get the bite," says Anderson. "The sea anchor cuts your drift speed down as slow as you want to eo in most conditions."

Anderson says that drifting sideways, as you may want to do with two or three aboard, is particularly benefited by using a sea anchor. "The stem wants to hang back because of the drag of the lower unit," says Anderson. "Put the sea anchor off the bow; it balances the drag of the outboard and you drift sideways."

When winds are strong, savvy anglers targeting spring small-- mouth along the ledges of Lake Erie use the same tactic as do those drifting live bait for sailfish in winter off southeast Florida. By adjusting the attachment point for the line to the sea anchor, the boat's drifting attitude can be altered to suit wind and current conditions; if the bow is hanging back into the wind, you can correct by moving the attachment point nearer to the center of the upwind gunwale. If the stem is hanging back, you move the attachment point farther toward the bow. Some anglers make use of a "bridle," a line from bow to stem, with the line to the chute attached on this line. The bridle allows for infinite adjustments, which you don't have if you depend on cleats alone.

Whatever species you're after, you may want to occasionally use the outboard or a trolling motor to assist in boat positioning when the chute is deployed.

"If you want to drift down a ledge and the wind is not blowing right down that ledge, you can stay on it by adjusting your position forward or back with the outboard from time to time," says Anderson. "The fish are usually facing into the current created by persistent winds, so you're bringing the bait right to their mouth with this approach."

Another common use of the sea anchor, maybe the preferred use in walleye tournaments, is to slow down power-trolling speeds. Most common rigging, says Kalkofen, is to string the anchor off the bow on a short line. "If you're trolling with a big motor, you can't get it down to 1 to 2 mph on most boats, and that's where you want to be for the most effective presentation," says Kalkofen. "With the anchor trailed off the bow, your speed drops right into that zone."

Why not trail the anchor off the stem? Some do, but the bow rigging is more trouble-- free. "The anchor is far enough forward that it doesn't interfere with trolling lines or landing fish off the transom," says Anderson. "And there's less chance of getting the chute lines in the prop if you stop to land a fish." If you get a really big fish that's going to lead you around the boat, you can just pick up the "dump" line, open the bottom of the chute and pull it aboard with one hand with the bow rigging, the pros advise.

Sea anchors also lessen the effect of wave action, allowing the lure to maintain a steady speed and stay in the strike zone near bottom more consistently. In big head seas, boats tend to lug down as they climb up the face of a wave, then speed forward as they go down the back of it.

When sea conditions allow, a lot of walleye anglers prefer "back-trolling," which is trolling stem-first, because outboards troll slower in reverse than in forward. And when the drag of putting the stem first is not enough to slow them as much as they like, they again rig a drogue, usually from the bow

Is handling a sea anchor a lot of bother? Sometimes. But when you return to the docks with your share of big fish-often when others strike out-getting the drift will seem well worth the extra effort.