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Breeze lake fishing

Joined
Dec 28, 2017
Messages
272
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Age
72
Location
Westinster, CO
I fight with the short flight times of the Breeze - it's awful for me at around 8 minutes (5300 feet - Colorado). However I think I have found an application that fits right in with my hobbies; flying aerobatic RC planes and helicopters, and kayak fishing. My wife and I take the kayaks out each summer, about 3x per week and fish a great lake here in CO. There are no power boats, or 'power anything' allowed on the lake, and you can't even swim in the lake as it's designated a reservoir and is used as a water source for Boulder. Anyway, it's a great peaceful lake, not overcrowded, and easy to get to. It's fine to fly in and around the lake per the NFZ maps. The lake is not open to boating year around, but for about 5 months during the summer. I often fish there from shore (when the lake is closed to boating) and the trout are "OK" but the nice ones are out farther than you can cast - and I KNOW where they are! So here's my plan - I'm attaching a small "C" shape to the bottom of the Breeze - part of a paperclip will work fine I think. This will allow me to slide a small loop in the fishing line over the C. The bait, bobber, lure... whatever will hang below the Breeze (about 10-15 feet or whatever) with air resistance forcing the line below to 'hang back' below the drone when flying - not letting it come off. Now, using the Journey mode, I can set the altitude and how far the line goes out before it drops. I will keep the Breeze about 15' high and then set the distance, perhaps starting at 50', going up to a few hundred feet. As you know, the camera angle sets the Journey altitude - so that's cool. I can keep the Breeze parallel to the water if I want, starting at the hover altitude set in the Journey mode. If each flight lasts 60 seconds - 30 out and back, I might be able to do this "casting" 8 times before changing batteries. This would be fine I think. The neat thing, the Breeze does 90% of the work with the pre-programmed Journey mode. I'll of course be testing this before hand on dry land, but in theory it should work great. Of course we had 5" of snow last night so testing will need to wait a bit, but I have a long hall I can play with - working out the line dropping.
 
I fight with the short flight times of the Breeze - it's awful for me at around 8 minutes (5300 feet - Colorado). However I think I have found an application that fits right in with my hobbies; flying aerobatic RC planes and helicopters, and kayak fishing. My wife and I take the kayaks out each summer, about 3x per week and fish a great lake here in CO. There are no power boats, or 'power anything' allowed on the lake, and you can't even swim in the lake as it's designated a reservoir and is used as a water source for Boulder. Anyway, it's a great peaceful lake, not overcrowded, and easy to get to. It's fine to fly in and around the lake per the NFZ maps. The lake is not open to boating year around, but for about 5 months during the summer. I often fish there from shore (when the lake is closed to boating) and the trout are "OK" but the nice ones are out farther than you can cast - and I KNOW where they are! So here's my plan - I'm attaching a small "C" shape to the bottom of the Breeze - part of a paperclip will work fine I think. This will allow me to slide a small loop in the fishing line over the C. The bait, bobber, lure... whatever will hang below the Breeze (about 10-15 feet or whatever) with air resistance forcing the line below to 'hang back' below the drone when flying - not letting it come off. Now, using the Journey mode, I can set the altitude and how far the line goes out before it drops. I will keep the Breeze about 15' high and then set the distance, perhaps starting at 50', going up to a few hundred feet. As you know, the camera angle sets the Journey altitude - so that's cool. I can keep the Breeze parallel to the water if I want, starting at the hover altitude set in the Journey mode. If each flight lasts 60 seconds - 30 out and back, I might be able to do this "casting" 8 times before changing batteries. This would be fine I think. The neat thing, the Breeze does 90% of the work with the pre-programmed Journey mode. I'll of course be testing this before hand on dry land, but in theory it should work great. Of course we had 5" of snow last night so testing will need to wait a bit, but I have a long hall I can play with - working out the line dropping.
Here is a better way to hold and drop the line.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07521DGVD/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A17FAJD38FG3OS
 
Thats neat! Did not know this existed. I’ll try my paper clip cutto a ‘C’ shape as it’s lightweight and I’m not needing to carry any weight - fishing line.

Thanks for the heads up on this.
 
Just a wild thought. The fish and shrimps will hate me for this.
Four paperclips to four legs can launch four fishing lines. The fisherman may quadruple his catch each flight.
 
I fished 2 lines one time from a kayak. What a joke as my friends watched my lines get tangled - you don’t catch 2 fish at a time and the fish you do catch does not swim straight in, its all over the place getting tangled up in the other line. Aside from this I’m pretty sure illegal to fish with 4 lines. I’ll stick with one line. But thanks for the thought.
 
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Attached my lower hook today - as it's 25 outside - not much fun playing out there! This "C" hook will hold the fishing line (line tied in a small loop) and is located near the CG of the Breeze. Should work fine, but need to test in a field when the weather warms up a bit. A small dab of epoxy holds it in place.
 

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Attached my lower hook today - as it's 25 outside - not much fun playing out there! This "C" hook will hold the fishing line (line tied in a small loop) and is located near the CG of the Breeze. Should work fine, but need to test in a field when the weather warms up a bit. A small dab of epoxy holds it in place.
That's like a warm summer day here. We are at -31F here right now. Just go out and stop complaining about a little cool air. :)
 
Oops!!! If I understand correctly in Journey mode the camera MUST be facing me! If that’s the case my hook is backwards. I’ll verify this and then reverse the hook if necessary. Details, details.

*** I ended up just bending the paper clip the other direction, which I think will work fine. It has a little slope (not parallel with the sensor) to hold the fishing line on, but I'm hoping no issues. No doubt I'll need to tweak it a bit, but hoping not a problem.
 
