Fishing Boat Drag

While I was hunting and hiking this weekend I came across a couple of fishing ponds at the Tuskegee National Forest. I began to think about when I could get my fishing gear from home and fish these ponds. I then became mindful of the drag force on a fishing boat. When me and my fishing partner get prepared for a fishing trip we always try to minimize the amount of heavy gear that we bring in the boat. I never thought about it before but this has a certain fluid mechanic reasoning. The more gear that we put in the boat, the lower it will sit in the water due to buoyancy. When traveling down the river the drag force acting on the sides of the boat are dependent on the height of water on the sides. Thus, the drag force can be minimized by removing all unneeded heavy gear from the boat.