Black Box
mattakfish
2012-12-26 07:38:54
I'm considering purchasing a black box. I looked at the original Russel version on Pacific net and twine for about $750 as well as the cheap pro-troll and cabelas versions for closer to $110....Any recommendations out there? Do I need one or should i just use a mutimeter?
FV_Wild_Card
2012-12-26 11:49:46
If the Aurora doesn't already have one I wouldn't bother putting one on her to get started. You certainly don't NEED one. Use your multimeter and be between 0.5 and 0.7. The only way to test it is with the gear out and everything running as normal.
Why did the last owner sell? He didn't have it very long after down sizing from the Lady Hellen. Or is it a different Aurora?
mattakfish
2012-12-26 16:50:08
He bought a different boat about the same length but I think it has a better layout and more comfy house.
mattakfish
2012-12-26 16:52:19
Thanks for the advice, by the way.
carojae
2012-12-26 18:01:49
Black box is guaranteed to drive you nuts..........
Signed,
The voice of experience.
Salty
2012-12-26 20:49:40
I agree with both wild card and carojae. So here is a story. The second year I was power trolling I finally bought a black box for my old wooden troller that should have been fishing better in my mind. The next trip was my best ever, smoked my partners. One of my partners came by to visit and said,
"So, the black box really made a difference?"
I replied, "Must have, never caught like this before. I wonder how good I would have done if I had hooked it up."
I have had the cheap black boxes, I have invested in the voltage guru VIP box, and had him go through the boat several times. I have added metal to the bottom of the boat as recommended. Here is what I think:
1. There is something to this whole voltage-magnetic field theory;
2. While complex, it boils down to this, you need your field in tune, .5-.8 tenths positive between your grounding system and your wires, but that is not the whole story. You also need to make sure you don't have any voltage leaking into your field. Twice I have had transducers with speed indicators malfunction and start pumping noise into my system, undetected by the blackbox. We picked it up because it didn't just reduce my fishing, it killed it. A friend suggested trying an alternate transducer. The next day I was number one in my group with 49 kings. During the slump my best day was 4.
3. I think there are three stages of this electronic-magnetic field business:
a) You have a problem or problems and you aren't catching worth poop;
b) You are ok and are catching ok;
c) You have dialed in your boat and gear, to a magical level where you are smoking hot.
4. A bigger boat with more metal underwater, ideally a big steel or aluminum boat, that is in tune has a larger field than a smaller boat, will catch more, everything else being equal.
I have spent most of my career in b. I use a black box to tell me immediately if there is a short, and sometimes I follow instructions and fool with the voltage. There have been occasions when I got everything dialed in and was amazed at the difference in production.
On the other hand I have partners and know people who never fool with any of this voltage business, who have not diligently bonded their boats, never check the voltage of new leads, and catch just fine.
I had a problem last spring and spent hours trying to find it. Remounted my gurdies with plastic bolts, rewired all the wires going to the cockpit, and found some suspicious items but no silver bullet.
Once you experience the magic it haunts you forever trying to find it again.
Salty
2012-12-26 20:52:19
A final note:
Communicating with people who are dialed in when you are not is no fun.
mattakfish
2012-12-26 22:16:48
Lots to think about. Thanks.
Abundance
2012-12-27 03:15:43
It is a fact that the people who go all in with their voltage and bonding are usually the top producers. I got my first black box from Cabela's last winter. I consistently had slightly better days than the boxless people in my group, but that was probably just my secret fishing hole working for me. Then spring king fishing this year turned out to be the best one I ever had, easily doubling everybody in the same drag as me every day. I was close to worshiping that magical box. Then summer came, and outside of three outstanding days everybody else, even and actually particularly the boxless ones, kicked my butt. It didn't matter what I tried. Unplug the box, shoot up to a volt, down to almost zero, chums, pinks, cohos, it didn't matter. I am going to keep fiddling around with the thing, Maybe I will find out the sacred secrets, but I am swearing off obsessing over it. I don't want my deckhand calling the Coastie's out to drag me off in a straight jacket.
spike christopher
2012-12-27 17:20:25
I asked Malcome Roberts how far down, and out away from the boat does the field travel. He told me he had tested out to 300 yards in a 360 degree circle. After that I turned off my black box and just followed all the black box boats within 300 yards. At the end of the season all I had to do was change out the pilot house windows that got shot out. Cost me a hundred bucks or so but saved me from going insane dialing in the secret voltage all season long.
