digitroll

My lithium battery test study just completed for the new Fish Hawk lithium Ultra probe. 107 hours on one charge since April 1st covering 16 fishing trips averaging under 7 hours per trip. This for me is on par with 4 AA batteries from the past for shelf life.

The first Lake Ontario Bar experiment with the Smart Troll was very productive! Our 4 wire program took 80% of our 105 bites over 6 days totaling 47.5 hours washing lures. Using our Fishhawk Ultra with the depth at the probe with the other Smart troll probes on our wires let us dial in our presentation once we establish temperature and depth of the probes working unison together. We started out spacing things apart until we get bit and then make adjustments based on those hits. Dealing with currents and changing boat direction in waves helped us keep our lures in the active zone the fish were biting. Speed at the ball with our Fish Hawk helped us maintain that bite also when turning around with waves. We added .5 miles per hour going west with the current to keep our lures dancing. Other things that helped was when we had a knock off on the wire or a small fish that didn't trip (rare) we could see on the display the depth go up from it being tripped or dragging a small fish long before watching the rods. We also were looking for 45-47F at the wire depths as well as the rigger to keep us in the action. Surface temp was 50-54F by the end of the week. I feel it added more fish to our catch overall by drilling it down quickly and having accurate data and depth.

This show was recorded 3 days ago on Twisted Tackle You Tube show with the owner of Smart Troll Darrell Huff:

Test number 4 a few days ago. A few benefits: Your watching the data on the tablet and if you get a knock off the depth displays the diver now up near the surface or if you have a small hitch hiker the depth curve moves up where it was running 15 feet from the drag. Both cases something changed enough in the data in real time you just turn around and check the diver rod in question! Nice to have your back covered! It could even be a weed ball at the end of the diver! We have all been there when one diver rod is firing and the other is dead! We try to put the same amount of line out and match lures. Still no bites. Now you can see where the bites are coming specifically on the hot diver side and adjust the other rod to match the depth the active diver is catching fish. Turning the boat you can see sometimes a loss of 20 ft on one side of the boat due to currents! Or you could be running a dodger fly or in Ontario a meat rig or Flasher Fly. You can now see where it's running compared to a spoon on another diver. You don't turn your sonar off and fish blind? The same analogy is running our divers blind. Now you can see where they are running with the Smart Troll probes.

On water test #3 with Don and Chris yesterday on the boat for 7 hours. It's been simply amazing each time I get these probes wet in the water. We have seen some significant current again at times when the boat is running certain directions which change the dive curve significantly! We see a difference of 20 feet at times between the two diver rods in terms of wire out on the counter. Boggles the mind! But checking with my X4-D and my TD at times the last 3 trips we verify the depth and temp. of these probes in question! You almost have to forget and process how much wire is out but just look at the temp. and depth of the probes and just keep them where you would like them. It's very cool knowing where they are running! It's really neat comparing the depths of the X4-D Fishhawk on the rigger and the two divers in the water! And using my X4-D as a baseline and running divers above or below it to trigger bites at 64F / 57F our target temps. We will run one diver high at times 10-15 ft above temp. for Steelhead in the warmer water! I am a self described data person from my background. These kinds of tools help put the puzzle together to get bites.

My second time fishing with the Smart Troll system yesterday. With the high water still and the lake at 98 ft there is some significant currents yesterday and directions trolled with the North wind we saw some significant changes in our two light bites dive curves throughout the morning. It was similar to Ontario yesterday. Again,.. very amazed at how things change watching data! Temp break was 70-75 feet on the main lake on the riggers but due to blowback of 5-8 feet it they were running where you see the temps on my divers. Great to see the divers close or on the break! And adjust them to keep running there after changes in boat course direction with waves and strong currents! Changes I have made to my traditional running of my lite bites: Mag rings / 2 setting / 200-250 wire out to achieve the depth curve needed to fish this deep thermocline parking baits at 62-64F.