Rigging my drogue

[v8rob]

With little happening today I decided to rig up my new drogue. I wanted to keep it clean n'simple.

Here she is, about 19" diameter, mesh outer with a nylon inner guide to stop it spinning.



Anyway, I got myself a cam cleat to enable me to lock it off with ease, mounted up front within easy reach.



On the end of the rope I fitted a carbine hook enabling me to clip it to an existing D-ring on the yak, just so I dont lose the lot over the side should is ever slip loose.

This hoop on the drogue collapses easily, in fact you collapse it, holding it together with a few loops of line, throwing is forward to deploy it, then pulling in back slightly to let it take hold. I've been playing and it easily throws 5-6m. As it collapses with ease I wanted to be able to secure it up front for short periods should the need arise (moving marks, paddling out, etc). I fixed a simple securing strap up front to achieve this.



Here it is all secured, takes about 5 seconds to secure it, I'll get it down to 4 with practice



Deploying as said is doddle, just chuck it forward and retrieve slightly to position it, before locking it off at the desired position. Now I can either leave it secured to the D-ring..



.. or I can secure it to the pad eye just aft of the centre cover, which gives even better access to the control rope.



I used a carbine hook on the upper trolley line, operating in the opposite sense to the one on the lower, i.e lower one fully aft for anchoring, whilst the upper one is fully forward for the drogue.





The carbine enables me clip the drogue rope in and out of the trolley system.

So there it is, I can carry the drogue in the Yakmate until required, or keep it secured up front ready for immediate use. Locking off and stowing is dead easy. I’ve just got to use it in anger now.

Quite chuffed with it

[THURSOMAN]

Hi Rob,
Very well done indeed that mate.
Will be very interested to hear how you get on with it in practice.

I really like the neat way you have stowed the drogue.
Also the drogue design is of interest.
Does is have a bouyant and weighted section in the drogue or does it rely on the shape design to keep it open in the water?

To retrieve this design of drogue are you simply paddling forward and catching it or does it have a collapse feature?

Brilliant stuff and sure you'll get your time down to the 4 sec. ;D

[v8rob]

The drogue 'hoop' springs into shape when released, the nylon cross in the centre stops it from spinning. It's actually from a milspec 25 man liferaft, retails at a mind blowing £100 (I got it free). I've read a few ways to retrieve the drogue, the most common seems to be to recover your anchor first, then paddle forrward to retrieve the drogue. The other it just to drag it back to the yak.

I've had a play with it at a swimming pool the other day. Chuck it out and it immediately sprinsg into shape during flight. When it hits the water it starts to sink, pulling it towards you it immediately assumes the correct position. Well impressed.

I'll hopefully get out next week and I'll have a good play with it, both at anchor and on the drift

[THURSOMAN]

Wow Rob that's some drogue you have there!
100 notes! ;D

Paddling up to the drogue is the way I retreive mine but I have a float on the top of mine to keep it high in the water. This way I grab the drogue itself first empty the water and take it in. I find it hard pulling the drogue in by the rope. (Well not a quick way of doing it with my drogue put it that way.)
I did modify my drogue by adding another(thinner) rope to the very end of it. When deployed this rope remains slack untill you want to retreive it. When you do you simply pull on that rope which then collapses the drogue making retreiving very easy indeed.
At the time I didn't spend much time on most effective way to have 2 ropes held together without tangles and caused a bit of hassle but might go back to that idea as it is handy when you need to "escape" from a situation quickly.

Keep us posted on how you get on mate.

Chris

[v8rob]

Well I'd have struggled to part with £25 for the drogue, though I'm not complaining . No doubt a lot of its cost is certification for its intended purpose. Here's a link to a lesser spec model

www.safety-marine.co.uk/Life-Rafts-and-Accessories/Liferaft-Accessories/MCA-approved-Liferaft-Drogue---Sea-Anchor.htm?P4725-S65-

Funny you mentioning the second rope to the tail of the drogue, the same thing crossed my mind last week, as did the problem with potential tangles. It certainly would seem to be an easy way to retrieve the drogue, though to make it work consistently well in practice would seem to be the problem.

I'm looking forward to having play with it. I want to get it sussed out pretty quickly as I'm working down in Cornwall all of March and of course the yak is coming along. I'm planning to master the art of drift fishing for pollack, the drogue may come into its own here.

I've purchase a few packets of sidewinder lures and a large bag of black/red firetail jellies. I also pick up some 12" stainless booms. I was planning of drifting with a lure on an 8-12' trace (finding out what length works best for the yak).

Any thoughts on the tactics?, as you've far more experience in that type of fishing.

Feb 15, 2010 9:18:38 GMT -1 THURSOMAN said:

Wow Rob that's some drogue you have there!
100 notes! ;D

Paddling up to the drogue is the way I retreive mine but I have a float on the top of mine to keep it high in the water. This way I grab the drogue itself first empty the water and take it in. I find it hard pulling the drogue in by the rope. (Well not a quick way of doing it with my drogue put it that way.)
I did modify my drogue by adding another(thinner) rope to the very end of it. When deployed this rope remains slack untill you want to retreive it. When you do you simply pull on that rope which then collapses the drogue making retreiving very easy indeed.
At the time I didn't spend much time on most effective way to have 2 ropes held together without tangles and caused a bit of hassle but might go back to that idea as it is handy when you need to "escape" from a situation quickly.

Keep us posted on how you get on mate.

Chris

[THURSOMAN]

Yes Rob that's the problem with that idea of a second rope.
Still wondering if there would be a way of having the thinner diameter rope inside the main drogue rope or something.
Perhaps you get ropes with a similar design?
No idea but would still like to look into it at some point for a quick retrieve. Already been in a coupl eof situations where I wish I had kept with the old method.

You drift fishing for pollack sounds great!
You have a good job in that you can get around and try different venues.

Maybe if you moved the question to the KAYAK LURE & FLY FISHING section it will generate more interest.