Your best bet is to have a game plan before attempting to drift across any intended area of coast line or calm bay.
To control your drift, it is most recommended to use a sea anchor (drogue). Read more about sea anchors in Soft Bait Basics.

Set up for a drift and try to cast as far as you can in the direction of your drift. Try to vary your target area to include objects that are found along the way, like a patch of reef or some structure. Always keep probing around for fish as you go.

It is very important to keep your line taut when it is sinking, because most often fish will strike the soft bait during decent. Any failure in this will cause you to miss the hit.

slow drift fishing

If you are drifting along at a very slow speed and you achieve the right distance cast, you will be able to engage the reel bail arm over as soon as the soft bait hits the waters surface.
By doing this, you are effectively keeping all the line right down to the soft bait nice and taut which makes detecting an enquiry from a fish far easier feel and strike.
This is why using braid line for soft baiting is a so important because it has no stretch and very fine diameter allowing the user to fully achieve this properly.

fast drift fishing

Quite often we encounter current lines at the end of a bay or on a point which gives a whole new set of rules. The amount of current running will have the biggest effect on how successful you are at getting to the bottom where the fish are waiting for a feeding opportunity to come along.
Most likely, it would be necessary to adjust the weight to use a heavier jig head. Correct weights would range from three eights to five eights of an ounce for depths of seven to twenty five meters.

If the current is really moving along quite quickly, I find it best to cast well up current, then letting the soft bait sink down. As the soft bait travels along, it will come back past you with the current until it reaches the bottom down current. Make sure that you are in touch with the business end all the way down, and be ready for the strike as it will most likely be hit on the way down.

If you do reach the bottom without interest (your soft bait will be well down current), take up any slack line and proceed to work it back, preferably against the current.
Bait fish don''t usually swim with the current, so working your soft bait lure against the current makes it appear as natural as possible.
Retrieving back with the current will still catch you the odd fish, so the only difference with working your soft bait with the current instead of against it, is the quality and amount of fish you get.

Often current lines contain mini whirl pools which suck water down and these too are also excellent for casting soft baits in to as they act like funnels which can attract fish to hang around them waiting for a feeding opportunity.