I have been doing alot of reading on black boxes as of late. I have two scotty downriggers and was thnking of adding a "black box" to the setup.

Does anyone have an recommendations for a particluar brand or are they all the same?

Thanks

C&B,
My recommendation would be to put the money it would cost for a BB towards tackle and scents! IMHO it's WAY over rated. Find bait, find fish, good presentation, catch fish! I fish regularly with a guy on this board that had a BB ( notice I said HAD) and saw no difference in fishing with it than without it. There are tons of gadgets out there that say they will catch you more fish and I think most of thwem are more hype than actual substance. Like I said, find bait, find fish, good presentation, catch fish.

In all actality, just how far through the salt water at 150 feet can that .6vdc voltage be felt? for arguments sake, let's say 10 feet.....maybe! Well I guess that means you already found the fish if they are only ten feet away from the down rigger cable and I want a fish that close to be interested in my GSBT not my downrigger cable!!

IMHO anyway.

Good luck with whatever you go with though, hope it all works out for you!

I thought about getting one for my boat as well for a while, but decided against it. Especially after checking my inherent voltage on the cables and found it to be running at .68 vdc. Did you check your voltages to see where they are at without a Black Box

Save your $$$$$ fished with & without NO DIF Im with umrules on this one.

look at the Pro Troll black box. It is available from Outdoor Emporium in Seattle or Cabelas on line (Outdoor had some pretty good sales last year durring the outdoor and boat shows). As far as how they work, well you still have to know how to fish, but I also know that commecial and many charter guys won't fish without them. I first learned about fishing with them on a charter out of Tofino on Vancouver Island. After talking with the skipper for awhile I was convinced and he certainly was a proponent of the system. He was a commercial troller before starting to run charters and he said his experience was that the box definately helped, especially when the fishing was alittle slow. He was also pretty protective of his settings. I guess he was like most of us, helpful to a point!!

I respectfully disagree with Umrules and Finaddict. It all depends on your boat!

I bought the Pro Troll. It does 90% of what the Scotty does and can be had for $79 on sale.

One thing I heard was black boxes were more critical with fiberglass boats than with alum boats (provided there's no grounding problem).

Said alum boats had a current that was close to what was needed to attract fish... and a box didn't add that much to it.. Fiberglass boats.... different story. They needed help.

Also one way to counteract an electrical problem is to have your lure about 30 feet back from the downrigger wire.

Also, if you're not using a downrigger... then theres' not much help from a black box. It needs the downrigger wire to get a current down to around the lure.

So.. I partly agree with UM.. but for a different reason. He didn't have much of a problem to start with.. so probably didn't get much of a gain...

Do think black boxes help though...

I think BB's are more helpful when fishing at greater depths, like for blackmouth, when you are putting your 'rigger ball down 150-200'. I don't think BB's are necessary if you are fishing in less than 100' of water.

I also disagree...
I fish the ocean and the strait for silvers and kings regularly. Last winter I bought and installed a black box on my hewescraft. Its natural voltage was .89 volts. That is pretty hot voltage. I have always struggled to consistently get kings in the boat. This year I easily doubled the total of chinook I have caught in the previous 2 years combined. The only difference was the black box. There were times where I'd be trolling with a friend and just for fun (my entertainment) I'd unplug only there side..... it was like shutting off the light switch. Where they had been getting hits every few minutes, they'd get nothing.... while I'd keep on getting them. After I 'd tell them what I did, they make sure they were always plugged in! It happened many times over the summer. I for one will not go out without it.

I'm on the black box band wagon!!! If your boat is not naturally in the zone then you need something to get it there. The reasearch shows that the box reaches out and touches the fish for a whole lot further than 10'. Naturally any boat (aluminum or fiberglass) should be between .6 and .8 of a volt positive. For kings you need to be around .6 - .625 and for silvers .65 - .675. If your boat is naturally on the high end of the spectrum you will be repelling the fish. Now having said that when the fishing is hot like at Sekiu I don't thnk it makes much difference at all, but when it is scratch fishing every edge that you can get will make a difference. I think that it has made a difference for me. As for which box I think that the Pro-Troll is a Scotty with a different name on it. Hell we spend more than $200 bucks on gear a year so why not give it a shot??? Besides that we need to get more stuff...right ??
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

I recommend checking your boat to see how hot she is running first. Then decided if you want to purchase one- depending on how you feel about running DRs at your current level.

Keep in mind, your natural voltage changes regardless... it is a matter of time. Check all your connections, zincs and DR wires frequently. It will help find "hot" spots (You'll need to change DR wires at least once every two years- depending on usage).

Research has shown that the fish are attracted to the electical current which will bring them closer to your gear. Depending on the salinity, this could be upwards of 50 feet! However for the Sound, the consensus is around 25 feet.

