OP, thanks for NOT using rap music on your demo video...

Thanks SWIRE.

I am actually a pretty good surfcaster.  I use Breakaway LDX and HDX rods.  Both are 13'3" long, but one is set up to sling a 4oz bait and pompano rigs, the other for slinging about a 6 oz. weight and a smallish finger mullet in the 3-5" range.  On a calm day, with the LDX/Pompano rig...I can knock down 110 yards all day long. That gets me right in front of the 3rd sand bar.  With the heavier rod, I can get 90-100 yards.  The problem is not the weight, it's the wind resistance of a freaking live mullet...they're NOT.

In addition to that...using a drone, you an use a shorter rod as you don't need the leverage to sling that rig out into the abyss...and the shorter rod gives you much more leverage on a larger fish.

Using a rig like your drone and dropping a large mullet or Piggy Perch, brings several other species into play for me.  King Mackerel, Ling, etc. become a reality.

Kudos for trying it.  I am really ready to pull the trigger on a drone to use this on areas I fish that are NOT PINS.

Guy I know was kayaking baits out on the MD and DE coasts.
And landing 8 and 9' sharks, tagging and releasing them.
DE shut him down.
Scaring the tourists.

This happens right across the street from my house on a fairly frequent basis.

Some sharks are very tasty...but the KEY to it is a couple of things

1.  Remove all the innards and puncture the heart AS SOON AS YOU CAN. It removes all the blood, and does away with any ammonia smell.

2.  Get the fish on ICE as soon as it has bled out and expired.

A Black tip shark in the 3-5 foot range is delicious.

That being said...I generally release every shark I catch.

About a year ago New Egg was running a deal  Refurbish Phantom 3 Standard $329.  They are closer to $599 right now.  If you can find it at that price again, that is the drone that I would use.

As to your issue on casting the bait.  Can you do something like the guy with the big air canon did?  Freeze it all together?  It would get the wind resistance down and you could put small pieces of fish in to help chum the water as the ice melted. To make it easy you would need a swivel-snap on your line and just change out the bait component every time you would cast.

A kite release clip should work well for you OP.  Free spool line on the way out, put in gear, and with the release set up right it should pop right out.  Make sure to have 'enough gun' if you are dropping big baits.  Watching a 4/0 penn filled with 100# braid smoked in two minutes was pretty entertaining.

Huh?
Size of fish has nothing to do with the leverage.
why not use a 2-3ft rod then?
or no rod at all

seems to me the determining factor would be stiffness of rod. more force could be exerted to fish because less of the force is lost in bending of the rod.

Please explain your logic

There is actually a remote release available on the market. Your choice whether you want to drop fishing lures or hand grenades.

Breakers?  Bob Hope could make that run in his golf cart.

Nice OP...

I've watched some guys use slingshots up near Bonneville Dam on the Columbia....Sturgeon fishing.