Drift Fishing

[livemusic]

Sometimes, even with a bassboat and foot-controlled troll motor, it's a battle with the wind. I have a small lake I go to and I sometimes think, heck, I should just run upwind and drift back over a decent area next to the creek channel. Might take, say, 30 minutes per drift. How to fish it? Throw upwind and then hop a worm/sinker off the bottom as you drift or what? Jig a crappie jig straight up and down and you might catch bass or crappie? Anyone do this?

[Crestliner2008]

We use this kind of drift presentation for crappie all the time. Works well deep jigging lake trout & smallmouth bass too.

[BennyB]

I use a john boat a lot, without a motor, besides myself and some oars of course. I use a slow drift method a lot with a jig or Texas rig. I find when I fish slow like this and a little deeper, I often catch larger fish when pushed by the wind through a nice stretch of lake. Lots of fish over 5 lbs this way, slow crawling. When the wind is at a gale, this won't work though; dragging at 5 knots means it's time to find a cove and another way to fish for the day.

[papajoe222]

I learned this one from Uncle Homer: Keep a rod baited with a large shiner suspended under a bobber set out behind the boat as you drift and cast from the bow. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the number and quality of fish you pick up.

[scyounggun]

I will keep my trolling motor in the water and do sort of a "controlled drift" a lot if the wind is bad and I just don't feel like fighting it.

[wuchr20]

For how to fish it i would use a football head hula grub and drag it along the bottom.  Dont even reel .  Maybe give it a little twitch.

[Crutch]

This is actually how I was catching pike at one of the lakes I go to. It was rainy and the weather was so nasty, but the pike didn't care. It was fun, and I was catching them on a t-rigged berkley 7" powerbait with a 1/4oz bullet weight, lmao!

[Catt]

Get yourself an anchor & 25' of rope!

Drop the anchor, fish 360° around the boat, pull up the anchor, drift the lenght of a cast, drop anchor, fish 360° around the boat...repeat!

[Steveo-1969]

I go to KY Lake every year on vacation and drift fishing is all we do. We use a small boat with a 15hp outboard, no trolling motor and no anchor. We find a ledge, figure out which way the wind will drift us and fish. If we are lucky the wind blows us along the ledge. If it's blowing us across the ledge we drift across it, fire up the motor and reposition, drift across, repeat. When we catch a fish we throw out a marker buoy and repeat that same drift several times. I find it very relaxing and we even catch a fish once in a while... ha-ha.

[Bankbeater]

I drift a lot on a couple of the lakes that I fish. What I look at when drifting is wind speed, wind direction, cover or structure I'm drifting over, and depth. If the wind is really blowing I use a crankbait, or a spinnerbait. If there is just a gentle breeze I will throw a t-rig, or a jig.

[corn-on-the-rob]

Drift fishing is extremely popular on the great lakes especially in rough water. It allows you to complement the waves/conditions instead of fighting them.

[geo g]

I do this all the time.  It is one of my favorite ways to fish.  When planning a trip, I always check the wind direction and strength, and prepare my attack plan.  I will run up wind and let the wind drift me slowly back the way I came.  In heavy wind conditions I will put out a drift bag which really slows the boat down.  I just had to do this last weekend.  Drift fishing does two important things.  1). It makes boat control easy.  2}.  It keeps you in stealth mode.  This is very important especially in clear water.  Bass don't even know your in the neighborhood as your drifting through the area, and this will increase your catch rate.  Stay off the trolling motor as much as possible.  This type of trip planning makes for an easy, enjoyable, relaxing day.  Just make sure there are good target areas along your drift path.

[hatrix]

Drift fishing is extremely popular on the great lakes especially in rough water. It allows you to complement the waves/conditions instead of fighting them.

Ya well it's expensive to fill up the boat and the lakes are huge. Drifting a jerkbait is a killer presentation on Erie.

[Dwight Hottle]

Drift fishing with jerk baits is hard to beat. You can use a drop shot or vertical jig/blade bait approach if the fish are tight to bottom.  The whole idea of drift fishing is to cover water, let the wind help work your bait & most importantly keep the bait in the water rather than cast & retrieve constantly. 

[MikeinFresno]

I do it a lot with drop shot...the drift gives the worm the constant swimming wiggle it needs.

[Rhino68W]

I do it a lot in the kayak. Either with a spoon, a jig, or a C-rig. Don't catch much, but it's the most proficient way for me on windy days.