I'm looking into buying a drift sock before I go to Erie this year,what do you guys recommend,I was thinking the Cabelas brand,how do they hold up compared to others,I checked in the archives with a search and nothing came up,Thanks.

I have the drift control 60" and it works great
it was in one of the marine catalogs, either cabelas or basspro

rebs

Do a search on the general discussion forum typing in "drift socks". Should bring up several threads to get you started. Drift Control and Wavetamer are the two most popular. I use Drift Control Tournament Series 30 for my 19' boat. Works well, and I like the fact that it is adjustable, and can be collapsed and left out when repositioning boat for another drift pass. Which ever kind you get, make sure you get one big enough for your boat, or consider getting two of them for when the wind is really howling.

Woodsdweller

I am not trying to be funny here, but are you wanting it for drift fishing , or for trolling? there is a difference in the shape of the 2 styles. good luck and good fishin.
Den

It will be used mostly to slow me down when trolling if its really windy,Thanks.

JS,

It must have been past Den's bedtime or he would have responded, I'm sure. For foward trolling speed control, the Amish Buggy Bag would work well. I've never used one but have heard good things about them. I believe they are made of canvas and built to withstand the stress of trolling. A driftsock won't (for very long). I have tried a 5 gallon bucket. It actually worked pretty good to slow down an additional .5 mph.

Tim

JS,
I copied this from my response to "slowing down question" in the Boats & Motors thread. Good Luck,
Steve

"Drift" socks will work for a while - what you really want are TWO TROLLING BAGS. Trolling bags are built with more heavy duty material and will last a lot longer than a driftsock if you use it much. The trolling bags will double as a driftsock or an emergency storm anchor too. You want to run one off each side of the boat from the middle/springline cleats. The front line should be just long enough to allow the bag to fully open in the roughest water you expect to fish and short enough so it can't get back in your prop. install a rear tagline to make retrieval easy. Running them off the sides helps you steer and provides some stability while keeping out of the way of setting lines and netting fish. Some of the best bags are available online from Frank Kittrick at www.amishoutfitters.com or you can call Denny at The Sportsman's Outpost in Vermillion Ohio 888-855-9032.
Good Luck,
Steve

I went through this last year. Searched all the sites for info on drift socks and trolling bags. I finally saw the Amish Buggy Bag at the Cleveland Sportman Show in March. I still wasn't sure so I kept looking until launch time. I found nothing better. I ordered two from Den at Sportsman's Outpost and used them all year. They are great!! I highly recomend them. My old bag was a filmsy vinyl bag that lasted me fifteen years. In comparing the construction between it and these bags, I'll be leaving them to my grandchildren some day. They are made that well.

Check out the web site:

http://www.amishoutfitters.com/buggybag.htm

And if you are going to fish the Huron/ Vermilion area of Lake Erie it would really be worth your time to stop in at the Sportsman's Outpost.
http://www.geocities.com/densoutpost/Dens-Outpost.html

Good luck in your search.

And good fishing.

Barry