Choosing the correct fishing sinkers to use with your drone fishing rig can make or break a successful day of fishing. Too many fisherman disregard this, and end up going home with nothing to show for their skill and effort.
Essentially, it is important that your fishing rig is anchored on the bottom of the sea bed, once your drone has made the drop and your line has settled.
This is important because:
A rig that is not anchored will move around on the ocean’s floor with the current and you will completely lose the ability to “feel” the baits, and the fish biting your baits.
As the line moves around you will have less fish actually getting hooked.
A moving line is likely to get twisted, with traces twisted up around the backbone or mainline, along with the sinker, and you end up with a great big mess when you pull the line back in.
Also, if you are very new to drone fishing, remember that the sinker goes on the outer/bottom end of your rig, which is the end you will be dropping from your drone. To see more about this rig setup, please check out our previous article on this HERE.
They are called breakaway sinkers, or surfcasting sinkers as most surf-casters use this style of sinker. They have wire prongs that can be fixed or anchored into place when set, but “broken away” when force is applied by pulling hard on the line.
This is so important because, when you are drone fishing, the less weight you add to your rig the better as you need to fly the entire rig and sinker out over the ocean. The surfcasting sinker is perfect for this because it’s lightweight, and yet once you set the sinker and rig into the sand on the bottom, it generally won’t move.
This is dependant on where you are fishing, and the fishing conditions vary so much around the New Zealand coastline. For example, fishing along many parts of the East coast of the upper North Island of New Zealand – where the current is minimal, fishing with five hooks in the water, a three or four ounce sinker will be usually be enough. However, if you are fishing on the West Coast, or in an area with a strong current, then an eight or ten ounce sinker is a better choice for the same five hooks.
Sometimes you will be at a beach and find that your current weight of breakaway sinker simply doesn’t hold, and you don’t have a heavier sinker on-hand. In this case there are a couple of things you can do:
Rubber Band – you can use a rubber band to wrap around the lead & wire (once the wire has been set). The purpose of this, is to add the additional force requirement needed to get the sinker to release the wire.
The other way to reduce the power of the current, if you sinker is moving around too much, is to add a second break-away sinker right beside the first one i.e. attached to the same loop attached to the mainline.
Just be careful when adding a rubber band, or adding a second sinker, as this also means it will take more force to break the wire away when it comes time bringing your rig in to shore. For example, if you wrap the sinker too many times with the rubber band, it might be difficult to get it to release when you want it to, creating more drag as the sinker digs into the sand as you retrieve the line.
The other thing our team does is to add a small piece of five pound Monofilament (or nylon) to connect the sinker with the mainline. This acts like a backup safety system in case your sinker gets hooked in weeds or rocks as you start to bring the rig in. Nothing is worse than knowing you have a decent fish on the end of the line, and as you bring it in the sinker becomes wedged in some weed or rocks. This weak point in the line will be the first thing to break, enabling the sinker to be released if it ever gets stuck.
Remember, this is only designed for “emergencies” and hopefully you will never need to release your sinker at all. But it’s good to know you have it there, so you have every chance of not losing that monster snapper once it is hooked!
If you want to learn more about the hooks that we suggest using for your drone fishing rig then check out this article HERE
Thanks for reading this short article on drone fishing weights. We hope it was helpful in some way for you. Feel free to leave a comment below.
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One Response
sounds like the sinkers play a crucial role in drone fishing. I should make sure to choose the correct sinkers that can anchor my fishing rig to the sea bed and prevent it from moving with the current. This will help me “feel” the baits and increase my chances of hooking fish. I also need to remember to place the sinker on the outer/bottom end of the rig before dropping it with the drone.