# Fishing Tip 546. DIY FAD.



## captken (Feb 24, 2008)

<SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">FADs are nothing new for Orientals and Polynesians. They locked in on the idea, I assume after hundreds of years of finding fish around logs and grass patches. We've all seen that. Anyhow, early on, they anchored woven mats to attract fish and hold them in a specific area. 

I have taken palm fronds and duct taped them to lengths of PVC pipe. Pipe is capped and sealed on each end. Align the fronds on one side of the 
pipe so that the butts of the fronds are all facing the same way and on the same side of the pipe. Place them so that the butt of the first frond is at one end of the pipe and the butt of the last is at the other end. Using long (Cabbage Palm) fronds and a 5' length of 2" pipe, you can have a FAD more than 10' long. At the butt end, tape in a length of crab trap line 
about 2X the water depth and anchor with a concrete block. Do yourself(and everybody else) a favor and deploy these well away from a high traffic area. In 8-15' of water around here, they are Cobia, Trippletail, and baitfish magnets. If you find somebody else fishing 
your FAD, wait until they are gone and move it a mile or so. Note: This thing floats low in the water so you had better have a tight GPS# if you 
expect to find it. You can use this in several hundred feet of water by using the 50# line off of your old 6/0. You must tie rope into the blocks though to prevent chaffing. Go from the 50 to the rope with a Bimini Twist. You may need to add a crab trap float at the top of the pipe. Let your conscience be your guide here. When it gets loose (and it will) the line is a hazard to boats, folks and wildlife. 


You can do a similar thing with a vertical presentation. Attach the fronds to the rope by their butts. At the top, put several crab trap floats. Depending on the water depth and current, you may need 4 or 5 concrete 
blocks. I make my rope on this type at least 6' shallower than the depth at mean low water. (Take into consideration the normal draft of vessels passing through the area. 

Going offshore trolling for Dolphin? Take a bunch of fronds and lay them out on the surface in a fairly small area. Tie several together and 
add a small float and a chum bag to get them working fast. Set up your plotter and get a number, troll around the area for 10 minutes or so and plot the direction and rate of drift. If you put a marker on them, everybody will see it and you loose your private hot spot for the day. These are totally biodegradable so shouldn't be too environmentally objectionable. 

There are state and federal regulations that prohibit dumping and I'd imagine any of these would be construed as dumping of a sort. 

I have used all of these at one time or another. They are illegal now but weren't years ago. Am I encouraging illegal activity? Definitely NO! As the old disclaimer goes, 

"Sold for the prevention of disease only."


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