Salty
2012-12-27 19:48:56
How come you never follow me Spike?
Carol W
2012-12-28 00:43:37
Proably for the same reason I don't follow you Eric, there is a dead zone behind your boat and Spike like me doesn't go to the dog patch. All kidding aside I have also spent most of my time in b). and have had good fishing and poor fishing.
One year the Antares stopped fishing, when I was alone on a drag I caught ok but as soon as another boat showed up I stopped catching, how my hairline didn't match Erics after that season I don't know. That winter I ordered a new shaft and that same winter Lonnie Houghton had Malcome Russel come to Ketchikan we went through the Antares with a fine tooth comb I had teflon between all light fixtures and wood, all the wire connections sikaflexed plus liquid electric tape, new bilge pumps, new float switches, gurdies isolated, copper put on the keel, and installed a black box and a thru hull probe. I also installed a new shaft, redid stearn bearing, and realigned engine. Now let me say the Antares was a very fishy boat when it came to coho prior to her stopping fishing, I could throw a chartruse manistee with red dots and if there was a coho wiuthin 10 miles I caught it. Well after all the improvements and changes the Antares went back to fishing however I didn't feel as if she fished any better than she did prior to her stopping fishing.
Now the Carol W I don't have a black box I do have a good electric meter. Carol W has provided me with some of the best King Fishing I have ever experienced, however with coho I seem to have to work harder to catch the big numbers that is not to say she doesn't catch coho, I just have to be more on my game, oh and I could just be getting older and slower. I have Isolated my gurdies and added copper to the keel and increased the zincs, my coho fishing has improved with this move but if I change zinc prior to spring Kings then I struggle for a bit before I start catching. So yes there is something to the voltage theory but understanding it is difficult at best.
I have fished for 38 seasons now and can tell you that the two things I have learned is if the hooks aren't in the water they don't catch and there are so many variables to make a fish bite that you can't get hung on any one of them as a silver bullet.
Keep your hand on it
Tom
Salty
2012-12-28 01:02:19
It takes a few days for the zincs to get "activated", so don't expect to catch the day you launch. I usually schedule my friends sport fish trip the days after I schedule my haul out. We catch fine enough for them.
I am a true believer in Black Box technology. My last troller was a steel Ft. Bragg boat. I considered it a "fishy" boat and was skeptical about what I had been hearing about Black Box success stories but decided to take the plunge and give one a try. As it happened, I was doing some hull maintenance hauled-out at Halibut Pt Marine, and (with the owner's permission) I copied the zinc arrangement that Malcom Russell had recommended on a sister-hull parked on blocks beside me.
Once I got a Canadian Black Box installed and the whole installation dialed-in - I found myself somewhere between the b) and c) categories listed in Salty's Wednesday post above. Some days my King production was absolutely amazing and even when the fishing was "scratchy" the boat seemed to collect its fair share. It became clear to me that if I wasn't catching it sure wasn't the boat's fault. As with most things associated with trolling, it comes down to personal choice. I know other people who gave up in disgust when their own Black Box experimentation didn't net them any increase in production. In fact, I got a good deal on my Box from a discouraged troller I overheard in Murray-Pacific who was bitching about his Black Box tribulations. He was so frustrated he said he was ready to give it a "buoyancy test". From my perspective, if you have some patience and are inclined in that direction I would encourage you to give one a try.
mattakfish
2012-12-29 03:59:18
Wow. A lot to ponder. Weather finally permitting, I'm hoping to make my first shake-down drag on Monday and Tuesday (then back to the day-job) I'll see if I have any luck without the box for now...though I know winter is not the best time to judge. Thanks for all the thoughtful comments. Someone should compile this stuff into a book: The Trollers Handbook: Living to Fish and Fishing to Live!
It was probably just random luck, but I doubled, tripled, and quadrupled everyone I coded with, the day after putting on new zincs last season. It didn't keep up for more than that one day.
Salty
2012-12-29 04:32:26
Just when you think you know something you are humbled in this business. Good show.