Scouting from the air to find fish in the water below is one technique to use a drone for fishing. Using the drone to drop a bait line into the water from the shore or a boat is another, more direct method that will allow you to get the bait and hook far further than you can by casting.
For most fishing with a drone is not quite what it sounds like to me at all. Some have a mental image of a drone hooking and landing a fish. In fact, the drone is a tool to help find the fish, or else to help put the bait where the fish are.
Some people question the morality of using drones to fish, but we don’t necessarily see this as an issue. But depending on whose side you’re on, it does appear to make things simpler for the fishermen, so that might be just what you’re looking for.
Surf fishing using a drone
Rigging a drone with a bait line that it can carry and drop up to half a mile from the shore, much farther than you could ever cast with a reel, is a common and practical technique to use a drone for fishing.The bigger and better predator fish typically stay out a little further, past the first set of breakers, while smaller bait fish frequently come in closer to shore. Historically, sport fishermen hoping to land a large fish from shore have found this area to be tantalizingly just out of reach. But here’s where drones really upend the status quo.
The only restrictions are the length of your fishing line and the controller range of your drone. Drones can be configured to carry a baited line out past the breakers, really as far as you want to go. When the line is released by specialized drone fishing rigs, your bait is dumped exactly where you want it to be, out where the big fish are.
Additionally, it doesn’t have to be a blind drop. You can even spot a fish using your 4K camera to gaze down from above, drop the bait there, and increase your chances of hooking the big one. Even if you don’t see any fish while flying to deeper seas, you can still utilize the camera to locate underwater objects like sandbars and make a more strategic drop.
Bait Release Rigs
The worlds most popular release system is known as the Gannet release systems, drone fishing bait release rigs are very popular. Depending on the release mechanism and drone type they are compatible with, there are versions priced between $75 and $200. The Gannet release system is essentially a system that allows a payload that attaches to the underside of your drone, typically on the legs or landing gear. Some models include fishing line pressure release mechanisms, and others are connected to the drone itself so that the line can be released with the press of a button.
We don’t advise that you ever make a DIY rig, it might not fail the first time, but we have so so many horror stories of drones becoming submarines.
Use a drop loop system for your line to help keep everything more well balanced and ensure that the line and the bait are maintained far away from the propellers. In essence, this implies that you will have a loop carrying the line many feet above the baited and weighted hook that you attach to the drone. The baited end hangs at least an additional 9 to 15 feet below the loop, which is ideally around 2 feet long. From the loop, the main line returning to the beach rod is extended. This configuration, which is not difficult to rig, is the best protection against your drone getting wet.
Using a Drone to Scout for Fish
Drones are used by fisherman to scout for fish from the air, which is their primary and most frequent use. Drones offer the advantage of a top-down perspective, which allows for a clearer picture and a larger field of view than what is possible when viewing from the angle of the water’s surface.You can only see a few yards around you through the water when you’re down down by the water, whether you’re in a boat or on the land. You can only see a small portion of the surrounding landscape. It’s incredibly challenging to locate the fish, so you must rely on chance, tried-and-true knowledge, trial and error, or most likely a mix of all three to locate them.
Wherever you’re fishing, it’s also simpler to observe the terrain from the air, including the topography of the lake or ocean floor, the water’s conditions, and the currents that are flowing through it. Looking down from above, it’s really kind of amazing how good the fish seem under the water. This knowledge will help you better locate fish both generally and on any individual occasion. It will also help you understand where the fish will be and how they will act.
Additionally, it’s wise to use the drone to scan a specified area rather than attempting to scan vast areas of open ocean. While searching for fish in the water, it can be difficult to come up with anything concrete to base your search on, following a coastline can be like searching for game trails in the water because you can see where the fish prefer to cluster and where the bait schools are, for example. To better comprehend how fish are interacting with underwater elements, you are understanding the “landscape.”
The limited battery and relatively brief flying durations are two drawbacks of utilizing a drone to scout for fish. One battery normally lasts around 20 minutes, so leaving the drone hovering over the water for hours while searching for fish is not practical. Even with a backup battery or two, it’s advisable to make use of the short amount of flight time you have to scout out potential fishing spots when you first set out on a boat. If you don’t start receiving any bites after a while, you can go out and perform some more scouting.
Here are some pointers for using a drone to look for fish:
- Utilize the drone to learn more about the terrain of the area where you are fishing. Keep track of important details.
- Observe the shoreline, weed lines, color-change lines, underwater rock formations or sandbars, etc. in the surrounding areas.
- Utilize the drone to assist you discover the patterns and behavior of fish. Note the locations where they frequently appear.
- Set the drone up to do initial reconnaissance or to modify its position. You shouldn’t depend on it to find every fish you want to catch.
- For the necessary flight time on any given fishing excursion, have at least one spare battery and ideally two.
- To prevent scaring fish with propeller wash vibrations on the water surface, fly the drone at least 30 feet above the water.
- Make sure to either disable Return to Home or set the drone to return to the controller rather than the takeoff point if you’re scouting from a moving boat.
- Instead of attempting to land on a boat deck or a sandy beach, practice capturing the drone mid-air when bringing it down to earth.
