It recently occurred to me a technique we used before we had all these advancements in boat positioning.  Trolling motors with Spot Lock and the ability to follow contours and trails, Power Poles (although they do offer attachable drift paddles) and even attachments that look like trolling motors that serve as “brakes”.  I’m not talking about river Walleye fishermen who regularly drift and vertical jig or hand line, I’m talking about the old school drifting for Largemouth and Smallmouth.  

Let’s step back before all of those advancements to a time when in my 23 years of fishing Lake St Clair, we had to deal with wind and current fishing for bass.  In the best situation, the wind was manageable and would blow us along our chosen depth at a speed where we could drag tubes, grubs, jigs or Dropshots.  As we drifted and we hooked up, we dropped a waypoint.  Often times our drifts were a couple of miles long and when we reached the end, we would have groupings of waypoints and a trail.  The skill involved using the trolling motor, was to stay in the proper depth range and keep the boat positioned sideways so that we were dragging with the most fishing area.  When we reached the end of the drift, pull up the trolling motor and use the big motor to run back to the beginning of your drift and repeat.  While drifting, you could use the troller to slow the drift but If the wind got too great, out came the drift sock and if it was really blowing, 2 drift socks.  Since I was usually the co angler, it was my job to manage the drift socks.  You had to know how to position them, proper size, and how much line to use.  I also had to pull in, store and redeploy them. The boater had to keep the boat positioned for them to work properly.  It was a team effort and was very productive.  All that being said, I don’t miss being wet and cold pulling in and deploying drift socks during spring fishing.  Chalk one up for advancements in technology.  

I still drift when I'm fishing thick vegetation from a jon boat. It's easier to raise up the electric motor and just let the wind move you across the mat.

I fish a few northern lakes that have large weedy flats. On windy days, instead of fighting the wind, we’d let the wind blow us across the flat and cast around the boat. Once we got to the end of the flat, we’d motor back and choose another line. One of the lakes was relatively shallow and was loaded with smallish pike. We’d throw spinners or spoons and catch dozens. It was nice not having to keep positioning and adjusting the boat and just fish. By keeping your back to the wind, you don’t feel the cold, you don’t get backlashes from casting into the wind. It’s a nice way to use the wind to your advantage instead of fighting it.

I did this for many years targeting walleye. We would Lindy rig with a leech or a minnow. If it was windy, we'd put out a drift sock to slow down our drift. Quite often we'd do a controlled drift along a mud flat or a gravel bar. When we caught a fish, we marked it with a way point. Once we got to the end of the flat or bar, we motored back up and did another drift. And so the process would be repeated until we stopped catching fish.

Since we had a tiller, we also back trolled. The key was go about 0.5 mph, or less. Walleyes are very light biters and sometimes even the faintest resistance was a strike.

I drift all the time in the susky

When fishing from the boat I often go into stealth mode with all the electronics off, the trolling motor off, and a drift bag to slow down if the wind is blowing. After a productive pass I will power up the big motor, and make a big circle, and drift through again. I have done this most of my adult life. Stealth mode helps especially when their not out chasing baits.

That is something that I have never done. I’m too much of a control freak to allow Mother Nature to dictate where I fish.

9 hours ago, geo g said:

When fishing from the boat I often go into stealth mode with all the electronics off, the trolling motor off, and a drift bag to slow down if the wind is blowing.

I'm stuck in stealth mode.

Seriously, I enjoyed drift fishing for decades when I fished from a motorboat. I should do it again. Thanks for the reminder!

I still just let the wind push me around, sometimes I’ll even bring out the drift suck if it gets to windy.

