To all you offshore fisherman... What is the best way to use a marker buoy to fish offshore cover? Do you idle over it and drop the buoy right on top of it and then cast to it or something different. I've been dropping it right on top and I keep accidentally catching the buoy line. Is there a better way? I only have gps in the console but not up front. Thanks.

Ten or 1f feet off to either side of it would work. Then just cast beside the buouy. Or work on your casting skills in back yard before you go out.

LOL! I got the casting skills down, just not the offshore skills.

need to work on casting.

I use GPS points a average cast off the structure to set the marker buoys. Just as a reference point for knowing where the structure us. By doing this you don't have to put the boat over the structure / fish to set the buoy. Also if you paint them black they can't be seen from as far away so it won't be as obvious that you are fishing structure.

With GPS now they just come idleing by and hit the waypoint button twice and your spots been poached.

Make sure you pay attention to the wind. I like to drop the buoy directly down wind unless the wind is blowing real strong. If the wind is blowing stronger I'll set up to one side but maybe still a little downwind.

I mark the spot on my gps and start fishing it, as so as I hook a fish I drop a buoy off the bow and pick a landmark to help line up the next cast, then I can line up the buoy and my landmark and nose my boat right back up to the buoy and repeat the same cast over and over , if theres not a good landmark to line up with I'll throw a second buoy 15 to 20 feet straight out from the bow as soon as I kick the first one off

+1 on the wind....if the wind is blowing pretty good the marker itself maybe quite a ways from where the weight is....the deeper the water the further it may be off....that may be why your hanging it...

i drop it where my boat should be sitting and line up with something on the bank, if im way off the bank then ill use 2.

on a side note to this thread,,,keep your eyes on the ones youve set out.

i was marking a long road bed at fork one time, setting out 4-5 of them right on top of it, and when i got the last one out i started rigging my plastic worm rod. i turned around just in time to see a guy picking up mine (he got 3) start his big motor and taking off. he wasa a lot faster than me (200hp vs my 50) but when he got almost out of sight he stopped. i motored down the lake and when i got there i asked him, even though i saw him pick them up, "whered you get those buddy?" his reply was "they were a gift from god"

i turned my boat around and started backing up toward his boat and said i wanted them back. when my prop got about 5' from his brand new basscat he threw them in my boat (to save his gelcoat) and i left.

turns out he was a bigtime tourny fisherman and soft bait maker (you could buy his stuff at your local walmart)

Thanks for the info guys. The wind must be why I'm hooking the line sometimes when I think I'm not even close to the buoy. I will use your adcvice and try to figure out this offshore stuff (Been beating banks all my life, time for some new tricks) Thanks!

Simply put, mark your spot drive a cast length past it and drop your buoy. Use the bouy as a marker for where to keep your boat positined as others have stated. I NEVER drop a bouy right on top of the spot I want to fish. 20-30 feet either side of it is as close as I'll put mine if at all. Or, I'll just use waypoints on my GPS for positioning and never drop a buoy.

On lakes like Fork with lots of traffic and a bunch of turkeynecks, I almost always rely on waypoints rather than buoys. Too many turkeynecks that will pull up and mark a waypoint right beside your buoy. If it's not on the structure, what they're marking usually is worthless. Sad to have to play defense like that but it's just part of fishing that lake.

Paint it black!

It helps cut down on turkeyneckers!

I will drop one pretty much on top of the spot I want to target. Then drop the trolling motor and circle back to drop a second one about 10-15 feet off to one side from the first one, depending on wind and angle I'm going to target it from and pick up the first one. This helps me to basically create a 10 ft ambush lane to run my bait through.