Trolling question

[idahoron]

I have an electric trolling motor on my FC9 pontoon. I can adjust speed easily. Ron
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[MMDon]

Very cool. Most of the guys running even large boats now troll with an electric trolling motor. Quiet and no large fuel bills! I originally started trolling on my pontoon and did so for years. With a small fish finder and a couple of batteries for the day I was set. The spring is great because all of the fish are in the top of the water column. As the summer comes on you will need trolling weights or lead core to get a bit further down in the water for them!

Good luck out there and keep us posted!

Don
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[forrest2906]

Thed fender I have ever used is on the front of the truck. As far asa the beer cans, never used the kind you drag behind the boat. Ron...you do not have to go out deep for trout. the other rapala that works really well is the trout pattern. I usually keep the trolling speed down to about 1.6-1.8mph. I do not have a troling motor for my toon, but that sounds like a fun time also. Where is roseworth res? is it big enough to put in a boat?
maybe we can meet up sometime at sfcr, or there and fish together...I do have a boat.
you can see a pic of it in my profile.
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[idahoron]

Roseworth is about 8 miles west of SFCR dam. You head west like your going to Murphy hot springs and it is on the right hand side of the road. I know it is big enough to use a boat but I have never launched or even fished there so I don't have much for info. Meeting up would be cool. Here is what my boat looks like. Ron


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[Fishin208]

Put some of this great information to use today at lucky peak and came out with 2 kokes and 1 trout. Trolled cowbells on leaded line out 2 colors with a wedding ring and tiped with worm and shoepeg corn. It was a beatiful day on the water and was happy a few fish were bitting. The kokes were nice size. One was 16" and the other was 13". The trout was only 10" so he didn't make it to the stringer today. Hopefully we can keep getting a little nicer weather to get the bite a little more active.
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[thebug]

DR Wire SPECIES VOLTAGE (Protroll)
Chinook (King) Salmon .600 volts
Coho (Silver) Salmon .650 volts
Sockeye Salmon .750 volts
Kokanee Salmon .600 volts (Mine .58)
Halibut .450 volts *
Macs .650 volts
Rainbow & Brown Trout .650 volts
Cutthroat Trout .650 volts

I find these settings to high by .02 to .04 Volts

what does this mean????
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[MMDon]

Those numbers reflect the correct voltage on the wire (the wire that your downrigger weight is suspended from) when in the water at the lake you are fishing. Most of us carry a voltage meter and either have a PIC (Positive Ion Control) feature in our down riggers or a black box, which allows you to adjust the current. The process of reading the current is very easy. You simply use a digital multimeter set at volts. Place the red lead on your steel cable and the black lead either on the side of your aluminum boat or in the case of a glass boat, the negative pole on the battery. This will give you a reading that will test for a "hot" boat. Boats become hot due to improper grounding. Electronics should never be grounded to the hull of your boat. All electronics should have a negative wire that runs to your fuse block or back to the negative terminal on the battery. Even with the proper grounding some boats test "hot." A boat that has a multimeter reading above the numbers suggested there will actually repel fish with the down rigger wires in the water. If you use downriggers, testing your voltage on the wire should be one of your first concerns. Remember that mineral content in the water is one of the components that effects the reading and can vary from one end of the lake to the other. If I'm fishing all day I will take a reading every few hours.

With the correct reading on the wire fish are actually drawn to the wire versus being repelled and you can see the fish on your fishfinder as they bump against the wire with their noses. When it all comes together it's a great day of fishing!
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[Fishin208]

Another question for MMDon. On sunday I rigged up a 4/0 skateboard dodger with a little pink tube tied 10" behind it. I don't have a down rigger so i tied a 1 1/2 ounce trolling weight 3' above the dodger. The problem I was having was the pink tube keep tangling up on the weight. I did catch one trout on this rig first thing in the mourning. We were trolling a little faster first thing and then slowed down for our pop gear to have better action. After we slowed are speed the poblems occured. Am I rigging this right, does this rig need faster troll speed. Any comment will be appreciated
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[MMDon]

Skateboards style dodgers are slow trolled rigs. The tangles happen when you turn as the dodger stalls and collapses back on the weight. If you make wider turns or speed up on the turn you won't have the tangle.
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[thebug]

ok how do you keep the wire at the specified voltage?
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[MMDon]

If your boat's meter reading is above the currents listed and you don't have down riggers with PIC built in, you can purchase a black box. ProTroll, Cabelas and a few other places sell them. They generally run around $100.00 and are easy to install.

Note: If your boat is aluminum and reads couple tenths above the voltage listed you want to start looking for a bad ground or wiring that is bare and coming in contact with the hull of your boat. Galvanic Corrosion is a serious issue on aluminum boats and these stray currents going into the hull of your boat can leave huge pits and corrosion that will eat through the hull of your boat over time. While this pitting will generally occur inside the hull below the water line, on some boats you will see small pitting on the outside as well. Sacrificial zinc anodes on your hull and motor are something that should be inspected and cleaned or replaced regularly on all aluminum boats as well if your boat is reading hot. A very hot boat can be symptomatic of big problems.
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