If you’re a tech nerd like I am your always looking at new gadgets and technology that can improve some part of your life but it’s been a while since technology has helped or improved the surf angler. Actually I personally can’t remember a piece of technology in the past 10 years that’s improved surf fishing like the drone has!
There are many different species you can target from our local California beaches that require very little casting distance in order for you to hook up, but for the land based shark fishing angler (LBSF) distance is king! You can get away fishing the breakwater or skinny water for rays and leopards but if you’re after the big toothy critters then getting your bait past the breakers is paramount.
In the past LBSF anglers have come up with creative ways to get their baits out far, everything from kayaking their bait out or paddling it out on a surfboard. I’ve even seen some guys use a home made PVC bait cannon that shoots their bait out past the surf. Even though these methods are creative and for the most part work decently, nothing beats the ease, efficiency and speed of drone bait drops!
Drone Fishing – The DJI Phantom 3 pro
We have been using our drone to fly are baits out 200-300 yards and our small investment in a drone has been paying massive, toothy dividends! We’ve landed countless seven-gill sharks, soupfin sharks and one hook up to a massive pissed off thresher shark that spit the hook after a 30-minute battle! These species have been impossible for us to target before we had our DJI Phantom 3!
The DJI Phantom 3 is our go to drone for drone fishing, the video, control and performance has been incredible! The DJI 3 shoots an impressive 4K video with 30 frames per second and captures 12 megapixel photos.
The controller allows you to connect your smartphone (Android and iOS compatible) that will then project a live 720p HD view of your camera as you fly the drone, perfect for accurate bait drops.
The DJI 3 also has a killer feature that is very useful out on the sand, the GPS function. It allows you to track the routes and pinpoint locations of your bait drops so you can continually drop in successful areas. The flight time is limited to 23 mins per battery this is why we recommend purchasing a few batteries to have on hand when you’re out on the sand.
Rating: 98/100
Budget: $$$
Easy Functionality
The DJI 3 was easy to learn, we watched a couple YouTube tutorials online and we where comfortable enough to start fishing within 30 min of test flights. We made a home made bait dropping system but there are a few companies that have fabricated bait dropping systems that are compatible with the DJI drones.
The most popular being the Gannet Bait Release system (links below), they can be a little pricey so we chose to make our own bait release system. There are a ton of video tutorials online that show you how to do it for free, will leave our favorite video in a link below.
Drone fishing is now a massive part of our fishing arsenal and an absolute blast, make sure you’re rigged correctly if you are going to be shark fishing via drone. These big boys out in the deeper water don’t mess around and you don’t want to bring a knife to a gun fight once you hook into one of these fish.
DIY Bait Release – https://youtu.be/A6ir_kCEpGI
Gannet Bait Release – https://dronefishing.com
Now that your drones ready to fly, make sure you have the right stick to pull with! Don’t be out gunned when fighting a massive shark, here are our top shark fishing rods!