Why does it have to be vertical?

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When you have your line going sideways into the water, the whole picture would look like this. The current is pushing the line and you are not in a straight line with your jig. Sometimes you can’t even touch the bottom as the current is pushing the line so much to hang your jig mid-water.

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When you try to move the jig with reeling and jerking, you may be just moving the line, and not the jig. Your jig may be just hanging mid-water, something you can never catch a fish with.
Hi-speed jigging would reel in the line so fast and so hard that it can move the jig somehow. But slow-pitch jigging relies on the sequence of small uplifts and falls, and unless you are in a vertical alignment with the jig, the water influence may be canceling all your applications.

In our effort to cut the water influence, we can use thinner line. We can use a heavier jig. In application, the high pitch jerk generates stronger and faster impact to cut through the water influence and move the jig. Also, the long-fall jerk is bigger in motion, better chances to move the jig.

It’s so important to stay in a vertical alignment with the jig to have direct, finesse control of your jig. Staying vertical is a vital point in slow pitch jigging.

How do you drift?

When you drift, your boat is getting 2 kinds of influence, one is the current, one is the wind. On the other hand, your jig is getting only the current influence.

Free-Drifting

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The left chart is free drift. The example shows that the current is moving from up to down. The wind is blowing from right to left. You drop a jig in 1 point, the wind and the current together move the boat, mostly the wind, while your jig is influenced by only the current.
It is very hard to do slow-pitch jigging with free drifting. Maybe it works in a minimum wind and minimum current. It’s just so hard because you have to pull up your jig back for so many times.

Drift with Sea-anchor

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This is sea-anchor, or parachute anchor. You put in a drogue in the water. The wind pushes the boat, but the drogue puts on a break by catching all the water. It slows down the wind influence and let the boat move with the current, therefore, with the jig.
But you cannot control how much break you put on, and the synchronicity lasts only for certain extent. It’s up to the directions and amounts of wind and current. Also, some small boats have too much buoyancy and shallow draft that the sea-anchor just cannot slow down the wind drift.
Still, the sea-anchor is an effort to stay vertical and a minimum requirement for slow-pitch jigging.

Controlled Drift with Spanker

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This is Spanker, a tail sail. Most of Japanese jigging boats have this sail now. It keeps the boat pointing to the wind, a position that catches the least influence by the wind. And a little throttle forward can cancel the wind push. It takes the skills of the captain, but you can actually move with the current.
You can have your line straight down, keeping you in a straight line with the jig, therefore, the direct control of the jig movements.

What is Spanker?

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Speed Control

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It’s nothing but a lid on the propeller which you can close it to your desired angle. It is a very useful function when you use Spanker. Spanker sets the boat upwind. You set the throttle at the minimum and close this lid to weaken the drive even more, just enough to cancel the wind push. And you can concentrate on your fishing.

Alternative Control Drift

Back Drift

Backing up to the wind is a common method if you have the outboard engine. With stirring and clutching on and off to back up, you can keep the stern to the wind. You can keep watching the line and and the wind to adjust the backing and stay vertical.

If you keep the stern due to the wind, you never know which way the wind tries to turn the boat. Later in the video, he was explaining that you can keep the stern a little bit off-set to the wind so that the wind will try to turn the boat to that side. This way you don’t have to stir right and left hastily. You can keep it one side, when the wind turns the boat, clutch on to back up and turn back to the wind, and keep adjusting to drift with the straight line.

The captain may have to work very busy and, in some conditions, just can’t stay vertical. It may be difficult if you want to do the boating and fishing at the same time.

Front Rudder

Front rudder works just like the spanker sail. It keeps the bow to the wind, and, with clutching on and off forward, you keep stay vertical.

This guy made it electric to lift up and down the rudder, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be done manually with ropes. You just need to make sure you lift it up when you move.

The big fin front keel would work great with the frond rudder, too.

Hope the information helps you! Good luck!