herring rigger
2009-05-12 22:46:42
I hand troll out of Sitka, A few days ago I was marking fish with no hits so I thought hmmm! I wonder what my line
voltage is so I checked. 8/10ths" wow" I thought not so good! Now my boat is a sportfish cruiser type with stern drive
trim tabs, kicker you no all the bells and whistles. Now it seems most of these types of boats run around 6 to 7 10ths.
So how would I naturally decrease my voltage to say around 4.5 10ths. with out taking off to much zinc on the boat.
I have put zinc on lines and that worked but somehow I never felt comfortable with that and we all know where that
goes it's the first thing I blame when well you know when things get a little slow on the boat if you know what I mean.
Would bonding my trim tabs stern drive and kicker reduce voltage and bond them to what? What would I use to bond
them together because the bonding wire would have to be out side the transom and under water for the sterndrive
and the trim tabs. Would there be any galvanic reaction from this. Any help would be appreciated. And do black boxes
work if I were to get one which one? Every body raves about malcom's boxes or is this just one other thing to blame
when your watching the other guy and things seem to be a little slow on your boat if you know what I mean. Oh yah let me mention that I unhooked all the batteries with the battery switches turn off and the moters not running with 20 fathoms of wire out when I tested my voltage.
And as far as ions go I told Pat at Murrurys to call me when I can buy ions in a can ( on sale of course) So whats up with the ions what are they and what do they do how do I get them and do I really want them? please help /thanks
Salty
2009-05-13 20:25:00
Herring Rigger,
Malcolm Russel will be in Sitka this May. He might be there now. He will know the answers to all these questions. I know he will be checking out several boats early next week.
An easy way to lower your voltage, and 8/10ths is an ideal place to start in my opinion, is to vary the length of the strap to your leads. The shorter the strap or no strap the lower your differential. So, if you have an 18" strap from your wire to your leads you can lower your voltage about 1/10 by shortening to a foot and so on. Most straps will absorb salt over time and become more conductive so a clean strap and replacement every month or two weeks or so keeps them more constant. You can bond with your bonding straps either inside the boat or below the water line.
The other thing to remember about voltage is that there are at least two aspects. Being in tune and the volume of your field. If you are out of tune your field can actually spook fish. I have had this happen with faulty transducers etc. If you are in tune then the volume of your field when fishing among other boats can make a big difference. Generally the theory is the more metal under the water the greater the volume of the field. Thus the large steel boats in our fleet, everything else being equal (which it never is) catch more on the same body of fish than a small wood boat.
What is also interesting is the conciet that some of the guys with the bigger steel or bigger boats seem to develop when they start trolling those rigs and start catching at a much higher relative rate than they used to. For some reason some develop a much higher opinion of their general intelligence, their political opinions, their business and work abilities, and good looks than they ever had when they were just another struggling small boat troller. I will always love the guy who moved up to a bigger steel boat in large part due to his longline success. He immediately became a much more productive troller. He told me one time; "I am still fishing the same drags in the same weather with the same gear I always did. It is the boat, they are just coming at a higher rate."