Tired of drifting around? A sea anchor (drift sock) is probably exactly what you need. Over the years, I spent plenty of hours trying to get the canoe into position only to have the wind push it out of the way before I could finish working the spot for that big bass you know has to be there.
Since I got the trolling motor for the canoe, I’ve played with that – running it at low speed against the wind in an effort to stay oriented – but you still spend way to much time messing with the motor.
This spring, I picked up one of these Drift Sock/Sea Anchors. The first time I used it, I followed the instructions and let it out on 20 feet of line and found that the line tangled and was a huge hassle.
It was especially bad when I had to reposition – a big mess of line out the back just made life miserable because you will never get that much line in without getting it tangled up and then making it tough to redeploy.
So, I shortened the line to about 10 feet, and that did the trick. Now, I can deploy it, it will hold the canoe in position and I can do my work on a piece of structure and then move on. Instead of reeling it in, I just run the trolling motor and gently move to the next spot. It’s really sweet when you head into the wind as far as you want to go, get on the shoreline and then just drift slowly down as the wind pushes.
Much easier to fish from the canoe with one of these!
Amazon stocks a bunch of different models –
Lindy Drift Control
Minn Kota
Drift Control Drift Sock
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore