Drift socks, reverse, keep boat in perfect position
William Attaway does do some things differently from most fishermen on Lake Monticello, which is one reason he catches a lot of fish. One tactic he often employs when drift-fishing is to use his big outboard motor, in reverse, to keep the boat exactly where he wants as he works around humps, crops and points.
“I deploy my drift sock out the front of the pontoon and put the rods out, with the longest lines in the middle and lines closer as I go to the outside and that reduces tangling on turns,” he said. “I put the motor in reverse to keep movement slow, and this allows me keep the speed at 0.3 or 0.4 miles per hour which is a good speed,” Attaway said. “It also enables me to ensure I can stay on a precise drift pattern as I work around the deep humps and other structures on the bottom. Some of my favorite drifts are also adjacent to tree lines that I have marked on my graph, and I have to be able to run exactly where I want to go to avoid hang-ups.”
Attaway said that sometimes the wind is ideal and he’ll just wind drift, but the use of power enables him to maintain boat control and to repeat drifts precisely if he gets on a productive pattern.
“I catch more fish going slow and being in control of the drift than just randomly drifting,” he said.
Be the first to comment