Australian Drone Fishing Guide

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Before flying over water, become confident flying your drone over open ground.

Learn where the controls are, what each button does and how the drone responds in different weather conditions before introducing any fishing gear.

Once you can fly the drone by muscle memory without looking at the controls, then, and only then, start using the camera. Practice panning and tilting the camera until it becomes second nature. Later, you'll rely on these skills to accurately position your bait and confirm it has released successfully before flying home.

 Once you're comfortable controlling both the drone and the camera, it's time to start practising with light payloads and simple rigs. Build your confidence gradually before progressing to larger baits and more demanding fishing situations. 

 If you're unsure which rig to start with, our Standard Drone Fishing Rig is the ideal all-round setup for beginners learning the fundamentals of drone fishing. 

 If your goal is to catch sharks with a drone, make sure you already have experience targeting and safely releasing sharks from the beach. 

There are plenty of videos showing experienced shark fishos using drones to catch large sharks, and they make it look easy. What you don't see is the years of experience behind those flights. They already know how to land sharks, release them safely and manage the additional risks involved.

If you're not already an experienced land-based shark fisho, use your drone to target bread and butter species like snapper, tailor and mulloway while you learn. If sharks are your ultimate goal, first become confident catching, landing and releasing them using normal land-based fishing techniques. 

Once you're comfortable doing that, you can then move on to deploying large baits and heavier tackle with a drone.

Want to learn more about shark fishing?

See our Land-Based Shark Fishing Guide, Shark Fishing Rigs Guide and Safe Release of Sharks Guide.

The sharks... and your wallet... will thank you for it!

Your drone's advertised payload is only part of the story.

The total payload includes your bait, sinker, rig and any aftermarket drone release mechanism. If you're using one, also include any additional safety release clips or other accessories fitted to the system.

Other factors also reduce your drone's lifting capacity. Flying into a headwind requires more power, longer flights create additional drag as more line passes through the air and eventually across the water, and drag from your reel also increases the load on the drone.

In our testing, these factors could reduce the drone's effective payload by around 200 grams (7 oz).

Carry a small set of fishing scales in your tackle box and weigh your complete fishing system before every flight, especially when using larger baits or heavier rigs.

To make this easier, Wiggle ya Worm drone fishing rigs and compatible accessories include their individual weights on the packaging and in the product specifications. This allows you to calculate the combined weight of your rig before adding your bait and sinker, helping you better understand the total payload your drone will be lifting.

Remember, your drone's advertised payload is the maximum recommended payload under optimum conditions. Always leave yourself a safety margin to allow for changing conditions and lower battery levels.

Before launching, position your drone so it's facing the direction you intend to fly. Starting with the drone already pointing in the right direction makes your first control inputs more natural and predictable, allowing you to concentrate on the take-off rather than correcting the drone's direction.

 When storing your drone rig, wind it onto the storage reel from the sinker end first so the drone attachment loop remains accessible on the outside. At the beach, connect the attachment loop to your drone while the rest of the rig is still safely wound on the reel, then walk downwind and allow the rig to unspool as you go. This prevents you having to completely unwind several metres of rig onto the beach before you can connect it to the drone, reducing the chance of tangles and keeping the rig under control in windy conditions. 

Lay your rig out in a straight line downwind of the drone. Every couple of meters, place a small pile of sand over the rig to stop it blowing around on the beach. This keeps the line where you want it and helps prevent it from blowing towards the drone when you take off.

Once you've connected the rig to the bait release mechanism, place the rig underneath one of the drone's feet. This helps secure the rig and reduces the chance of it blowing into the propellers during take-off.

When launching from sand, always use a launch mat. It doesn't need to be expensive. Even a cheap welcome mat works well. The purpose isn't to protect the drone. It's to help stop sand being blown into the motors and propellers during take-off and landing.

 If your reel has a clicker, turn it off before flying. 

Once the bait has been released, you can turn the clicker back on if you normally use it while fishing.

Leaving the clicker on creates additional resistance as the line leaves the reel. 

That extra drag increases the load on the drone, reducing efficiency and causing the battery to work harder than necessary throughout the flight.

The constant friction also creates unnecessary wear on the clicker mechanism itself. After enough long deployments, particularly when regularly flying several hundred metres offshore, you may find there's very little clicker left.

Turning the clicker off before take-off is a simple habit that reduces drag, improves flight efficiency and helps extend the life of your reel.

As the drone flies away, keep a light finger or thumb on the spool to control the speed the line leaves the reel. Wearing a glove can make this more comfortable on longer flights.

Controlling the line helps prevent overruns and bird's nests.

If the line locks up while the drone is still flying away, the sudden tension can be enough to pull the drone into the water.

For beginners, it often helps to have two people during a flight. One person can concentrate on flying the drone while the other controls the line leaving the reel. Standing side by side also makes it much easier to communicate if something unexpected happens.

Beginners should fly out at a height of around 40 to 50 metres. This keeps the line out of the water for longer, reducing drag. More importantly, if something goes wrong, the extra height gives you more time to sort it out before the drone reaches the water.