Secondly, there are times when you will want a lower voltage than the "standard" .600v. Large returning fish (30# plus) absolutely detest the higher voltages. Because of their size, they are super sensitive to the current. You'll want to run down around .500 to .530 for the biggins..

On the flip side, Blackmouth like a little higher juice. A rule of thumb is .001v for every foot of wire out past 100 feet. So if I have 180 feet of wire off the spool, my box is set to .680v

The best part is experimenting a little. Each boat runs a little different than the next guys...

Personally, I wouldn't be caught dead without one in my boat.

Jeffhead,
I am not doubting your information on how far from the cable you can feel the induced voltage, just wondering where you get that from. I read about two of these studies that were conducted on positive ion attraction of fish, and one was conducted in a 10 by 10 tank the other in a 4 by 8 tank. That is why I came up with 10 feet. In fact one of the studies was actually conducted with catfish.

So this leads to an interesting question: Just how far from a downrigger cable can .6vdc be felt by a fish. Being that there is virtually no current involved here. Even if it were as much as 25 feet as DR suggests, you still basically need to find the fish first, and at that point nothing is more important (in my opinion) than presentation of your offering.

I don't disagree with anything posted here at all, just stating what I feel.

Just another thought on DR's comment. Unless you want to be continually testing your boats voltage at your wires, using the "natural voltage" setting will show instantly what the current voltage is.
When I originally mounted my d/r's I checked the output and it was O.K. Later that year I was having unusual problems catching fish. After I mounted my B/B, it immediatly showed a reading of 1.700. It took a while to locate the culprit (a d.c. plug filled with water, on an aluminum boat).
Now at the very least I can check my voltage at the flip of a switch.

I wonder how I caught so many big salmon this year without a black box? Maybe it was that aluminum foil hat I wear when I fish?

Oh Grandpa... Must have been the fish gods! Have you checked your voltage? Would be curious to know what you are running at.

JR... I totally agree with presentation being rule number 1.

I don't feel the BB is as much of an attractant as it is a "comforter cushion." A fish is going to hit if it wants to, but I like the confidence knowing I am in a safe zone.

I have had the best year ever and I don't have a BB.Asked other people about BB's some don't even turn them on saying they don't make a difference .I do not know either way. Just my .02s.

Not ever using a "BlackBox" and reading all of this stuff makes me curious...... Of course, we all know about the sensitive lateral line of fish, and common sense would say that current in the water (too much) would turn fish away... My thoughts are that current travels in water by way of electrolytes (salt, magnesium, calcium, etc.) and being as the sound is laden with these electrolytes I cannot see any current as small as what you folks talk about (.06volt) traveling very far without dispersing and thus the voltage dwindling to nothing.....
Freshwater may be a different story altogether, since there are no (or very little) electrolytes in it the current would not travel very far, if at all..... If one has plenty of zinc nodes on their boat, would that cause more voltage to spread behind and below your boat, or less??
Also, someone said fiberglass boats were worse than aluminum.... How? If my DR is mounted to a fiberglass gunnel, since fiberglass is not a conductor of electricity, how can "bad" electrical charge travel down the DR cable???

Can a volt/ohmmeter be used to see how much abherrent electricity is leaking from my aluminum boat???

Boy, so many questions!!

MC

Mastercaster,
Checking your voltage is easy to do. Use a digital volt meter, put your boat in the water head out away from other boats and drop your downrigger ball down about 10 feet. Turn all of your electronics off in the boat and measure with the negative meter lead on the Neg Terminal of your battery and the positive lead to your downrigger cable. You should read somewhere between .5 and 1.0 vdc. If not you need to check you zincs. Now turn on all of your electronics one item at a time. You shouldn't see much of a change as you turn these items on. If you do you probably have a grounding problem with a particular item. When all of your electronics are on, you should still be between .5 and 1.0 vdc.

Make sense?

Grandpa... must have been your personality is pleasing to the fish!!! Whatever it is, better not change it.

Never did ask you if you fish downriggers in your boat or mooch.

Thnaks for all the info, I am beginning to sort out some of the things I have been thinking.

I will test the voltage in the next few days and get back to the board.

Reason I ask. I bought a new boat this year and I did not catch nearly the numbers of fish I have caught in the past couple of years. Everything was the same, presentation, gear, speed, just not nearly as many fish. I am obviously looking for things that could make the difference.

Cast and Blast- it will be interesting to hear the results after you test the boat.

My experience is similar to Elkrun's (except I don't play mean tricks on my friends ): my boat has a natural charge of .83 volts. I can catch the small fish and a few silvers too, but hadn't done very well on the bigger kings until I installed the BB.

Generally speaking I think the people who don't believe in the magical BB are the one's who don't have a problem with their boats...but then again that's just my ¢2 worth.