By Tony Bishop
It was up in New Zealand's Bay of Islands one November. I was fishing on 'Striker' with Bruce Smith at the helm. In the late afternoon we were chasing a feed of snapper in 10 metres of water over a weed-covered, fairly flat bottom - and "chasing" is the key word.
We had rigged up with a ball sinker running down to swivel, then two or so metres of trace to the baited hook. Bruce drove the boat around the area and when he spotted a school of fish on the sounder, he maneuvered upwind, we dropped our rigs to the bottom, and drifted through the school.
Usually one or two of the four of us who were fishing would hook up in the school. Trouble was, the wind was quite strong, and our drift was pretty quick. We were having all sorts of trouble telling if our baits were near the bottom or not. If the baits were not near the bottom we caught no fish.
We tried going up to bigger weights but this did not cure the problem. If the weight was too heavy our gear snagged on the bottom. Plus the heavy weight made bite detection difficult.
It was then that I remembered some English boom rigs that were hidden away in the bowels of my tackle box. These boom rigs (drawing hereabouts) were designed in England for this style of fishing.
I rigged up the boom rig with a metre trace to the sinker, and a metre trace to the bait, and lowered the rig down on the next drift. As soon as I felt the sinker hit the bottom I reeled in a couple of turns. Very shortly afterwards I felt the first bite, which turned into a hook-up.
The consistency of my hooking-up on each drift soon had the other fishermen doubting that it was my superior ability to catch fish that was doing the trick, and despite the flak I had copped when I first pulled out the boom rig, they dived into my tackle box. Once they had rigged up with the boom, their suspicions about my ability proved correct, and it was now a regular occurrence for us all to be hooked up on each drift.
Despite the fact that we moved up to heavier sinkers, bite detection was not much of a problem. The weight is hung off the boom and not the line. The line runs through the boom and touches on the bait are easily felt.
Once the fish is hooked, the main line pulls down out of the slot that runs along the bottom of the 'L' that forms the boom. This means the line is straight to the hook, not at an angle, while fighting the fish.
The sinker can be rigged on a length of line to control how far above the bottom bait will drift. If the sinker is attached with line of less breaking strain to the main line, the sinker will bust off if snagged, before the main line breaks.
Why didn't you jig, some of you may well ask? Well this was one of those occasions when there was little current and a strong-ish wind - rotten jigging weather.
The success of this drift fishing method sparked my interest and I started using it on subsequent fishing trips. Besides, there are times when my terminal laziness kicks in and jigging seems like too much hard work.
