Using a drogue in choppy waters.

[northsea]

Hello to you all. How's the fishing going?

I've make myself a drogue for my kayak and seems to work very well when the wind is stronger than the current but I do find it is not nearly so good when water becomes even slightly choppy.

I'm wondering if ( a ) My length of rope is too long (About 5ft) and ( B ) if it would help if I put a float on a length of line and a weight on the opposite side to keep the drogue down below the waves?

Also I'm wondering ( c ) what sort of diameter your narrow end is? Mine is about 5 inches. Could this be too wide?

 

Sorry about all these questions but would really appreciate any input on this.

Many thanks indeed.

Edited August 7, 2008 by northsea

[Newt]

The line is way shorter than I would ever consider using.

 

Drogue size is directly related to boat size. What do you have?

 

Have a look at some of these and the way they ride in the water.

[glennk]

The lines on my drogue are that length or shorter and work fine. Not sure what your problem is but there seems to be an issue with the drogue for some reason if it is not staying below the chop it cant be deployed properly. My drogue is hard to describe but was made from parachute off cuts by a fellow yakker who lives near by. This is his design. Not sure if the picture is helpful to you :

 

[northsea]

The lines on my drogue are that length or shorter and work fine. Not sure what your problem is but there seems to be an issue with the drogue for some reason if it is not staying below the chop it cant be deployed properly. My drogue is hard to describe but was made from parachute off cuts by a fellow yakker who lives near by. This is his design. Not sure if the picture is helpful to you :

 

 

Thanks for the picture mate.

Aye, I'nm not sure what's wrong. It's work fine until things start to get a little choppy.

Does your drogue have an opening on the other end?

[glennk]

No I don't think it does. This one does work exceptionally well and I ordered it after noting the lad who manufactures them was out fishing the rest of us by a long way. Infact he was often the only one catching and we all noted how slow his drifts were in comparison to the rest of us. I just attach mine to the anchor trolley system and winch it to the front of the yak, after a short while it fills up and you can feel it drag and slow you down.

[northsea]

No I don't think it does. This one does work exceptionally well and I ordered it after noting the lad who manufactures them was out fishing the rest of us by a long way. Infact he was often the only one catching and we all noted how slow his drifts were in comparison to the rest of us. I just attach mine to the anchor trolley system and winch it to the front of the yak, after a short while it fills up and you can feel it drag and slow you down.

 

Ah, perhaps this is where I've been going wrong then.

The other important reason I use the drogue is to keep the bow pointing directly into the waves.

As I say this does not work very well in choppy conditions at all.

Thank you for your help.

Any other comments much appreciated indeed.