With a bait boat the lead, rig, bait and any PVA bag or stringer are placed into a part of the boat called a hopper. The hopper typically has plenty of space for additional baits. When the boat arrives at the desired location the angler opens the hopper by remote control and its contents then drop into the water and make their way to the bottom of the water. The absence of any casting or passage of the rig through air means that there is a very limited opportunity for tangles to occur: the lead drops into the water and drags the rig in.
It is worth here reflecting on what this means for presentation in the water. The lead will act as the centre of gravity for the rig (unless it is very light and there is another part of the rig which is heavy such as a PVA bag containing pebbles) and will plummet very quickly to the bottom of the water. Behind it everything that is attached to it will be towed downward vertically and only once the lead hits the bottom will other parts of the rig be subjected to gravity in their own right.
Information:| Use our species pages to find the fisheries that suit you: CARP, PIKE, TENCH, TROUT, CATFISH, BARBEL. Use search options for different categories such as day ticket, night fishing and season ticket. Scroll to the foot of each page for Search and useful links. Please contact us to add your fishery or angling club, or to have details updated or corrected. All listings are totally free. If you like our content, why not see how you can Support This Website? |
In a situation where a standard hookbait is attached to a lead then the lead will pull the hookbait straight to the bottom of the water, and then at the point the lead touches down gravity will apply to the hookbait. The length and material of the hooklink will then impact upon how the hookbait comes to rest. A braid rig of any length is going to land on or very close to the lead, while a stiff rig is likely to arc away from the lead to some degree and land away from it. The final resting place of the rig is unlikely to resemble the presentation in the hopper.
Whilst the lead and hookbait and any attachments plunge swiftly to the bottom, the freebies in the hopper which are unattached to the rig will drop at their own speed. Dense particles such as hemp will drop quickly whereas most boilies will drop more slowly, and a lot of pellets even slower than boilies. This means that in flowing water or where current is created by strong wind or thermoclines then freebies are at risk of landing away from the hookbait; the deeper the water in such conditions then the greater the risk of bait drift.
The free movement of the lead at the point of dropping is critical. Prior to the drop you should lift the rod tip as high as possible and then drop it to the water’s surface thus leaving a considerable amount of slack line in the water; when the rig is dropped it can then drop vertically down (assuming the depth is not excessive) and will actually land where the angler expects it to be in relation to marker floats and features. Should the line between the rod tip and the baitboat be taught at the point of the drop then the rod tip will act as a hinge and the lead will arc away from the baitboat and inwards towards the rod tip, actually touching bottom some distance from the area vertically below the baitboat. In shallow water this rig drift is going to be negligible, but in deep water it could be noticeably far away from the freebies in the bait boat and the feature that the angler is trying to fish; in extreme cases it could mean that instead of hitting the desired gravel bar the hookbait is actually in nearby weed or silt, or at the bottom of the shelf alongside the gravel bar.
It is worth noting that on occasion bait drift and rig drift can be desirable in themselves. On some venues having the hookbait on the edge of a bed of bait (however large) or a short distance away, can cause takes from wary fish.