I use my drone to drop fishing bait into the ocean when surf fishing. I use a servo and pull pin payload drop system. It is activated by a light sensor that opens the pin when the landing light is turned on. The pin is located directly under the drone over the landing light and the drop system's light sensor. I crashed a drone while sending a bait line out with this payload drop system.. I learned my lesson. I came up with a few techniques to safely pull 100s of feet of line out into the ocean without any problems arising. By the way I am using an Air2S. Regarding my crashed drone which was a Mav Air 2 (which I was able to bring back), the wind pushed the fishing line up into a prop. Because I didn't maintain a reasonable degree of constant tension on the line as it went out, the line became lax enough for the wind to blow the excess line up into a prop, and down she went. Also, I didn't have it high enough to reduce the chances of having loose fishing line get pushed up toward a prop by the wind. I noticed the higher the drone is, the more the line gets pulled down and away from the drone. The more tension (to a degree) and higher the altitude, the less chance the line will get caught in the props. When launching I am extremely careful to make sure no line on the ground will get pulled into a prop. I slowly lift the line and bait until it's above the rod, then I go 3 times as high as the rod, then slowly move the drone out over the water while increasing my altitude ever so slightly as I go, but not too high. I'm about 50ft high by the time I drop the line. I think my top speed is about 5 miles per hour while pulling the line out. It's also important to maintain a constant speed, BUT NOT TOO FAST, in case the line gets snagged in the fishing rod or reel. The drone will pull, but you don't want it to pull the rod too hard, so you want to very slowly ease off the forward stick and move it back until the rod isn't bending anymore, then fix whatever kink in the line you have. If you can't, just drop the line wherever it is. On the Mav Air 2 and Air2S the upper left function key is defaulted to turning the landing light on and off. However, if your going to fish at night make sure, you turn the auto toggle for the landing light to off. Otherwise it may come on and it will drop your bait. Sometimes the bait or the objects hanging under the drone are picked up by the drone sensors, making the drone think it's near the ground and the light activates. Also, there is a slight issue if the bait is to close to the sensors during the day, that the drone will think the bait is the ground and go up. I put my drone in sport mode to turn off the sensors, it helps, but not that much with the ground sensors.
If anyone else is using their drones for fishing or just dropping stuff, please add any pointers or stories you can share with me and the forum. Thanks.
If anyone else is using their drones for fishing or just dropping stuff, please add any pointers or stories you can share with me and the forum. Thanks.

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