I've kind of thought like MC, with a glass boat I don't have a connection to the wire of any kind, plus with Cannons the cable is isolated from the boat being the riggers are made of plastic. However, I know that you can get a voltage charge from two dissimilar metals in water, especially salt water. The first battery invented was exactly that. So, the only exposed metal I have is zinc anodes, and the inside of my outdrive since the outside is painted. Now, I could really see this in an aluminum boat where everything is connected in some way be metal and easy for a ground loop to exist and hold a charge, or even generate a charge.

So, is the problem more with aluminum boats or glass? If I have no current, I may actually need one to actract fish!

problem is more with glass boats. Alum's are close to the "zone" just as rigged.

I have heard the opposite. aluminum boats have bigger problems than fiberglass. I will not fish for kings without the BB. The very first day I had it in the boat, I decided to wire it into the battery while trolling for blackmouth with my brother. He was driving the boat while watching the downriggers, while I was under the console running wires. After an hour of fishing we hadn't had a hit. When I finished I turned it on and it said my "natural current" was .89.... .6-.65 is ideal for salmon. I switched to applied current (where you control it) and dialed it to .65 my hand wasn't 2 inches away when my rod buckled and I boated about a 9 lb blackie. A few minutes later my brother had his and we were done. I know this could have been coincidence, but it happened several times this summer too. (nevermind the several times I'd unplug someone just for fun...) Once, I forgot to hook it up while trolling at Umatilla Reef, fished for nearly 45 minutes before I noticed. I hooked it up and dialed it in.... 28lb fish the net within 15 minutes. There are plenty of other examples I could give. Too many for it to not work in my opinion. If you boat's natural current is close to .65 you wont notice much of a difference. If its way hot like mine, it'll make all the difference. Incidentally, my brother bought a new hewescraft searunner like mine and had the same problem trolling at Pt. Defiance... few hookups. After seeing it work in my boat, he bought one, caught more fish... you decide for yourself.

Actually, the opposite- a aluminum boat will outfish a glass boat any day. The main reason is not having to deal with the BB because a alum boat has better natural voltage.

Steve, what are you running at? You gotta have something.... If you are below, you'll wanna juice it up.

DR,

I was hoping you'd chime in on the glass boat vs alum boat question.

Hmm, gotta digital voltmeter, gonna have to check it next time out. Ok, now I'm curious.....>>!!

Well I have a glass boat and I am going to check also. (just to see)

C&B,

Back to your question... The main difference is the cost. The Scotty will run you about $300 and the Pro Troll in under $100. Another difference is the contact sleeves. The Scotty has stainless tubes flared on the end whereas, the Pro Troll model has coil types. This are not very idea. As a matter fact and I heard of a couple problems with the coil sleeves causing the wire to fray or kink. You can always order the stainles tubes from Scotty and transfer them over.

Another difference will be the Scotty model has a pulse mode which changes the current from natural voltage to induced voltage in 10 second increments..

Last but not least, is the shape. The Pro Troll model is square in shape and smaller. They mount on the dash. The Scotty model is cylinder shaped and can be mounted in the dash (or on it)

I can relate to the problems with fiberglass boats. My old boat ran towards the hot side where as my present boat is right in the groove. The one thing I do when I stop catching fish is check the current and then I change the zincs.(usually it's all thats needed) I havent opted for a BB yet as just experimenting with the distances of the gear from the D.R. usually produces results. Good luck

Cool! Thanks so much UM!!!
I will have to try that. I used to guide (6 years) and I am a true believer in fish sensitivity to many things. I could be catching fish left and right (especially Walleye) and then all the boats would show up and the bite would go off.... After many years I figured it was all the folks running their fishfinders. Sound waves (especially the high freq. of bottom finders) pounding down on fish has to affect them, since their lateral line is their "hearing" tool..... The old flashers running at 50 hertz did not seem to bother them, but the fish finders funning at 200 hz sure seemed to......

MC

Master,
That is why when you measure your voltage you will want to be away from other boats. If boats are close enough to you, their electronics and Zincs will change the voltage on your cables also. If you want to check that sometime, keep your meter with you and troll over real close to another boat. Watch your meter reading change when you get close enough!

I've been following all the Black Box Posts with great interest. After reading all the stuff on the Pro Troll web site I checked out my glass boat as they discribe. My natural voltage was .485, so I cleaned the zincs and tested again. Now it's .425. My outboard is a 2002 Mercury 4 stroke and it has aluminum anodes so I guess my glass boat is going to be low on it's own.

Last Saturday I fished fresh water for trout/salmon. I ran lines close to the cable and also set them back about 30'. I caught fish at all depths (55' deepest). Of the 3 boats that fished together I caught most of the Lake Trout (14). My total catch for the day was 30+ fish- 14 Lakers, 2 Rainbows & more than a dozen small Salmon 12-13"(landlock Atlantic's).
The total catch for each boat was in the 30 fish range each but the other two caught bigger Bow's and a couple Brown's.
I'll be going out again this Saturday and dink around with various distances from the cables and make note of the best producers.
I don't know of anyone here locally using the Box so getting info on how it's affecting the catches here in non-existant.

I talked to Zen about this before and having a fiberglass boat myself am very interested in this topic, I have still yet to check my cables (been river fishing haven't had the boat out but may get out here today definately this week sometime). So is it better to be too low than too high?

Downriggin's the local expert on this and a person to listen to (in my humble opinion).

Too low is probably as bad as too high. Neither works.

..........well I fished this past Saturday as I said I would. We had high winds and could only fish till noon so doing all the compairing that I wanted to was cut short. Anyway.......

My glass boat natural voltage is .425, no BB used (I don't have one yet)
I ran 4 downriggers. Two center with sliders (cheaters) and two with out. Set backs were checked 2 ways, less than 15' and greater than 25'. We caught fish on all four downriggers and at all settings. Caught 10 fish total, 4 browns, 4 salmon, 1 rainbow & 1 laker. There was no real pattern established other than lure size (small - 1 3/4" to 2"). The two center downriggers with the short lines did get more fish than the outer ones but not enough fish caught to draw any conclusions.

Deer season has started here in New York so fishing will be on hold until late December and by then all my fishing will on the surface using plannerboards. Downriggers will start back up in late May so till then the BB issue for me will be a read and listen activity. This winters Sportmens Shows will be a good opportunity for me to talk with some of the charter captains and here what they are doing (if anything at all)with the BB in our local waters. Thanks for all the information that I got from this board. I'll be reading it frequently.

Maybe this is part of the reason that guys in the Midwest string their downriggers with 250lb. mono?