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Was able to get out and do some testing yesterday. The Journey mode is perfect for taking s fishing line out. I start out with a programmed height of 6’. The Breeze hovers there. I reach under, attach the fishing line ‘loop’ to the hook under the Breeze. I have the camera pointing straight ahead (looking at me). This tells the Breeze to not gain altitude, stays at 6’. Then I have programmed in the distance I want to fly out, 50’, 75’, 100’ ... hit the photo button and off it goes. I can rotate the Breeze to cover different parts of the water going out the same distance. That’s neat. Having the ability to put the bait the same distance from shore means if I find a school of fish I can go back to the same spot and drop the bait again.
 
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I got some testing in today with a fishing pole, line and bobber / weights. The Journey mode worked fine (well, one time on the way in the Breeze stopped and hovered, had to do a RTH to get it back) taking the line out and the 'drop' was pretty good, the hook angle at the bottom of the Breeze needed to be adjusted, but I'm close. It flew the weight, bobber and sinkers out just fine. I think this may actually work. I'm going to use a small round key-ring with the fishing line pushed between the round key ring, then slip the key ring on the hook at the bottom of the Breeze. I think this will allow it to fall easier off the hook at the bottom of the Breeze as the Breeze heads home from the Journey. While it fell off now, it took 15 feet or so before it did. Progress is being made.

I as flying out about 180' or so.
 
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Just a quick update to the above.. I removed the AL back cover from my phone - but kept the rubber insert on it. I flew about 10 journey mode flights today at distances from 150- to 195' (the max). I had no issues at all. My fishing line dropped off as it should using a metal key ring around the line slipped over the hook on the bottom of the Breeze. I did a few different trajectories with good results. I noticed during these flights I had a height and distance reading in the upper right corner of the display - had not noticed it before. This was great as I could see the distance the Breeze was knowing it would be stopping at the preset distance. On most flights I was only 6-8' off the ground as that simulated the height I want to fly over water before dropping the fishing lure / bait. WiFi was solid at those distances with the AL cover removed - before it would cut out around 140-150'. I had one flight, with the camera pointed down about 20 degrees (guess) and I hit the GeoFence height limit, which I think I had set for 90'. It was assuring that this boundary worked fine. Wind conditions was about 5mph and steady. While I'm not ready to call this a total success and all my fears are gone - the little Breeze did what it was programmed to do with no issues. Several more tests like this and I'll have the confidence to head to the lake and try it out!
 
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More testing in Journey mode - all working well. Flew another 10 or so flights today, no issues. I'm flying about 5' off the ground - not taking the drone up higher as I want the bait to stay close to the water drop point, not dropping it from 10+ feet, but from about 5'. I downloaded some video of this process - very short, but shows the testing and fishing line drop at 196 feet. Some that fish might be interested. There are 3 videos of about 2 minutes clipped together; the first one is on a flat soccer field, I'm holding an ice fishing rod - as it's short and easy to carry. You see the drone view of me holding the pole, and the line going out, and the drop. Second part is testing the drone going up a slope as I sometimes do not fish right from shore, I'm up on a small slope - which is simulated here, and the 3rd part is the fishing line again attached to the drone going down the slope and back up.


 
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That looks like it's going to work very well. I know you can buy a drone that is made for doing that, but you have created it for a cost that is well under. Good work!
 
Thanks Murray. I looked at ‘fishing drones’, at least $1000! Ouch! Not for me. I’m fitting the float ‘noodle’ things on the bottom of the Breeze legs - the legs will just push into small holes in the styrofoam noidle. A few floating tests and I’ll be ready to go.
 
Thanks Murray. I looked at ‘fishing drones’, at least $1000! Ouch! Not for me. I’m fitting the float ‘noodle’ things on the bottom of the Breeze legs - the legs will just push into small holes in the styrofoam noidle. A few floating tests and I’ll be ready to go.
You are going to have so much fun fishing this year.
 
OK, here's the float set up I'll be using. Works well in the sink. Breeze is about 3" above the water and can make more if I raise the legs a bit in the Styrofoam. Very light.

UPDATE: This did not work - even though very light, the Breeze gave me an 'overweight limit' on the screen (iPhone). The Breeze got off the ground about 5" but the additional weight kept it from reaching the 3' takeoff height, so it landed and I got the error. I plan to try a small Styrofoam tube on each leg - not going all the way across. This will make it much lighter.

update 2: after reading other posts the weight was not the issue, I think the styrofoam blocked the downward airflow which prevented the takeoff. I’m going to extend the styrofoam floats with sticks and try again.

Update 3 - I extended the floats out 8-10" on each side - and the exact position on each side matters as air turbulence around the floats effect stability - as the Breeze does not stay as stationary (GPS keeps it in a 2' radius, but w/o floats it's locked into the same location) as without the floats. I can keep extending the floats out more and more but then the portability suffers. I'm not sure what I'll end up with but I'll try to post a picture at some point it I resolve the issues.

View media item 715
 
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I've decided to not use the Journey mode and fly the Breeze out, rotate it 180 degrees (back toward me - dropping the line) then initiate a RTH function. The Journey mode did not actually land the drone, it brought it back and hovered it, then I landed it. In thinking on this, I'd rather have control on the way out - flying the drone to anywhere I wanted, then RTH back - which lands it and shuts off the propellers. I can then reach down and turn off the drone when I have time. The only issue might be if I'm in a tight landing spot (where within 3-4' is questionable) I might want to manually land the Breeze. Also, when flying out in Journey mode, I have to point the Breeze where I want it to go - and if I'm off just a little at 150+ feet, I'll miss the end point by a fair margin. Both scenarios may be doable depending on terrain around me, but I'll be flying it for the first few times.
 

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