PDA

View Full Version : I think the fish are rebelling at the wood!



Durdy Daug
12-06-2015, 05:43 PM
Well the day started out great. First boat to launch this morning, thought I would give trolling a try, so I hooked this "plane" looking contraption that I bought at BPS it kept floating to the surface rather than glide at 25 feet like I set it for. Read the package again and seen where they specify going at 2 MPH,can't get my boat to go slower than 3.5 MPH. Thought that I would just use my trolling motor and see how that would work out. Well hell if I didn't get a bunch of fishing line from God knows where tangled in my trolling motor prop, sheared the pin into 3 pieces, had to hammer out the center piece from inside of the bolt. I still tried to fish, but with no trolling motor it made for a scary me at both the boey line, the quarry and even the points.
Any ideas on how to slow the boat down? I considered throwing out the drift sock, but I think that will pull me to one side or the other. Would it work with 2 drift socks? 1 on either side?
Well now it's back to work, the weather forecast does not look good for next weekend as it is supposed to be windy...

DEVOREFLYER
12-06-2015, 06:12 PM
Drift sock or a 5 gallon bucket on a rope will work. You may or may not have to adjust your steering, usually not.

JAG107
12-06-2015, 07:47 PM
Or get a trolling plate that bolts to your lower unit. Slowed down my 90hp from 3mph to 1.1

TroutOnly
12-06-2015, 07:59 PM
.....get a happy troller................

Jig-Guy
12-07-2015, 02:04 AM
What is a Happy troller?


.....get a happy troller................

Durdy Daug
12-07-2015, 06:09 PM
Picked one up at BPS, looked cheep ad complicating to mount. I don't want to drill holes into my new motor. I'm gonna try with the drift sock and see how that works out, I may just end up buying the 2nd such and have one on each side. Sounds like it would work out, no harm in my mind, and if it don't work out I can just return it. I have 1 already, but have just been to lazy to figure out how to use it. Can't wait to see if the new prop for the trolling motor works out! Put it together in the BPS parking lot, I didn't have the energy to go back to the wood for the last hour of the day. Hoping for little to no wind in the future weekend forecasts!

seal
12-08-2015, 08:41 AM
Hoping for little to no wind in the future weekend forecasts!

Good luck! Fronts coming in will dictate wind at the Wood. You may have an opportunity on Saturday this weekend but it will be cold.

shinbob
12-08-2015, 08:53 AM
I personally find that leadcore line is simpler to use than those diver boards, and more flexible as well.

BTW, I'd check the seals on your trolling motor to make sure that line didn't compromise them. That's what happened to my motor, and the water leak made my trolling motor inoperable.

MEF_66
12-08-2015, 09:52 AM
I went thru these same issues last year. I also have a tracker with a 90hp out board. The decision I made to correct the trolling speed was #1. To purchase a Co=pilot for the existing trolling motor, this was not the answer. The co-pilot requires constant input to keep the boat going in the correct direction. Secondly. tracker has a habit of putting a trolling motor on their boats that do not have enough thrust to really use the motor for what it is called a trolling motor. Ultimately I solved the problem by installing a 70 pound thrust 24 volt trolling motor with an I-pilot hand held controller. My boat is a Targa V16WT. I believe you have mentioned you have a 19' boat. You might want to consider a trolling motor with more trust. Maybe even consider a 36 volt system. Additionally, I ended up installing an onboard battery charger. That was also a big help.

In regards to placing the lures at the desired depth, I also started off with leadcore line, it might work, but takes a lot of the fun out of reeling in and fighting the fish. Never pump the rod with leadcore, has a habit of creating slack in the line. That equals the fish being able to spit out the hook. There are other options on the market, specifically downriggers. They take a lot of guess work out of the situation. If you drive over fish on the electronics you can see the depth they are holding at and adjust the downriggers on the fly to run your lures over the fish.

