electrolysis and fishing, setting up your boat!

[fieromx3]

ok... so i just start reading yesterday about electrolysis, anodes, voltage and fish. i never knew such thing existed lol

 

reading up on scotty's black box they are mentioning anodes that creates voltage and makes stainless downrigger cable become a positive voltage?

 

for setting up a boat they also mention a hull bonding wire?? so to set it up properly i have a alpha 1 outdrive and merc 140 inboard engine, a brass garboard drain plug and a plastic fuel tank mounted in the floor. the transom hooks are stainless steel. how do i set this up?? run a wire from the negative terminal of battery to the garboard and engine and the inner part of the outdrive thats inside the boat?? what about the fuel tank? its made of plastic but the topside fuel sender unit is obviously metal but in no way it touches outside the boat.

 

what about anodes and creating a good voltage in the water so the rigger cable gets good POSITIVE voltage?? im supposeded to use navalloy but they keep mentioning using zinc anodes. do different types of anodes affect the voltage much??

 

how about using coated stainless rigger cable or powerpro braid downrigger cable?

 

i have read mostly mixed reviews but still have read that negative voltage can actually drive away fish from biting but positive voltage on the rigger cable has made fish bite all day everyday. i just want to set my boat up properly and have success catching this year. last year was fairly slow for me except a couple days..

 

boat is fiberglass and im using for first time this year downriggers which are manuals not electric

Edited March 3, 2013 by fieromx3

[LongLine]

Do some experimenting before you invest anything.  Here's a test for you:  Buy yourself a cheap multi-meter. With your boat on the trailer and rigger mounted, uncrank weight 2 feet below boat.  Put a piece of metal on the ground (dirt, earth) behind your boat.  Turn your ignition to on.  Touch weight with one lead (low scale) and piece of metal with other.  Now move the leads to the steering tab above the prop and the piece of metal.  Did you get any voltage? 

 

Fiberglass has very low conductivity. i.e. basically an insulator. Manual riggers mounted to the glass hull should not pick up a charge from the boat.  Also remember that water is a pretty good conductor and conductors dissapate charge very quickly. 

 

If you have electrics, it might be a different story, but it still needs to be tested out first.  (Don't believe everything you read on the internet.)

 

Tom B.

(LongLine0

[rolmops]

My shade tree electrician skills tell me that water is just about the best ground available, which in my humble opinion means that any thing that is conductive will be completely neutral relative to the fresh water around it. This is a different story with salt  which has a much stronger ionic charge and will react strongly to anything it can react with.

Anodes are a necessity in salt water ,but in fresh water much less so,for the same above mentioned reason.

If you want to troll Lake Ontario and you want to set up your boat the right way,you would be much better off by investing in electric down riggers than in the black box.

[rail bird]

This may be true but if you are parked at a marina there can be all kinds of stray currents and your anodes can save an outdrive. Boat wires themselves get worn and leak electricity. My Anodes were going pretty fast. I cleaned up some of the boat wires and they seem to be lasting a lot longer. As far a the black box goes it seems to me that the current is very small and would disapate fast in the big lake.

My shade tree electrician skills tell me that water is just about the best ground available, which in my humble opinion means that any thing that is conductive will be completely neutral relative to the fresh water around it. This is a different story with salt  which has a much stronger ionic charge and will react strongly to anything it can react with.

Anodes are a necessity in salt water ,but in fresh water much less so,for the same above mentioned reason.

If you want to troll Lake Ontario and you want to set up your boat the right way,you would be much better off by investing in electric down riggers than in the black box.

[fieromx3]

apparently it is detectable up to 300' even fish like sharks can pick just a miniscule of a volt from very far away. fish are more 'advanced' than most people think i guess

[fieromx3]

i dont plan on buying a black box but even with a boat setup properly it supposed to generate naturally up to .6-.7 volts positive on the rigger cable naturally??

 

i read to connect a wire from negative side battery to all metal parts that may be submersed in water? thats true? so run a wire from negative wire from battery to the garboard plug and to the engine and transom assembly of the outdrive? is this correct?

 

is there any difference in voltage output between using navalloy and zinc anodes?

Edited March 3, 2013 by fieromx3

[jimski2]

Zinc is for steelboats and ships. A magnesium? alloy is for aluminum boats and parts. Outboard motors and outdrives usually have this as a steering adjuster to counteract propeller torque.  Rarely due these fail in freshwater and keeping your motor or outdrive in the raised position helps while you are docked. Mussels can be a bigger threat to your cooling water passages.

[Sk8man]

Hey Fieromx3....I'm not sure the sharks in Lake Ontario are able to pick up the current real well :>)

[fieromx3]

Hey Fieromx3....I'm not sure the sharks in Lake Ontario are able to pick up the current real well :>)

 

aww and i was going to specifically target them this year lol but hey i have heard of sharks being in there  but im pretty sure none actually exist in them lol

Edited March 3, 2013 by fieromx3

[LongLine]

Actually most scientists agree  the Pacific Salmon that travel between the southern part of California and the Alaskian rivers actually navigate by sensing the earth's magnetic field. 

 

That, according to some fishermen out there, is why they have begun switching from lead to steel downrigger weights.  They've discovered that if magnetized correctly, they have great days out there.  Probably what their dept of resources has seen to justify shortening their season and such... overfishing. 

 

Only problem I see is if you magnetize it so that north is to the front, will salmon only hit your lure from the front?  Myself, I'd magnetize it so the north is toward the rear as we've all seen the strike vision videos where the salmon only hit from the rear.  Maybe that's what all this ionic stuff is bout.  Positive gives you a north field whereas neg gives you a south field?

 

North, South, Positive, Negative...What happened to the good old days when all you had to worry about was speed, trolling direction, time of day, size of line, cloud cover, time of year, wind direction, wave height, water temperature, depth of water, location of thermocline, color of lure, number of lines, length of line, kinks in cable, barometric pressure, oxygen content, type of bottom, seaweed, Fleas, other boats, whether John Law was around and of course "who's going to get the last donut?"

 

 

Tom B.

(LongLine)