Bait boat/Aasboot 101

[Strikeforce]

Hi all. I'm thinking of buying a bait boat so I'm hoping to use this thread to find answers for my many questions about conventional carp angling with bait boats. Nobody I fish with own a bait boat so unfortunately I cannot learn from a buddy. Hopefully it can become a kind of one stop shop guide for others who are in the same boat as me.

My first questions are concerned with finding a spot to feed.

a. How do bait boat fisherman find the right spot to feed at? Good spots are normally deep so how do bait boat fisherman determine the depth or contour of the water with and without a fishfinder?

 

[jonathanw]

good day,

Most of the time when fishing dams or rivers that I am not familiar with, I will look for structure before dropping bait, trees , sandbank, bays, or deepest water possible.. lol guess with the eyes, I have a DM craft , hardly use it, it is big and bulky, I only use it to drop far lines out at the vaaldam - 200 meters plus, it does get you the bigger fish most of the time but ,it is a mission when conditions are hard, when the wind is pumping to try take lines out far, and is not that accurate when dropping baits at distance but can get the job done.
I feel I should of got a small inflatable before the bait boat, as it is way more versatile.
there are better bait boats with fishfinders and hoppers but those prices come close to inflatable prices and you can use it anywhere dam, river, estuary.

 

[Strikeforce]

@jonathanw touches on my next question in his reply: Without a proper marker at 200m+ it will be near impossible for me to drop my bait very consistently in the same spot. So my question is how do you put out a marker with a bait boat and how do you collect it again using the bait boat when you're done fishing?

 

[Strikeforce]

Another question on markers: I see that some guys put out a flashing beacon/marker that helps them navigate to their feeding spot at night. I've also seen these beacons/markers stay on the water for a whole weekend so I guess they're LED? Do they run of a battery all weekend? Do they have a solar panel that charges the battery? Are they home made or do you buy them from tackle shops? Any photos/pics of what they look like?

 

[jonathanw]

Hi strikeforce,

Regarding dropping a marker line with bait boat is not a good idea, you are very likely to cause the line to tangle in the prop if there is no prop guard, not cool getting it stuck far out and trying to get it without a canoe or inflatable not safe, for me I will guess visually, I will use markers such as trees or objects in the background to keep the bait more or less in the same area, also DM have 2 bait hoppers, I learned taking 2 lines out at once is rather difficult with line management, many tangles before, only drop 1 line at a time and put additional feed in the other hopper.
another thing is once you get it out far like 250meter plus it is not easy to control as you can really see it properly, I use binocs sometimes.
I have seen some of those marker buoys at the fishing shop before , ya they use leds and are battery powered.
Another thing to consider is battery life and range of the bait boat, mine can do about 6-8 runs of 200meters before the battery goes flat, I always take a few spare batteries with, plus my controller takes 8 AA batteries, not cheap to replace everytime, and lastly I have a cheap 1 man inflatable with life jacket to fetch the boat incase it gets stuck.
overall if you add the prices of the bait boat, batteries, chargers it will not be far off the price of a semi decent small inflatable with a small trawling motor or you can go old school with paddles.
bait boats do have their place with specific situations but most of the time no real need, fun toy to have though.

 

[Strikeforce]

jonathanw wrote:

Hi strikeforce,

Regarding dropping a marker line with bait boat is not a good idea, you are very likely to cause the line to tangle in the prop if there is no prop guard, not cool getting it stuck far out and trying to get it without a canoe or inflatable not safe, for me I will guess visually, I will use markers such as trees or objects in the background to keep the bait more or less in the same area, also DM have 2 bait hoppers, I learned taking 2 lines out at once is rather difficult with line management, many tangles before, only drop 1 line at a time and put additional feed in the other hopper.
another thing is once you get it out far like 250meter plus it is not easy to control as you can really see it properly, I use binocs sometimes.
I have seen some of those marker buoys at the fishing shop before , ya they use leds and are battery powered.
Another thing to consider is battery life and range of the bait boat, mine can do about 6-8 runs of 200meters before the battery goes flat, I always take a few spare batteries with, plus my controller takes 8 AA batteries, not cheap to replace everytime, and lastly I have a cheap 1 man inflatable with life jacket to fetch the boat incase it gets stuck.
overall if you add the prices of the bait boat, batteries, chargers it will not be far off the price of a semi decent small inflatable with a small trawling motor or you can go old school with paddles.
bait boats do have their place with specific situations but most of the time no real need, fun toy to have though.

I suppose attaching the boat to a old rod & reel in case it needs to be recovered is also an option? Just in case it runs out of power at 200m.

Is there a technique to drop a marker and collect with a bait boat?

 

[D5]

You need kayak rather then the bait boat .
When you have bait boat you should have kayak to rescue it in any case unless you are ok with swimming.

I built my own bait boat that is one of kind and used it only few times as kayak proven to be all I needed and bait boat was just an hassle and wasteful exercise.

Fluid - Buddy is what you need . You will find many uses for it - even having fun at sea.

You can take marker out - retrieve it , Pull out stuck line , Fight fish from it and so on .

Flashing thing is solar and it for the roads , I cant remember where I bought it . It will last all night if left in day to charge . At that time was like R 350

 

[Ruds 1982]

Dropping your line is no problem if you have a line counter. All you need to do is aim and when it hits your distance you drop. Thats how ive been doing it and it works perfect. Ive bought my baitboat second hand and i have redone the whole boat. From a new radio up to rewiring. Installed led lights with its own battery pack ect. Works very well now. I dont use it often because i can cast a good 120m (messured with my line counter) so for day trips i go solo. If i go for a few days it goes with. Then i usually will drop one Rod deep. Or if im planning a specimen trip. There accuracy is key.