You will never be successful consistently drifting for bottom fish. In a smaller boat your drift is pretty fast and when you catch 2 keeper BSB’s by the time you bait up and drop again. your off the fish. There is a trick to anchoring. Read up on some posts on this site from me, sells and others that bottom fish. The anchor can be cheap - as simple as some rebar and PVC - but don’t scrimp on the chain & rope
You mean you dont have a button that you push so your motor will keep you over the fish to within 3 feet. For real though. I am all about the snell knot. I think it puts the CIRCLE HOOK in the right spot. i never “set” until i feel a bigger bight. If i set early i end up with little scamps. I enjoy a nice drift but with weather like that i guess its best to anchor…I just feel like i am missing out when I am on the hook. GREAT JOB BTW
J. Simmons
22 EdgeWater “Badfish”
A good rule of thumb for anchoring anywhere is a danforth anchor rated for the size boat you have, 1 foot of chain per 1 foot of vessel and a 2:1 rode\rope to depth ratio (minimum). So, if you are fishing in 100 feet, then 200’ of rode\rope is all you need on a calm day. Technically you can get away with less than that if you have a nice, heavy chain. It’s safer to let out more rode on a rougher day, but I don’t bottom fish on rough days 
quote:
Originally posted by WidespreadYou mean you dont have a button that you push so your motor will keep you over the fish to within 3 feet. For real though. I am all about the snell knot. I think it puts the CIRCLE HOOK in the right spot. i never “set” until i feel a bigger bight. If i set early i end up with little scamps. I enjoy a nice drift but with weather like that i guess its best to anchor…I just feel like i am missing out when I am on the hook. GREAT JOB BTW
J. Simmons
22 EdgeWater “Badfish”
You can’t really snell a hook with a chicken rig, and shouldn’t “set” a circle hook, just start reeling with steady pressure.
What Skinnee said is spot on. Don’t skimp on the chain, make sure it’s long enough and the bigger the better. 1/4" chain works different than 3/8" chain. I never appreciated what my chain was doing until I saw it first hand. We dove down the anchor line on a slightly rough day and that chain would lift and then settle back down, over and over. The last couple feet before the anchor would never move.
Rig the anchor to trip in case it gets hung.
218WA Sailfish
200 Verado
The "Penn"sion Plan
USMC - I ditto http://www.gerrystackle.com/gt-hooks
email Gerry, tell him what your using and what your trying to do. He is very helpful. One of the best equipment contacts Sells has put up for us. I’m a big fan. As its been said tell him you want the same hooks Sells buys, he’ll “hook” you up. 
“Temptation may lean on the doorbell… opportunity may only knock once”
I made a reef anchor out of aluminum rod and a piece of SS tube. Welded the aluminum rods together–not pretty but functional–and hooked a 5ft piece of chain to it all. about $20 plus 200ft of rope.
The drift is just too fast over the structure so either hook up or man the throttles
220 Outrage
250 Verado