Learn to fly your drone and use the camera at the same time.

Before releasing your bait, adjust the camera to confirm you're dropping it in exactly the right location.

After activating the bait release, don't immediately turn for home. Use the camera to confirm the rig has actually released before flying back to shore.

If the bait hasn't released, you'll know immediately and can attempt to resolve the issue before returning to shore.

If your bait release mechanism doesn't activate, don't panic or start making sudden manoeuvres to try and shake the bait free.

First, activate the release mechanism another one or two times. If the bait still doesn't release, assume the mechanism has jammed and stop trying. 

Continuing to repeatedly activate the release may place unnecessary strain on the release mechanism without solving the problem.

Your priority now is getting the drone back safely. Don't simply press Return to Home. You need to remain in control of the flight in case you need to adjust your height, speed or flight path as the drone returns. A controlled manual recovery allows you to react if conditions change or another problem develops.

Climb steadily to lift as much fishing line clear of the water as practical before slowly returning to shore. Fishing line creates far more drag in the water than it does in the air, so reducing the amount of line dragging through the water can significantly reduce the load on the drone.

 Leaving the reel's bail arm open can also help. Rather than pulling against a fixed length of line dragging through the water, the reel can continue feeding additional line as the drone returns. This reduces the load on the drone by allowing the line to extend naturally instead of dragging a large curve of line through the water against a fixed point on the beach, making the recovery safer and more efficient. 

Recovering extra fishing line afterwards is a far better outcome than placing unnecessary load on the drone during the flight home.

Once safely back on shore, land the drone and investigate why the bait failed to release before attempting another deployment.

  One of the biggest causes of unstable flight is having the bait too close to the drone.

If the bait is hanging too close, the sinker can begin to swing. As the drone tries to correct the movement, the swinging can become larger and faster. In extreme cases, the sinker can swing over the top of the rig and the line can enter the propellers.

Through testing, we found the most stable distance between the drone and the bait was generally 6 to 12 metres.

More stable flights also help preserve battery life because the drone isn't constantly using power to correct an unstable payload.

This testing led to the development of the Flight Stabiliser Trace. At 8 metres long, when combined with a standard Wiggle ya Worm rig, the overall distance naturally falls within this stable range, helping to reduce bait swing, improve flight stability and reduce unnecessary battery consumption.

 Safety release clips are designed to protect your drone if excessive tension develops in the deployment line.

This can happen if:

• The rig snags during deployment.

• The line jams or birds-nests on the reel.

• The line doesn't feed smoothly from the spool.

• In rare cases, a bird flies into the main line, creating sudden tension.

As the drone continues flying away, the tension increases until the safety release clip opens, allowing the rig to drop away from the drone. The drone is then free to continue flying, helping prevent it from being dragged backwards or into the water.

When they activate, safety release clips generally do exactly what they're designed to do.

The Limitation

Once the rig has been deployed, the safety release clip remains attached to the rig.

During retrieval, the clip is dragged across the seabed where it can catch on rocks, reef or other underwater structure. If that happens, the clip may release from the rig and remain on the bottom.

Because the clip itself is often lost during retrieval after a release, it becomes a consumable item that needs replacing before the next deployment.

Some drone fishos attach small floats or even foam ear plugs to the clips to help keep them off the bottom during retrieval. While this may reduce the chance of losing a clip, it doesn't eliminate the problem completely.

Our Decision

Safety release clips solve a genuine problem and, when activated, generally do exactly what they're designed to do.

  After weighing up the advantages and disadvantages, we've chosen not to incorporate safety release clips into our Drone Fishing System. However, all of our drone fishing rigs remain fully compatible with safety release clips should you choose to use one. 

In our experience, the ongoing replacement of lost clips outweighs the relatively low likelihood of needing one during a normal deployment.

Instead, we focus on ensuring the line feeds smoothly from the reel and monitoring it throughout every deployment.

All Wiggle ya Worm Drone Fishing Rigs are fully compatible with safety release clips. If you choose to use one, simply attach it to the drone attachment loop before deployment.

Other drone fishos may reach a different conclusion, and that's perfectly fine. Understanding both the advantages and limitations of safety release clips will help you decide whether they're the right choice for the way you fish.

 As soon as your bait has been released, wind in the slack until the main line comes under light tension.

Leaving slack in the water allows the current to push your main line around. As it drifts, it can come into contact with reef, rocks and other underwater obstacles, increasing the risk of abrasion or the line being cut during retrieval.

Keeping light tension on the line helps maintain a straighter path between you and your rig, reducing the amount of line lying across the seabed and minimising contact with underwater structure.

It's a simple habit that can reduce lost rigs, prevent unnecessary line damage and make retrieving your rig much easier.

Drone fishing is only one part of successful fishing. Understanding where fish feed, choosing the right rig and using equipment that's been designed for Australian conditions can all help improve your results.

   Continue your drone fishing journey by exploring our Drone Fishing System to compare every rig in the range, browse our Drone Fishing Shop, explore Rigs Explained for practical fishing rig tutorials, or visit the Wiggle ya Worm Blog for more Australian fishing tips and techniques.