Advice About Drift Sock

I was thinking of trying a drift sock for the first time. My boat is a 18ft Bass Tracker.
If you’ve used one before, I like to learn from you. I thought of a few questions below:
Do you like drift socks?
When do you like using them?
Any special conditions for when you will/will not use them? (Weather/Water depth/Open water vs near cover or brush)
Do you tie to front / back / middle of boat?
Do you use one or two socks?

Thanks for any info you care to share. I appreciate your knowledge and help.
Tight lines!


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I use one on my 24” pontoon. It has 2 ropes. One to the mouth and one to the small end. I like to spider rig and longline troll. When it’s too windy to go my target speed I’ll use one. I’ll attach the rope that goes to the mouth end to my captain chair base. I throw it out the back. The mouth opening has weights on the bottom and floats on the top helping it open up. I use for open water. It’s helps me keep the boat pointed with the wind. I use the front trolling motor to assist with any additional slowing down and steering. If I had to go through stump fields I’d drag a chain instead. I take the second rope and attach to the side. I use it to collapse the sock when pulling in. I think the colder it’s outside the more I would NOT use it since everything seems to get wet in the area.

I have used drift socks with varying degrees of success. They work well to keep the boat straight in the same direction of the wind, but don't do enough to slow the boat in higher wind conditions. Don't get me wrong: There are lots of times that a drift sock can be used very efficiently to accomplish the right drift speed and boat straightness to make drift socks a very useful tool. I have found however that I can accomplish exactly the same thing (with much greater versatility) by using my trolling motor / variable speed control / spot lock into (against) the direction of the wind and have much better overall boat control in a greater variety of wind conditions and it keeps the boat tracking straight too.

The key to relying on the trolling motor method is: Planning your trolling / tight-lining / long-lining approaches according to the way the wind is prevailing. NOTE** Days when the wind is frequently switching around to different directions... using the trolling motor requires only some change in course direction... the drift sock turns into a sock / rope juggling hassle and is also an ever present obstacle when hooking up with bigger fish for the man fishing on whatever end of the boat the drift sock is located on.

In conclusion: I actually still have a drift sock, but hardly ever use it. When the wind gets too rough for proper boat management using the trolling motor... it's too rough for me to have an enjoyable day of fishing... and I'll head for the hill.

That's my two cents. :twocents

Thank you, both for sharing your knowledge and experience. These are great insights!!!
Merry Christmas!


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I use drift socks all the time,with the wind some but more when I troll cross wind, I Have a tracker 18.5, I cat fish most of the time now, less crappie fishing, but I got two 5 ft and one 10 ft sock, I run the sock off the back, with just one, I use 2 ropes , one to each side to keep the sock in the middle of boat, when I use two socks ,I tie them off to each side in the back, I usually troll for cats from .3 to .6 mph, If the wind is bad,10 mph or more I pull into the wind and use sock to keep boat straight, I have drifted in 20 mph wind ,with the wind and kept the boat under .5 mph, If you need any info just message me. also check out my youtube channel.
Late June crappie 2020 - YouTube