Drifting Speed?

[REW]

One of the other threads made me start to think about the speed, that we drift - during various presentations for walleye fishing.

It seems that many folks use big, little, or middle sized drift socks, kicker motors, electric motors etc. all with one purpose - slow their drift.

I wonder how many of you fisher folks have simply let the boat drift with the wind - in an obvious productive spot and made comparisons on numbers of fish boated - compared to slowing the drift to a little or a lot by auxillary means?

As Al Linder, the Griz and some other notables have mentioned in various articles - many times it seems to be more productive - and net more Walleyes by moving along at a fairly good clip - even with Lindy rigging, or some other "rather traditional - slow fishing tactic".

As I mentioned in another post, for the last several years, I seldom deploy a drift sock - even in rather windy weather. I generally drift considerably faster than many of the boats around me. But my partner and I certainly have no problems in getting numbers and quality of fish in our boat. The reason that I mention this, is that I sometimes see folks fighting drift socks, motors, and other speed reducing devices - and I think that they actually net fewer fish many times - simply because they are not presenting their bait in front of the "active - or fish willing to bite", at any given time.

As some of the notables have mentioned before - if you can get your bait in front of more fish in an hour - it is likely that you can find more "biters" in that same hour of fishing time.

Any thoughts??

Take care

REW

[PJM]

Rew

You bring up a very interesting point. Last year I never once used a drift sock but the year before I did. Some time I use a sock with my big motor to slow the boat down when I am rip jigging in shallow rough water. My boat is heavy enough that most of the time I don't need a sock to slow me down. I learned most of my boat control methods from the Griz who is a very good friend of mine and he hardly uses a drift sock. One thing about fishing in waves is that some days rip jigging against the waves you get more fish then going with them or somedays it can be the other way around, and the same with spinners and lindy rigs. Presentation is an important part of fishing and sometime the fish will chase and sometimes you have to drag it slow by there mouth. It seems to me the bigger walleyes I have caught have be moving slow though the water. But like my dad says after we come in from a nice day of fishing and everyone tells us about how big there fish were, but we never saw them and he will say to me (We only catch the little ones). Like reading your posts ............

[REW]

Talk about the same vein.
I basically picked up the idea of the faster speeds, when fishing on Winni - side by side - so to speak with the Griz to attempt to duplicate his success with rip jigging.

I then extended this theory to the times that I am simply drifting with a rig, and found it to be equally effective.

About the only time that I use a sock any more, is if the wind is over 20 mph, and the waves are over about 3 feet. The, unless I am working a huge flat - I am on and off the flat so quick, that there is simply very little time for the bait to be in the "zone".

Other wise, it seems that the drift with the wind works just fine.

I do have to admit, that my glass boat - with a fairly low freeboard, does drift a bit slower than my previous aluminum boat, with the walk through wind shield and higher freeboard.

Take care
REW

[wouldchuck]

It would seem to me that the more time you spend in the "zone" the more fish you're going to catch. Thus a slower drift speed would be desirable. A higher drift speed might be good to cover more water while searching for fish but once they're found I would want to spend as much time over them as I can.

[Greg Morse]

Last Sept. a group of us went to Halley's on the English River in Ontatio. My boat was basically using the same tactic all 4 days of the trip,drifting bead link keel sinkers with floating harness's, leech, minnow's and crawlers. The other 2 boats were either vertical jigging with a kicker or back trolling with wackers. On 2 seperate days, the worst weather days,there was definately an advantage to a very fast drift in 4-5 foor rollors.As a matter of fact, the last day got so windy and rough, we started out under cover behind idlands and such, getting skunked. I looked at my partner and said button up, were going back out to the middle humps. We had a blast. I didn't have my gps at that time so cant say how fast we were going, but it was a pretty good clip. The other 2 boats showed up an hour or so later, using their tactics and did not do nearly as well. The other 2 days that were less windy produced the same for all 3 boats. I am convinced now that if we would have picked up the pace on the calmer days we would have had better luck. On that water, at that time frame, speed was definately the better tactic. I had no choice but to fish like that, no kicker or wackers then, guess I lucked out.

p.s. biggest and most fish came on crawlers. I have found this to be true on my last 3 canadian walleye trips. I don't get in a panic anymore about finding good leaches in Canada, the price, etc. You can take crawlers across the border just fine and they work great for me.

[Fish Hound]

I want to thank you for this post. After reading a couple of posts about drift bags, I was thinking I have to get one. I'm sure there will be a few days when I'll want to drift slower but I can use my elec. I remember a few years ago, fishing Lake Erie out of Lorain, OH. In a pack of boats, drifting, small boat. At first didn't pay attention to other boats. Then noticed that all they were doing was drifting and I was catching fish. My drift was faster. Maybe getting a reaction bite instead of a hunger one.
The Fish Hound

[SnellTier]

REW,

Most of my fishing training came from fishing with the educators from the old Hotspots Adventures program which had 6 or 8 different pros teaching during different trips.

What I came away with after listening to and fishing with those folks over a 4-year period for about a dozen or 15 trips was that speed is just one more variable in the fishing equation ... as is bait selection, presentation, search patterning, and other things.

I fished with one pro who ran his boat very very slowly ... all the time. He was a deliberate, exacting, careful person. I fished with another who I swear had a trolling motor that had only 2 speeds ... "on-plane" and off. My one-ounce bottom bouncers would nearly water ski ... I had to use 3 ouncers and was looking for 5 ouncers. This guy was energetic, enthusiastic, and dynamic.

The thing is ... I caught fish with both people. Some days more than others, with both individuals. I finally realized that speed was relevant only in light of what the fish wanted that day, and then only for whatever kind of bait we were using at that time.

One of the other posts says that they caught more fish at higher speeds during windy, rough conditions. I have seen that also. But I have also seen days where SLOW speeds brought us more fish under those same windy, rough conditions. My biggest walley (10.5 pounds) came when my bottom bouncer must have been nearly stopped as I was making a 90 degree contour-following turn in weather that put waves over my bow). We had several experiences just like that on that day!!

On the other hand, my wife caught a huge walleye one trip as we were swimming jigs in dead calm water and I made a similar sharp turn to follow a contour line. Her jig must have been dead stopped in about 6 feet of water on top of a hump at 11 A.M. on a bright sunny day. We decided to vertical jig and caught a lot of fish! Yet while fishing with the "speedy pro", we caught a ton of fish the next day under similar weather conditions while bottom bouncing going at what I think are high speeds.

Go figure.

It seems to me, one has to just experiment until one finds the key for that presentation for that day at that time. What I have found, is that the desired speed will vary during the course of the day, too, but not much, unless one sees a drastic weather change.

Interesting stuff, this fishing ... huh? The variability is part of the challenge.

ENJOY!!

Tom

[MathMan]

Interesting point about crawlers.

But how about crawlers in the spring. I almost always bring them with me, but never seem to catch very much with them.

Is it the spring time, or is it me?

Rick Mitchell
Stevens Point, Wisconsin

[Gilligan]

I mostly drift inland lake I do almost all my fishing on until our summer east basin Erie bite takes off.

I notice that until water temps get to mid 50's/60 that the bite is vertical. Vertical jigging boats most all my fish in the colder conditions and drifting with bouncers dosen't seem to produce until hitting above temps. I drift with one huge sock and if quite windy I'll put out the smaller trolling bags also. Even after the temps pick up and fish seem more willing to chase I still slow my drift way down trying to stay over the productive water longer.