bdalbol
2012-05-08 18:28:21
hi all I have a skiff in cal. that I recently rigged with bronze 2 spool kolstrands and new hydros and all works great however I have a intresting problem with how the boat fishes.I only seem to catch fish on my bottom leaders.doesent matter how deep I fish so far I havent caught a fish on anything besides my bottom leaders on my inside wire.I checked my voltage on the wire and one side is .68 other is .72.doesent mater if motor is running or batterys are switched off stays the same.Im running 6-8" of breakaway cord on the leads with no zincs.Ive also not caught fish on my float lines yet.after building the boat I wanted for 80k I now wish I would have just bought a rigged boat.any ideas much appreciated as if I dont figure this out soon I'll be looking for a job.other boats in the area all had scores of 10-40 fish.
Abundance
2012-05-08 18:54:34
My thoughts would be that the kings are down deep, and not in a biting mood. I have had the same thing happen before. Take heart that next time you go out, the kings may only want your stuff. In all likely hood, the kings are looking up toward the surface to see feed fish silhouetted against the light. When the first king takes your lure, the rest move on. What I would try is to put a flasher on the bottom, and another one just a few spreads above it. Flashers do wonders to bring kings from down deeper, and having two attractors on the bottom can sometimes mean two fish. If you find a cure to to the line preference issue, let me know. They seem to like a different line everyday for me.
SilverT
2012-05-08 19:21:16
Brian,
I had readings of 0.72 down the wire and couldn't buy a king. My interim solution until I could get them isolated and install a black box was to ground the gurdies to the negative terminal on the battery so that they were nuetral - 0.0 voltage down the wire. I started catching immediately, but not the scores of those who had them isolated and could drop their voltage down to 0.4-0.55. You might try a small gage wire with clips on both ends for that to get you by. If the gage was small enough, you might be able to place the clip somewhere on the gurdy where it would drop the voltage by a small amount, rather than completely grounding and you might get into that sweet range. I know I'm stretching it, but it's worth a shot.
Lane
bdalbol
2012-05-08 21:04:49
thanks for the comments.lane is .6-.7 to high? some of the reading ive done suggests it is ideal but from what ive seen so far I think I have a problem.I will try grounding them but as far as isolating the gurdies I used 1/4 lexan above and below the brackets with nylon bushings on the bolts.the voltage doesent change at all with the battery switch on or off so I was thinking Im not getting stray v oltage other than the natural field around the boat.thanks again for you comments brian
spike christopher
2012-05-08 22:43:11
Try dragging a 20 foot piece of trolling wire behind the boat to check the current around the boat, make sure the line is not touching the boat and being grounded out, you can do this by laying down a dry rubber glove and run your line across it. Your trolling lines from the grudies should read less than the surrounding area. If not you will have a hard time catching. If your lines are to hot put the small zinc's they sell right above the leads. there are a couple of other things you can do as well, give me a call and I'll help you out over the phone. 907 399 3555.
Spike
SilverT
2012-05-09 01:46:58
0.7v was too high for us for kings and coho. It sounds like you have the gurdies isolated and your natural voltage (without black box) is good, between 0.7 and 0.8. You probably just need a black box to enable you to turn the voltage down to a range that kings like. 0.7v was too high for us. Start with 0.4v to 0.55v for kings and a little hotter for coho. I'd call Spike.
Lane
bdalbol
2012-05-09 03:29:43
spikes the man got my voltage down to 4 thanks to all that replied brian
Salty
2012-05-09 04:40:33
For salmon you want your voltage between your wires with leads at trolling speed and your boat bonding system to be between 5 and 8 tenths of a volt positive. For Chinook a lot of guys like it around 5.5. You use your "black box" to pull your voltage down from an ideal of 7-8 tenths to 5.5 or so.
My boat usually sits naturally at 6-8 depending on how much wire I have out, salinity, the length of my straps between the wire and lead, etc. Sometimes I pull the voltage down to 5.5 -6.5. Often I just leave it at around 7 tenths were it is without activating the black box. The smaller the target species the higher the voltage is the theory.
Then there is the whole science of the slow or fast pulse.
I would think 4 tenths would be a bit low. But, if you fish away from the fleet and aren't hard grounded-0- differential, then it doesn't seem to matter much. In a mob of boats the guy with the biggest steel or aluminum field, if it is in tune, is going to catch the most.