TyeeTanic

That's where she's wrong! A speed probe does produce returns! Let me explain. Your boat costs $$$ to dock, slip, launch, maintain, winterize, store, etc. I have a permanent slip in the summer and indoor store in the winter. All in I'm probably $7000 a year. If I go out 20 times, each outing is costing me $350. If you only catch say 3 to 4 fish, each fish cost me around $100. If a speed probe helps you catch more fish, say double up, you've reduced your cost per fish by $50. So tell you're wife it will save you $50 per fish, and if you just catch 20 more fish, the system pays for itself. See if that works ... lol. Oh, and before the risk, if she figures each fish costs $50 or $100, she will really know you are nuts (just like the rest of us).

Smart troll will measure below that. Doing tests at the dock, I'm sure I got readings as low as 0.2 mph.

Look at Smartroll before you decide Adk1

LOL.

Pap, I use Suffix, and definitely don't have that problem. Sounds like you have a bad batch. I would be giving suffix a call up and asking for a replacement. That leadcore sounds faulty.

pap, are you saying you can't get the lead out? You should cut the leadcore so the core and sheath are the same length. Then slide the sheath back a few inches, and just cut off the lead. It shouldn't be that hard.

Hey Steve, now you know. Test is tomorrow.

No ways. That is against all engineering principles. The larger the weight, the better it gets. It's simple with math. When you talk drag, we think about the cross section area(circumference is obviously related to this), so it's the area of the circle that's travelling through the water. As a sphere gets bigger the area increase more slowly than the weight increases. That means you have less and less area per lb as the weight gets bigger. So basically yes the drag goes up, but not as fast as the weight does and the pull of gravity. If it was the opposite, we'd see a 1000 kg ball start floating on the water due to too much drag, which obviously isn't going to happen any time soon. So, the heavier the ball, the less the blowback. Don't believe everything you read, incuding what Cannon publishes. It's BS. There's no way you can have less blowback, unless you increase the weight or change the shape so that there's less cross sectional area (which is what a shark and torpedo weight does, and is the principle behind the pancake weights, although those don't track nicely). 10#s have stupid blowback, and at 4 mph, It would be over 100 ft behind the boat, if you were 100 ft deep, probably even worse than that.

Also, make sure you have a good portable VHF. Get your radio license and test it with the coast guard. Every year there's more than one guy that's on a boat less than 20 ft and doesn't come back.

Yeah, don't get tempted to go out when it's even remotely risky. As others have indicated, pick your days. Thing is I've seen it turn quick in Lake O, from flat mirror to 3 to 4 footers in about 45 minutes. So you want to be able to get into shore ASAP when that happens. Probably means you shouldn't go out to the blue zone. Once the waves start developing it will slow you down big time. A lot of people think, it'll take me 30 minutes to get back to shore if I motor it, but by the time you decide to leave, you're already dealing with 2 footers and that cuts your speed in half, if not less. Storm will catch up to you. Just stay close to shore, no more than a few miles out.

15 lb sharks make a big difference. In fact you'd be suprised how much worse a 12 lb ball is. And 10 lbs, well that is just ridiculous. I wouldn't even bother. Unfortunately my rigger and gunwale can't take much more than 12 lbs, so depth is important to me so I can compensate.

I've measured it. Others have done the test driving their boats up to shallower water and seeing when the ball hits bottom. At 2.5 mph with a 12 lb weight, that rigger ball is 60 ft behind the boat. That lifts the ball about 20 ft. Now if you have a 16 lb weight, it makes a huge difference, and then it becomes less of an issue.

You are correct in saying that one can't be 100% sure if that fish is directly under the transducer. BUT! Fish are WAY less dense than the lead rigger weight. So it's much easier to lose sonar signal return from a fish. Basically when you see a fish arch, pay attention to 2 things - 1) what's the top of the arch and 2) what's the color of the arch. If the color of the arch is all blue (assuming you use a standard pallet), then the sonar signal from the fish is weak (fish is off to the sides). If you see the inside of the arch red, and at the core yellow, that is a hard return (strong signal) and means the fish is pretty close to the transducer and probably right under the boat. Of course, the top of the arch is the true depth of the fish, assuming it's directly under the transducer.

Your fish finder won't tell you the depth of the rigger ball. It only tells you how far it is away from the transducer. It displays that as depth, as that's the only way it can. So if the ball is back of the boat, the FF does care how far back, it just thinks it's deeper. What size rigger weight do you have. A 12 lb weight, travelling 2.5 mph downspeed, at 100 ft will probably be off depth by 20 to 30 ft (you actually need to drop the rigger to 130 ft to get 100 ft deep). So both your rigger and FF will say the same thing, but that doesn't mean you know what depth the ball is at.

Yeah, I guess my main concern would be what shawn wrote about. If you don't let all the lead out you have a point where it can ply back and forth and maybe weaken up. If you have 5 color, that's 150ft of line you gotta let hang between the board and rod tip. It isn't a crazy amount, but the board would be way out. You might be better of dividing 7 and 3 per say.

Haha, we can't even convince all the fishermen on this site! Good luck with your wife! Lol.

You are mostly correct, except because fish aren't dense, often if they are on the side of the cone they will have a soft return (means faint signal) which shows up on your screen as normally just blue colors. When the core of the arch is a hard return (strong signal), you will start seeing red and even better yellow in the arch. That is an indication that the fish is close to being under the transducer.

Exactly. So either those fish are 15 ft wide monsters or the theory is correct. Sorry guys largest girth is probably around 40".