How is the Smart Troll system?

[tbulhead]

I have a Fish Hawk 520 Digital Depth Counter that looks like it should be in a museum.  I'm thinking of upgrading to a Smart Troll system so I can keep track of all the presentations I put out.  How well does this work?  Are there any issues from anyone who has used it?  I've also looked at Pro Troll and the Fish Hawk X-4, but I think the Smart Troll is more versatile.  If I am wrong, will someone please let me know before I but it sometime this winter.

[finsntins]

i havent heard much about this system,so i went to their web site and did some research,my main concern i found is that it states that you will have interference if your motor runs above 800 rpm's.so if you have a kicker pushing a bigger boat and the wind is blowing,you will be above 800 rpm's.i have used the fish hawk x-4 for two years now and have had no problems,im out almost every weekend and replaced the 4 aa batteries once all season.same price as the smart troll with one probe.looks like each probe with the smart troll costs around 125 bucks.i fished a few boats this past summer that used the moore sub-troll and they seemed to have problems with connector on the rigger making contact and had to put a wet rag around it to make contact,seemed like a problem to me.just my two cents.

[FSNmachine]

I really enjoy my Smart Troll. It has a lot of advantages. The probes are so small and rechargable without opening them. They are not limited to downriggers. It is a great advantage to know where your coppers leadcore and divers are running, Last time out we where able to follow a thermocline and know exactly where our divers are running.

 

As for the 800 Rpm I only sometimes loose signal on a turn to port. But I mounted my transducer on the starboard side and my kicker is on the port side. If I loose signal it is only momentarily so I don't care. Next time I look at the screen the data is back again.

[goin deep]

I contacted Smart Troll about the interference issue and they said they are aware of the problem and are currently working on a fix.

 

Brian

[Smart Troll]

Just thought I would follow-up to let you know users of the latest versions of Smart Troll are reporting back to me and confirming that the RPM issue is resolved and there is no interference even when using a kicker-motor.

[lost a lure]

Just thought I would follow-up to let you know users of the latest versions of Smart Troll are reporting back to me and confirming that the RPM issue is resolved and there is no interference even when using a kicker-motor.

Are the speed probes available now?

[Smart Troll]

Still working on them but I won't release Probes with Speed until I develop and test a design that is reliable and consistent.

 

Having said that...there are plenty of "Dive Curve" charts available. Typically those charts are used to determine depth. If you know the line-out and measure the down-speed you can look on the chart to determine the depth. Those same charts can be used in reverse. In other words, if you know the line-out and Smart Troll tells you the depth then you can look on the same chart and determine down-speed.

 

If your setup is 50 feet deep and you are traveling with a SOG of 2.5 MPG in the same direction as a 0.5 MPH current then your down speed would be 2.0 MPH. If you turn around 180 degrees so you are now going against the 0.5 MPH current with the same 2.5 MPH SOG then your down-speed would be 3 MPH (1 MPH faster just by changing direction). Even without measuring down-speed you would know it changed because with the same setup your lure would be 20-30 feet less deep and there could be a depth change of even greater than 30 feet in many cases.

 

In this scenario if you slow the boat down until you achieved the same 50 feet of depth then you would also be at the same down-speed. So, you would have to slow the boat to 1.5 MPH SOG to achieve the same 50 foot depth...which would also be the same 2.0 MPH down-speed (1.5 MPH SOG + 0.5 MPH for the current you are traveling against).

 

Pretty dramatic...in one direction your SOG is 2.5 MPH and in the opposite direction your SOG would be 1.5 MPH just to get your lure to the same depth.

 

For any particular setup if you duplicate the depth then you are also duplicating the down-speed. Documented results and feedback from Captains using Smart Troll have shown that as little as 0.5 MPH change in speed will affect lure depth up to 30 feet and maybe even more for some setups.

[TyeeTanic]

Since Darrell tuned the probes to be MUCH stronger, the system is great. I was out on Saturday with probes on multiple lines and the down rigger, so I knew exactly where each line was and what the temperature was.

It has my vote.