I think the fish are rebelling at the wood!

[Durdy Daug]

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]

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]

Or get a trolling plate that bolts to your lower unit. Slowed down my 90hp from 3mph to 1.1

[TroutOnly]

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

[Jig-Guy]

What is a Happy troller?

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

[Durdy Daug]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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?