Have you ever fished in open water and found yourself hooked up to a big smallmouth?  You fight the fish for a few minutes, net it, admire the fish, take a picture, then release the fish and wonder where you caught it??  Here in New York we catch a bunch of big smallies in open water ranging from 12 feet to 50 feet.  We normally drift and drag tubes, or drop jiggin' spoons.  When I am fishing this way I keep a marker buoy at my feet on the deck of my boat.  I also keep one on the back deck for my partner.  When we hook up a fish the other one throws the marker over the side to mark the spot!!

There are some days when we are drifting in waves greater then 2 feet.  If you throw over a standard commercial marker you will never find it again, let alone use it as a reference for where you just caught that fish!  So to get around this I make my own markers.  I normally go dumpster diving where I work and go looking for closed cell Styrofoam that was used in things shipped to our company.  I often find corner protectors for computers or long strips of 2"X6"X48" foam that is perfect.

I bring the Styrofoam home and do a little trimming on it to make it the right shape.  Then I paint it with some cheap orange, pink or red spray paint.  I buy Mason Line at the hardware.  This is a braided string that you can get for about $4.00 for 500 feet.  I trim the line to about 30-50 foot sections, tie the line to the painted foam, and then attach a 8-16 oz. duck decoy anchor to the marker.  I get the decoy anchors at sporting goods stores for about $1.00 each.  So for about $1.25 each, I can make a bunch of marker buoys!

Since these markers are much bigger then the commercial types, they are easier to see from a greater distance.  That makes it a better marker of that spot where you hooked that big smallie!!  Often you can go to the same spot and find the big fish had friends and really load the boat!!