Do you shut your engines off during a drift, or leave them idleing. Typically while fluke fishing my drifts are less than 1/2 hr depending on the tide. I came from the school of you start'em at the dock and you shut'em down at the dock, but with the price of gas I am beginning to re-think this and was wondering what everyone else does. BTW my engines are (2) 260hp mercruiser inboards.

Don

I've always killed em if I'm drifting more than a minute or two.

I often shut down when I think it will affect the bite or save gas. Long drifts while fluking to find concentrations of fish, in a safe and open area - I'd probably shut down.

I've found the bite better when live lining shallow rock piles and reefs for Bass with the engine off. That might just be my imagination though.

Even though most of my drifts are short and are in fairly shallow water I shut it down so not to spook fish. If I ran a four stroke I leave it running.

In daylight,we shut down,
even for relatively short drifts.
Cuts down on noise
and saves a bit o' fuel.

Sometimes at night, we'll leave 'em running
especially if we've been running the washdown,
or had the spreaders on.

its more or less common sense.shut dwn when ever possible. to save fuel .if your drift is 5min thats 5 min less you run your motor ;if u are out 20 miles with a weak batt. thats diff...if u are fishing in the rocks along the islands and the wind is blowin you to the shore . no,no.common boat fishin sense...right???

Yeah, there are obvious situations when you would never shut down, and I guess that the gas saved over a season by shutting down when you can out-wieghs the additional wear and tear on the engines from stopping/starting x times a day.

i.t.h...when im off shore tuna fishin ,if conditions r slow ,bite is off, i will shut dwn ,pull in the rigs and drift.and jig for cod or just enjoy the sound of the sea ...its a gift i dont get enouph??

For me (diesels) it depends. If its going to be a long drift, say 15-30 minutes I'll shut down, but once I find the fish most drifts are ten minutes or less and I let them run.

One thing to think about.

Considerable engine wear is caused by that period of no lube oil pressure while cranking the engine till after it actually gets going. Of course this is worst the first start of the day. A good investment would be a prelube priming pump

A diesel or 350 chevy whether EFI or carb at idle isn't burning a boatload of fuel compared to an older 2 stroke.

If your 28 miles from home east of the bank it is a nice feeling having it going. Have been there when the engine hasn't restarted, not good.

Of course the flip side is having to listen to it. However when on a pod of fish your always running back up on the numbers so..........for me I like to keep it going, most of the time.

i shut down every chance i get , one of the reasons i fish is for the peace and quiet and i have a 4 stroke , just rember safty first

I have an I/O so most of the time I shut down, I feel the plugs load up ideling for a while , sometimes after drifting I''ll take her out for a WOT to clean her out. Sometimes I'll get some run on if I get into a fast drift and shutdown maybe I should just leave it running I have a 4.3 merc 190hp alpha1
link sr

I'm not sure,
I can't hear my 4 stroke run anyway!!!

unless tight to shore or rocks, or at night, i always shut down. 1 minute or 1 hour drifts.

If I am tight near rocks I will keep running. If I am going to drift jigging cod I will drift.

When I drift fish at night the drifts are around 2-5 minutes long. With all the electronics and lights the batteries will start to get low. When I see the lights dimming excessively when I start the engine at the end of a drift, I leave it on. I'm going to put bigger AGM Batteries in to see if this helps...

Shut down whenever safe. I hate the fuel dock!

I am going to start shutting down when possible and see if I can squeeze a little more out of a gallon of gas, just have to keep an eye on the batteries....

All you guys worried about batteries. Dont you have a back up? Do you run all your batteries on at the same time? Dont you have a portable jumper on board? If I am going to run my electronics and lights with the engine off I will switch my bateries to one, then if it dies I have a freshy for back up.

I will shut down when even I can as I also like the serenity of a quiet drift. But at night with eels in the rocks never. As far as the batteries go I have two and run on only one at a time. I try to switch back and forth each trip so each gets charged and that way I always have a fresh new bat. if something should go wrong.

Always shut down myself, the only time is at night, or fishing the rips, I want to be able to move in a moments notice, and not worry if its going to start?