Drift Socks

[Faner50]

I am wondering about the proper way to rig a drift sock. I use mine perpendicular to the boat. My question is about the length of the rope that attaches between the sock and the boat. Does Length have any bearing on how well it works? I am now running it with a 5ft light rope between sock and boat. Should I go shorter or longer? Thanks for your help.

[iffwalleyes]

You want the rope long enough so that you can get it to work for all situations. The more rope out the slower you will go. Shorten it up and it will slow you down but you will move faster. As far as to where to located it it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are drifting with current then I would throw it out perpendicular to the boat. If you are trying to troll with your main motor but want to just slow down. Tie it on the bow of the boat with a rope short enough that it will go under the boat but not back to the main motor. This gives you the best control in this situation. Hopefully this will help you out.

[chris63]

Back Trolling with the sock is great too!c63

[Faner50]

Thank you for your reply. One other question, do you run the "pull in line" inside or outside of your sock?

[PerchJerker]

There are a lot of ways to use drift socks. Like iff said, longer rope slows you down more, shorter rope slows you down less.

You can rig it perpendicular to the boat. You can rig it off a forward cleat or a stern cleat to move across the wind. You can turn your motor to control which direction the boat is pointed. You can use your electric motor to make some course adjustments. And you can use more than 1 driftsock, or have different size drift socks, to really fine tune your drifting. You can rig off the bow eye to keep the bow pointed into the wind and really slow your drift.

There are tons of options, just try some different riggings until you find what works well.

I have my pull in rope on the outside of the sock.

[Mad Lake Bomber]

You'll want at least 25' of rope. The shorter the rope, the more chance you'll have for that 10 pound walleye to run nose first into your sock. Longer rope is better, if you need to go faster, get a smaller sock.

[PerchJerker]

I never have my drift socks more than 3-4 feet off the boat. If you have a fish on and are worried about the bag, use the pull in rope and hang the bag over the gunnel until you land the fish.

The only time I'd ever use a longer rope is if it's of the bow cleat and you're drifting with big waves - then you'd want a longer rope so the bow can move up and down over the waves, you wouldn't want the sock to hold the bow down so the waves could go over it.

[chris63]

If you can believe this I had about a 25 to 30 foot rope on my drift sock on Tonka and a Large pleasure/party boat rode rite over the rope and destroid the sock.Then they had the nerve to chew us out and told us we had to get the rope/sock off their propeller!c63

[fishfearme]

Thats when I start casting muskie plugs off the side of their boat. A**%#les! Nothing gets me more steamed than the big boats on tonka that darn near run you over.

As far as drift socks go, spend the extra $ and get the wave tamer. Best sock out there. Deploys like a dream and never twists. I have about 20 feet of rope on mine. Usually run mine on the gunnel cleat closest to the bow.