Thread: Drag chains

Originally Posted by icehouse

Well, I asked the same questions! Apparently that is what they are doing down there! Drifting with the winds while dragging a chain.


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I agree with chippewa, what "they" are doing doesn't make it right.

Originally Posted by grizwilson

Just to add to my post, first I know nothing about Astor. We are fishing a river system, basically the chain is on the front of the boat and you drift backwards so the muddy up is upstream from us. A drift sock (which I tried once) pulled us down faster and not straight and got caught in trees. It basically keeps your boat on a straight drift, you adjust size and length of chain we like to match current speed, I use links to add subtract. As for rust, my chain is as shiny as the bumper of my truck, if it rust you are simply not fishing enough. Sorry if I waded in a pond I know nothing about.

Maybe you should put a magnet on there while your dragging and yall can multi-task..Lol..sorry I couldn't help it. I'll put myself in timeout for the night.

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Originally Posted by Central Minn

I've used Drift socks to slow down in wind,they work pretty good.

This. No need to risk damaging structure or even bedding areas in shallow water.

interesting read ,is this for walleye fishing ?

Originally Posted by Ketchn

interesting read ,is this for walleye fishing ?

No, crappie fishing shallow waters in high windy areas! Supposedly, let the wind blow you down the water and trolling motor doesn’t have to be used!

What I’m being told!


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We do it here if your fishing around straight structure like timber and or stake beds the chains will glide right on through them but a sock will hand everything in sight.... it doesn’t bother the fish at all I have drug a chain on a pass turn around and follow the same path back still catching fish! Now if you have big root balls and lay down timber chains would be a bad idea!


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Ronnie Capps talked about going back and forth in the same stretch all day on a tourny in Reelfoot catching fish they drug chain across and it never bothered them. Livescope says they're like people and moody. Some days nothing bothers them. Saturday I had a minnow on a plain hook and they'd spook, but tip a hair jig with it, and they'd look at it, a hair jig in front of them with nothing, no reaction.

I've thought a lot about this and researched 32804328 threads on this last week, because I fish a V hull aluminum boat that blows around like crazy. I'd never have been able to fish this weekend, effectively, without it. I have drift socks. Completely different animal for the application I used it for. It would have been completely and utterly USELESS, and I was in deep water.

I also thought about the aspect of tearing structure up. It's a single chain being pulled linearly. I do tree work and manage tree workers for a living, and deal with a lot of brush/woody structure. I got to thinking about the forces needed to break that stuff. I think you're being a little dramatic by saying it tears up structure. If it breaks it or tears it up, it likely needed to be freshened up anyway. The lakes here have almost 0 SAV, so that's a non-issue.

I drug chain this weekend for the first time ever and it saved my day. Again, I have a drift sock and for what I needed, it wouldve been useless.

As far as boat control and the naysayers about "you can't control a boat"...it's tough to control a boat when wind is coming from two different directions at once, the remote is in one hand, the rod is in the other, and I'm also working the livescope pole as well. Take any one of those out of the equation and it's still tough considering that most lakes act like wind tunnels, and unless you're on the main channel of a given lake thats not basin shaped, chances are the surrounding topography is going to funnel wind from the primary direction as well as a secondary direction. The air pressure built up within a topographical feature has to go out some where, and often creates a secondary breeze at an off angle from the main blow.

The way I was fishing, I was targeting suspended fish with the live scope and pitching to them. I tried as long as possible to fish without a chain but when it got to 15+, even though I was near a leeward bank, it twirled me around. I tried staying nose into the wind as long as I could.

I put the chain out, centered off the back, and then when I saw a fish, I used enough power to pull the chain and move the boat to within range, then cut the power back on the trolling motor to hold my position stretched outward towards the fish, but not enough to pull the chain.