I've heard a lot about drifting for big blues, and have done it some with limited success. i usually rig just with leader from a swivel and a free slidign barrel weight. i've herd of people rigging with a float though. how does that work? any other good drift rig ideas?

Erich

first you need some kind of sock or drift chute. fresh shad is a must. and you put the peg float about 6-18" from your hook depending on how long your leader is, this will float your bait off the bottom.

Drifting SLOW is very important and will make the diffirence between eating fish for supper or hamburger helper. ;)You dont wantyour weight or bait bouncing off the bottom the whole time either. Some weights are very bad about making your drifting rig do this. You have to have a drift sock and sonar never hurts either.

I was on Calaveras this morning drifting by the cable (the one past the bridge). Caught 10 channels and one 11# Blue. I was drifting three rigs, two with peg floats and one without. All but one was caught on the rig without a float. Sometimes they want the float but not always. I agree, slow is important, particularly in the winter.
Anyway, when it is as cold as it is now, drift in the warm water channel of the power plant. The cooler it is, the closer you start your drift by the cable. Tilapia is O.K. but shad is better. I always use a chute.
Didn't mean to preach-just my thoughts on drifting.
Jess

Here is an atricle I wrote for my web site. Hope this helps:

Winter time is the BEST time to catch some of the biggest cat fish of your life. As of right now my biggest cat fish is a 33 pound blue cat fish. Definitely not the biggest cat fish out there, but it is my personal best. One myth about cat fishing is that you need to catch them at night, in the summer, in deep water. I have found that this just simply isn't true. You can catch fish during those times and I personally love getting out on the water at night when it is warm and the jet skiers and recreational boaters are off the lake. In the winter time the cat fish are scattered all over the lake. You will find them in the deep water (30 - 40 feet) or as shallow as 1-2 feet.You wont usually catch a lot of them, but you will catch some of the biggest cat fish of your life.

Winter Methods:

Drifting:

Drifting is the method for catching big cats that I prefer. The concept is simple. Send a bait to the bottom and let it bounce as your boat drifts in the wind. There are some techniques to make this method productive. If you don't follow them, you won't have much luck. I use shad for bait when drifting. If they are 1-3 inches I will put 2-5 of them on the hook. If they are bigger I will use less or cut them into chunks and use them as cut bait. I prefer a size 4/0, 5/0, or 6/0 khale hook depending on the size of the bait. I generally use 20# fishing line and a slip sinker rig. I will bait my hooks, cast as far out as I can and let it sink to the bottom with the spool open, letting out line. I will also let out line occasionally as I fish. Often the fish will pick up the bait as it stops. Boat control is perhaps the most important thing in drifting. You will need to make the boat go as slow as you can without stopping it completely. You should see your weight bounce on the bottom and get some slack in the line. If you have the choice of fishing in 15 MPH winds or no wind, choose the 15 MPH. You need to have the boat moving. I use a drift chute to make the boat go slow. You can use drift socks as well, but they won't slow you boat when the winds really get up. You need to put your chute or socks out and face into the wind. You may not get a rock solid strike. Some times they will pick the bait up and just run sideways with it or swim right at you. I use a high visibility line so I can see it move. The cat fish can't see it down at 30 feet. They are using smell and feel to get to your bait. Jerry Hancock has a winter cat fishing video that covers all of this really well including the building of the drift chute and fishing the birds.

i've heard of drift socks, but what exactly is a drift chute? can i get that at any local academy or somethin? do i need special hardware on the boat to use it? thanks for the tips.

Erich

Erich, go to www.texomacatfishing.com and look at the picture at the bottom of the front page. This is my drift chute.

A heavy piece of pipe or solid bar across the bottom, and golf balls in the top to create tie offs. Simply suspend it from your anchor cleats. This is green house sunscreen material.

I've done a little drift fishing below powerhouses on the Arkansas River, but never on a lake, where there's no current. I'm familiar with what a drift sock is, and how it works, but I've got a couple of questions for those of you who have actually used them. First, I have a shad trawl that's about 3' in diameter. When I'm pulling it through the water, it creates tremendous drag, so wouldn't it work ok as a drift sock? Maybe put a float and a weight on it to keep it in an upright position at slow speeds? Second, what about rigging a temporary mount for a couple of 12"-18" boards on the transom of the boat? If you rig it so you can adjust how far they stick down into the water, you should be able to adjust your drift speed.

jtrew,
Your shad trawl may work in a light wind but the diameter is too small for wind above 5 to 7 mph. I made my own drift chute out of a 7 X 8 ft tarp and it works great.

How do you not get hung up and break poles while bouncing your bait on the bottom? I have wanted to try drifting, but I am concerned that I will be spending most of the time re-rigging poles.

You have to choose the right location to drift. You want some cover by not too much. Lavon is perfect because most of the bottom is silted in. I went out a couple of weekends ago and only lost one rig the whole day. All it takes is one crappie brush pile though and you will be busy. Some lakes and areas are worse than others.

If you have your drag properly set, you really shouldn't ever break a pole Techfish. If you do, you might want to get a different kind of pole to drift with.

Re-rigging?? Can't argue that....It's just part of the game.

My boat is a 19ft carolina skiff. the drift chute that you had on the site looked pretty big. do i need somethin that big?

Erich

Likely not Erich....My boat is a 21.5' Bay Boat. Seems like the Carolina Skiff sets a bit wider than the sharp V in my boat, if memory serves. In other words the closer you come to a tri-hull design the more drag. For example I don't think there is a better drifting boat than the old Falcon Pro Stripers.

If Rick would join in here, he has a 19ft Carolina Skiff and a drift curtain. Figure he could offer what size he uses?? Rick where are you??

I used Mugz's curtain last year on my boat when I fished down at Lavon with he and Guy.....Seems like his was just a 6 foot deep, 8 foot wide curtain, and it worked fine on my boat with reasonably small white caps that day.

My boat is a 15' skeeter bass boat and I use a 6'W by 10'L driftchute. I have a rope tied to the center of the pipe that allows me to adjust the chute's position which helps control the drift speed. I pull this rope around (under the bottom) and tie it off to the opposite side of the boat. Let the rope out to drift faster or pull the pipe up under the boat to slow down (chute will form an inverted C shape capturing more water).

This is probably overkill for a boat of that size but it's adjustable to the changing wind conditions and works great.........when I get a chance to go.