Thanks for the post! Can I please clarify what you mean here?
Are you saying not to let it down near a reef, or are you saying I can quite easily drop it near a reef as long as the wind and tides are suitable?
The latter.. I would strongly suggest , initially .. till you get a good feel of how drifts go, wind currents, stay a good 20/30 m away...
If you drop over a reef, rock or general foul, chances are you will either have the mainline go around a rock outcrop when dropping , or pulling up, or if a good sized fish on a trace...
We generally lay out over a shell bed or similar in a quiet bay/ a raised sand/ mud area just off shore 5 to 10m depth.
A 30 to 45min soak across slack tide.
Thu as the yrs have progressed, and skills in maneuvering the Powered boat, between 5m gutters in a couple reefs, or righ down the side and wind tide right is always on.
And yeah it has a few joins in the mainline fouling down there, and having to retrive from the other end.
A liitle thought... I have 2 professional made nylon line lines.. one with hooks and traces in good condition.. stored away that we have pulled up.. and also retrieved another 3 or 4 good for nothing and put in the rubbish bin.
Have a close look at the clips in the pic...we have tried others, these , once get the knack of using ( hook and pull for on...twist and pull for off) are the most popular with me and numerous crew that come out with us.
And an old pic, at that point swivels where being cut off as traces got replaced, re made.
Making correct length traces is easy..
Cut flasher/ $2 shop feathers to length.
hold hook, trace tag thru eye.. the 'wrong way' for suidice hooks...to bottom of the hook.
pick up the flasher, lay beside the tag, and about 6 turns on the main trace line down.. tight after the 3 turn... then 3 turns up back to the eye.. then thru eye on the opposite side to the hook eye loop join... Which way you wind the trace down and up is critical
put hook in the trace frame... measure off to other side.. squeeze a knick to measure... cut tag about 150mm too long.
Now tie the clip on with a palomar... sliding the knicked / marked bit to the clip eye, pull up and a finish knot... like a 1/2 hitch, but 3 times around the mainline and pull up up
Now your new flasher trace is exact length and stretch to hold in the trace frame.
Took me a few days to figure out how to do that...
Fishing is not about , drop line catch fish.. its about homework , details right down to how the bait sits on the hook.
And that's the diff between one person on a wharf or boat catching and the others dont....