Be careful because the next thing you are going to want is better electronics, especially when you consider the field of view on a typical fish finder is only 20 degrees. That is about a width of 6' in 20 feet of water. Structure scan can be pushed out to a field of view of 300'

Durdy Daug
12-08-2015, 07:40 PM
Thanks for the info. I have a downright on my other boat, don't seem to have a proper place for 1 on my new boat, in reality since I generally fish alone, the downright was more problems than it was worth. I have the Lawrence elete 4 for the cockpit and the elete 5 for the bow. I really did not get much from trolling, but with the bite being so difficult, the (Angler) salesman at BPS reeled me in for the planes and the hardcore set up. I bought a drift sock which I never use, so I am going to try using it directly under the center of the boat (directly beneath the boat) I'm pretty sure that that will slow me down. The question remains... how much? I plan on giving it a try this Saturday, even though the forecast is for 10 MPH winds. Love to fish even though I never have caught any in the wind! Still beats resisting my day off watching TV. Anyone care to join me?

Durdy Daug
12-08-2015, 07:52 PM
What is a "on board battery charger"? Where do I get 1 and how do they work? I added a third battery already, even though my system is 12 volt, I am always concerned about running out of juice after a long day on the trolling motor. I have soooooo much to learn about the fish finders that I currently have on board. I have a really bad habit of buying stuff that I never learn how to use. Mostly cause someone recommends it, I charge it on my card then stress out with worrying about paying so must in interest, hate to throw my money away, but at the time I hear about this new thing, I convince myself not only that I need it, but that I need at least 2 or 3 of them!

Durdy Daug
12-08-2015, 07:57 PM
I don't know how to check the seals, but I did buy a new prop, and an extra pin. If this trolling motor does go bad, well it least I will have a good excuse to get a 70#thrust 24 volt motor! Got to look at the good that can come from the bad...

DEVOREFLYER
12-08-2015, 08:08 PM
Your boat should have come with a one or two bank on board charger. It's a battery charger that you plug into a 110v circuit at home to charge your batteries. Perhaps you are thinking about a charge on the run charger like this one. http://www.jonestrollingmotor.com/chargeontherun.htm

JAG107
12-09-2015, 04:35 PM
I started out trolling with those "jet diver" type diving planes that you hook a leader to with the lure. I lost several of them hanging up on rocks in the Sierras. They take a LOT of the fight out of the fish, when you get a 1 lb fish it feels like a 5 lb weight coming up with no head shakes. So I switched to Leadcore. Thats like reeling in a rope when it's a small fish, but it's not such a bummer fight wise if its a good fish. Also I lose 75% of my stripers that way at Silverwood ( I usually troll scrounger flukes), but I land 95% of my bites when it's a downrig bite. Therefore, I only use leadcore as a last resort.
As for the happy troller, I didn't have any qualms about drilling a couple holes in my merc's aluminum lower unit. It's not like it's going to rust. My only real complaint about using that was being slowed down a little TOO much (1.0-1.2MPH). It's really tough to control the boat when it's windy with the plate down. And if you want to go faster than 1.2, but slower than 2.5-3.0, you have to throttle up, which I theorize might put the fish off (trout anyway, if it's quiet and not a lot of lake lice buzzing around, if that's the case it doesn't matter). I don't have any problems catching stripers going 3mph, and when I did try to troll plate-down at 1mph, I'd get nothing. I think they like those lures to be zipping a little more than the trout do.

Durdy Daug
12-09-2015, 06:05 PM
Nice, thank you for the information. I'm going to try the concept of using a drift sock directly under the boat, attached to both of the bow cleats. If that doesn't work I will more likely just not troll. I've never been a fan of lake trolling anyhow, for tuna and Wahoo it is another story! I just sometimes get frustrated with the "No bite" days. Gets to me especially after 2 or 3 trips in a row of no action. I really don't mind too much if I don't actually get to land the fish. I just want the adriline rush of the strike and the fight, especially if I get to hear the drag screaming!

Gonna give it a go this Saturday, I see that the wind is supposed to be up, but a day off work is a day to fish, dispute the weather... Well that is until the wind gets to howling at 20+ MPH!

NFCD I
12-10-2015, 06:54 AM
I can get my 18' Skeeter with a 100 HP Yamaha down to 2 mph by trimming the motor up. I can troll with my 80# 24V trolling motor, but it starts losing power after a few hours.
As far as the line in your motors, I pull my props after every trip. I also had to replace my seals in the big motor a few years back because of line.

Durdy Daug
12-10-2015, 06:41 PM
Thanks for the advise, I will indeed pull the prop after every trip on the water. The main motor prop is a whole mother story. I'm gonna look at the boat and see just how difficult putting the downrigger on it will be. Hoping to get out Saturday...