I learned how to catch big smallies on Lake Erie by deploying the same technique. The only difference was I primarily did it with jerk baits as my bait of choice. Unlike FFS technology I seldom marked fish before catching them. My success was the result of drifting known fish holding structure that held bait fish. Like walleye fisherman we surmised that the suspended fish often would move away from the approaching boat off to the side before returning where our long lined baits would be approaching. This was especially true when fishing shallower water depths. Not so correct when drifting deeper water depths. We would usually fish two lines out per angler when there was just two of us. One in a rod holder & one held in hand. The long line out was often 200+ feet back with each line staggered back by 20-25’ to help prevent tangles. The longer lines back were usually spread to the side in rod holders & the shorter lines held in hand straight back as you worked the bait. I would run two shallow baits & two deep baits to determine what the fish wanted then switch to all the same general depths once we determined what was getting bit. @TOXIC Thanks for bringing up the subject of a very successful tactic often ignored today.

10 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

My success was the result of drifting known fish holding structure that held bait fish.

Without electronics, I can't pinpoint structure, but through trial and error, I can find fish-holding areas that I assume are due to structure.

You did a good job explaining a complex tactic, Dwight. I enjoyed reading your post.

I’m mostly a drift fisherman. It’s rare that I use my anchor and only on the windiest days do I ever think about how Spotlock would benefit me.

Drifting around every side

of a point or drifting down a bank of laydowns are 2 of my most common methods. I do have to adjust my position with the trolling motor sometimes but I’m drifting.

This is where I fish a lot, Ocklawaha… there is a lot more to it, I just screen shot one section enlarged for better viewing.

It’s hard to drift fish, because I need the trolling motor to keep myself heading in the right direction when going with the current.

Not a lost art for me, I've been doing it my whole life.

I started out just river fishing, I look at that as a type of drift fishing, your casting your line upstream to drift your bait along what ever line you want to target.

Later years I caught the salt bug and pretty much just concentrated on Fluke fishing which are a type of flounder with teeth.

This was pretty much 100% drift fishing, either along channel edges, across channels, or on adjacent flats.

Now I'm in a kayak, and most of my fishing is drifting, lakes, reservoirs and rivers.

Drifting in the river one of my most productive things is just casting out a jig and letting it just bounce along the bottom.

Probably to my detriment I don't even own an anchor, just adjust my drift via a rudder and my paddle.

Every time on doing it this song goes through my mind;

Thanks, @herder. I love the blues.

@Jar11591: There's nothing better than a shoreline drift.

I grew up walleye fishing and we did plenty of drift fishing with a drift sock.

No spot lock here so on breezy days I’ll let the windy move me along and use the trolling motor to keep me on track.

If you fondly think of drift fishing as nostalgia you should have been with me yesterday. The wind blew so hard it drifted me all the way across the lake and two feet up on shore. I could even say it driften me home because I got so tired of drifting I loaded up and drove home.

On 3/28/2026 at 7:31 PM, Susky River Rat said:

I drift all the time in the susky

The best way to fish the Susquehanna. Drift down and troll up. And the Delaware above the tidal area.

@Dogface all has to do with river level what is the best way

You river guys don’t count.😂 Drifting in current is different than drifting in the wind. You can throw drift socks out in current and you are still going to move at the currents speed. A drift sock will slow you to current speed if there’s a lot of wind. My point was lake fishing in the wind. I also forgot, you kayak and small craft folks do it all the time. I remember some guys who didn’t want to invest in drift socks would drag 5 gallon buckets behind their boats and in extreme cases, drag an anchor.

7 hours ago, TOXIC said:

You river guys don’t count.😂

I remember some guys who didn’t want to invest in drift socks would drag 5 gallon buckets behind their boats and in extreme cases, drag an anchor.

We don't count? My feelings is hurt.☹️

Or drag a chain. I do have a chain for the Susquehanna when it is up.

Some of us don’t have fancy boat control and never quit drift fishing

I use a drift sock on my kayak all the time. One of my favorite ways to fish. This is usually over weed beds with a paddletail, sometimes retrieving and sometimes let it fall with the natural flow of the wind and waves; or a spinner bait if I am really moving. I am drifting backwards and casting sideways to the wind (since upwind can be challenging).

23 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Some of us don’t have fancy boat control and never quit drift fishing

You're talking about me with your "fancy boat control" remark, aren't ya? Sure, I have a paddle. I admit it. I even carry a spare paddle, which makes me extra fancy, huh? I'm the fishing equivalent of good ol' Tom: