Voltage tuning your boat.

[ChilliSpoons]

Can someone explain what it means to have your boat properly bonded ?

 

[Iwannagofishin]

Proper bonding is when all of your boats underwater metals are connected together. As trollers, we used to include all above water metal components as well. This would include anchor winch, mast and poles, oil stove, radio and electronic casings, a brush touching the propeller shaft, etc. That is not to say that connecting the above water metals had an effect on how the boat fished, but it was our living, and the Russells recommended it.
This is important .... Every underwater metal, or group of connected metals, will have a voltage signature that fish can sense. I have seen it many times with my customers where they don't have everything connected, yet they can still test the hull voltage and see good numbers. But, the metals that are not included, may be giving off negative signatures that repel fish, and you don't know it. I don't care if people don't buy my voltage tuned lures. If you make your boat "good", you don't need them. Spend the time, and do it right, by using good quality wire, making good connections, and above all, don't be overzinced. You should have at least 5 parts bare boat metals to 1 part zinc, or aluminum anodes. This should be calculated by area (square inches/feet).

 

[BigBadBrad]

Great read!....

I was a big believer in voltage up until 2017. Fishing out of renfrew a few years ago my buddy had his boat running around .6V and had all the bells and whistles and would always check to see if he was running hot. I asked him to check my boat when we were out fishing and I was getting readings of 1V! The next day I was fishing in my boat and he was in his Grady. We both fished anchovies and I was into 7 springs and he was into 1.....I am sure my boat is still 1V and I have never been scratching my head wondering why I am not catching anything.

 

[Iwannagofishin]

Measuring your hull voltage can be extremely misleading. I assume that you are going from the boat's ground with the negative meter probe and to your stainless trolling wire with the positive. The stainless essentially acts as an extension of the meter probe. If you had a selection of short wires to choose from as the extension of your positive probe, instead of the trolling wire, lets say sections of copper, aluminum, galvanized, etc wires. Each would give you a different reading. Why is that? That's because you are reading the 'potential' of the galvanic rating between the accumulation of boat metals and the reader wire when it is touching the water beside the boat. All metals are basically rated as a negative voltage value on the galvanic scale. Try this at home. Take a plastic container with fresh water, use a piece of stainless (kitchen utensil, bolt ??) and a galvanized nail. Place them both in the container with dry ends sticking out. Just make sure they don't touch each other. Touch your negative probe to the dry end of the galvanized nail and the positive to the stainless. You will see a substantial voltage. Now try a piece of copper wire and a different piece of stainless. Try several mixes of metals, but only use them once for each test. That is because the metals will retain some of the voltage for a short time, and be somewhat contaminated with respect to accuracy. The idea is to play with different combinations to see the difference in readings, while mentally comparing it to your boat test. The bottom line is that, unless you have exact metals on each probe, you do not have a 'zero base line'. I test my spoons with a 'zero base line' by starting with 2 identical hooks. One will be on the lure and the other is the extension of my reader probe. Probably the only boat that you could test accurately is an aluminum hull with no other metals attached. Use a short piece of the exact aluminum as your meter probe extension. Touch it to the water about a foot away from the hull. The reading should be zero. That is because there is no galvanic difference between the 2 metals and you have a 'zero base line', just like my lures. Then add your zincs and test again to the exact voltage. This will also vary with the mineral content of the water (electrolyte).
It isn't an easy thing to wrap your head around, and I understand that. But, people think that they are seeing accurate voltage with the "normal" test, when there are most likely not. If your underwater EXPOSED metals are mostly zincs (anodes) and you test with your stainless wire down 200 ft, you will absolutely see lots of voltage. But once you remove the meter connection, the stainless is no longer interacting with the zincs. When you remove the meter, you remove the connection, and what you are left with is a hull with too much zinc (repelling fish) and stainless trolling wire that is giving off no fish attracting voltage The most accurate way of controlling this is to go with good connections of all metals and the minimum 5 to 1 ratio. For those who did not read the Downrigger Wire Voltage editorial in the Island Fisherman, here is my working copy of same. It might help to debunk the belief of wire voltages.

 

[agentaqua]

I have always been somewhat skeptical of the causal mechanism offered for the differences in CPUE observed by altering voltage. I believe and trust the observations (more or less fish dependent upon voltage differences) - it's the assumption around voltage fields that I have a problem with - basically since those fields are typically of limited scale (a few feet) - especially for the very low voltages described.

Instead, I believe that fish have great sense ability for all water quality parameters, including ions - and in particular - metallic ions - that would be expected to be produced thru electrolysis. Those ions would be available many feet behind a troller where one would expect a fish to follow the lures/flashers. Once a fish gets close enough to investigate a spoon closely - that's where/when they might sense any electric field and decide to react to the lure.

as an example:
Sharks are known to have a sense organ consisting of electroreceptors called the "ampullae of Lorenzini" which allows them to be very sensitive to very small electric fields - but they still need to be very close (<1m) to sense them. However, a shark can detect a few drops of blood in the water for up to a couple kilometers away (between one part per 25 million and one part per 10 billion, depending on the chemical, and the species of shark): https://www.epicdiving.com/shark-senses-hunting/

in any event - it's an interesting phenomenon and topic...

 

[Iwannagofishin]

Virtually all of my conclusions are based on the experiences of fishermen that I have talked to. We all know the stories of a guy who couldn't catch fish. He was given lures and even trolled right beside his fish catching buddies, and still no fish, even down a hundred feet or two. I advertised on kijiji across Canada for 2 years, and offered 'free help' to anglers with problem boats. I helped turn many around, but the time that sticks out was, I was contacted by 4 aluminum boat owners in a row. Their new boats just did not fish as well as their old aluminum boats. The difference was, their new aluminum boats were factory paint sealed, and their old ones had no paint. What happens is, with the old boats, their anodes had some metal to react with while protecting. Their new boats had virtually none, and are drastically overzinced. Zinc, and other low rated metals have a Jekkyl & Hyde personality. On their own, or too much in relation to boat metals, they will repel fish. When the proportion of anode to boat metals get to a 5 to 1 ratio, the balance of the galvanic corrosion cell becomes fluid, resulting in a positive voltage field.
If you don't believe that the voltage field has far reaching effects, try asking the guys with the 'non- fishy boats'. I experienced this myself with my first troller. I was probably catching enough fish to get by on, but not when I got close to more fishy boats. I could see that they were catching more fish than me. This was cured by having a sound bonding system, and with the right proportion of zincs.
If you happened to watch the tv show NICE FISH with Gary Cooper that I did a couple of years ago, you would have seen that I could measure his hull voltage (though inaccurate) to have only a small drop out at 140 ft. I left Gary with only 1 Portable Black Box (PBB) for one side of the boat. He called me up that fall to say that virtually all of his fish over the summer were caught on that side of the boat. He was using anchovy 20 or 30 ft behind the release clips, and no voltage tuning except for the PBB. If you don't believe me, look him up on the Nice Fish website and send him an email.
Just for clarification, hull voltage doesn't go behind the boat. It radiates in all directions equally, including down, regardless of boat speed.

 

[agentaqua]

Thanks for sharing your observations, iwannagofishin. If you reread my post above - I have no issue with the observations. I believe them to be valid. Just problems with the assumption as to the range of the electric fields. That critique is backed-up by science. I also believe that fish can sense the ions. For longer-scale effects for fish past a few feet - I believe that is the more likely causal mechanism. I included the available science on sharks as a contrast or example. I don't think anything I posted invalidates your observations. It's a good discussion. Thanks again.

 

[chromatose007]

I've used them...

 

[sir-vivor]

I was a firm believer in currents put out by boats helped improve or reduce fish numbers. The old saying some boats catch fish others don't. But after switching from the old stainless downrigger cable to the new braided line I think the problem has been eliminated. Braided line does not conduct or carry current. Before your boat current was carried through the stainless cable as well as generated its own current with the resistance of trolling.

I use a black box with my wire and would never change to braid but that's me.

 

[chinnok]

I use a black box with my wire and would never change to braid but that's me.

Me Too.

 

[calmsea]

What doesn't make sense in these stories is that when you say a struggling angler is fishing alongside a successful angler and the reason should be the electrical field - if fish are so sensitive to electrical fields then wouldn't the bad field of the struggling angler contaminate the nearby successful boat and prevent the successful angler to have better results? Or is the boat field effect indeed just immediate around the boat as aqua suggests but then all this theory wouldn't apply to any lure a little distance or depth away from the boat. Which is it?

 

[Fishalot]

How would you bond trim tabs?

 

[Iwannagofishin]

What doesn't make sense in these stories is that when you say a struggling angler is fishing alongside a successful angler and the reason should be the electrical field - if fish are so sensitive to electrical fields then wouldn't the bad field of the struggling angler contaminate the nearby successful boat and prevent the successful angler to have better results? Or is the boat field effect indeed just immediate around the boat as aqua suggests but then all this theory wouldn't apply to any lure a little distance or depth away from the boat. Which is it?

It depends on the strength of each field. One Georgian Bay angler is the perfect example. His boat metals, like swim platform and trim tabs, were not included in his bonding system, and he simply could not catch fish. This includes salmon and trout beyond 100 ft depths. He purchased some of my voltage tuned lures, and he still couldn't catch fish. So, there you have a strongly negative boat signature as well as lures giving off positive voltage fields in close proximity. Once I learned this, my focus went directly to curing the boat issues. He went through and connected all underwater metals and added appropriate anodes, and then he caught fish. That was 8 years ago, and he is still buying my tackle every year.
The same could happen with boats that are fishing close together. You could be affected by a negative signature boat that is really close, and resulting in reduced catches. On the other hand, if your boat is just ok, and you fished beside a boat that has a strong signature coming from the hull or lures, you will be outfished by that boat. I have one customer who fishes out of Sooke. He claims that the guide boats won't even fish beside him anymore. True story.

 

[Iwannagofishin]

How would you bond trim tabs?

If your trim tabs are not connected to the bonding system, I would look in the bilge to see if the attaching bolts go right through and are accessible. If so, connect a good quality wire to the bolts and ground to the engine block, bonding wire, negative battery ground (all will work). If not able to connect that way, it will have to be done from the outside, and most likely run wires from the trim tab bolts to your outboard bracket or bonding system. In either case, double check with an ohm meter to confirm a good connection. I assume that you are talking about a fiberglass boat, and you are probably overzinced as is. Because of this, I would not add any zinc to the trim tabs until you assess the fishing. This is to improve the ratio of zinc to exposed boat metals.

 

[Iwannagofishin]

Thanks for sharing your observations, iwannagofishin. If you reread my post above - I have no issue with the observations. I believe them to be valid. Just problems with the assumption as to the range of the electric fields. That critique is backed-up by science. I also believe that fish can sense the ions. For longer-scale effects for fish past a few feet - I believe that is the more likely causal mechanism. I included the available science on sharks as a contrast or example. I don't think anything I posted invalidates your observations. It's a good discussion. Thanks again.

Thanks agentaqua. I was more aimed at the distance as well as how sensitive fish are. You say a few feet, I say hundreds of feet. It has been claimed that sharks can quickly sense the smell of blood at 1/4 mile. HOGWASH! It isn't scientifically possible. I was looking for a video on shark smell that I had watched a few years ago, but it must have been removed. It involved a 3 or 4 ft nocturnal shark in a 20 ft glass tank that was about 8 ft deep. The shark was hiding under boulders on one end, and simply never came out when the area was lit. One of the researchers climbed up on an end platform and pricked his finger and touched it to the water surface. Within 2 seconds, the shark bolted from it's hiding and made 3 laps of the tank before returning to hiding. Like I stated, they were focusing on the shark's smell, but what the shark was really sensing was the electrical current that all living bodies possess. Absolutely every motion that muscles make are through the voltage that the sodium and potassium (ions) cells send through our nervous system. It is impossible for smell to be transmitted like that, but not for electrical current. So, there you have a shark recognising a minuscule amount of voltage. Sharks have the ampullae of lorenzini sensors that are superior to what a salmon can sense, but it still gives you an idea of how sensitive fish can be.

 

[sir-vivor]

What doesn't make sense in these stories is that when you say a struggling angler is fishing alongside a successful angler and the reason should be the electrical field - if fish are so sensitive to electrical fields then wouldn't the bad field of the struggling angler contaminate the nearby successful boat and prevent the successful angler to have better results? Or is the boat field effect indeed just immediate around the boat as aqua suggests but then all this theory wouldn't apply to any lure a little distance or depth away from the boat. Which is it?

Why have commercial vessels used a form of black box for over 50 yrs and do to this day , gotta be something to it ...cant argue with that or maybe u can , dont care ...I like what I do on the water so I and my ride alongs are happy , not gonna convert me to braid now , but good luck to u and all the other reformers lol tight lines and be safe what ever u all use (PS I'm getting more and more into jigging, less balls and gear lost and being sealed . In some areas way more effective than DR )

 

[walleyes]

But boys,, there’s a big difference between a 30-50’ comercial vessel with generators on it and multiple electronics of every kind and I’ve seen the wiring jobs on a lot of those boats wowzers lol on top of that running I don’t know 10 to 20 lines in the water hanging off of multiple stainless boom lines. Can’t even begin to compare that to a small fishing boat with 2 braided downrigger lines in the water. Not even in the same category.

 

[Iwannagofishin]

Why have commercial vessels used a form of black box for over 50 yrs and do to this day , gotta be something to it ...cant argue with that or maybe u can , dont care ...I like what I do on the water so I and my ride alongs are happy , not gonna convert me to braid now , but good luck to u and all the other reformers lol tight lines and be safe what ever u all use (PS I'm getting more and more into jigging, less balls and gear lost and being sealed . In some areas way more effective than DR )

I commercial trolled for many years, and had 3 different vessels up to a 54ft freezer boat. They all had black boxes. As far as I am concerned, as long as the boat was good, and mine were, the black box was not necessary to be a highliner. Never once in all my years can I say that I dialed up more fish with my black box. I can see it working on boats with a 'ho hum' signature. I also believe that the bait ball chase can be more productive. Cheers

 

[sir-vivor]

I commercial trolled for many years, and had 3 different vessels up to a 54ft freezer boat. They all had black boxes. As far as I am concerned, as long as the boat was good, and mine were, the black box was not necessary to be a highliner. Never once in all my years can I say that I dialed up more fish with my black box. I can see it working on boats with a 'ho hum' signature. I also believe that the bait ball chase can be more productive. Cheers

Hmm, then why have them on board. I fully agree it's not the end all to success and there are many more important aspects but , it's either ..It is useful or not ....oh and by the way have you or would you flushed the box and put Braid on all your commerical boats ...not likely hu !

 

[SpringVelocity]

Go to the docks in Sooke. Every guide runs wire mostly.

I run braid myself. I only did it because I found is easier to work with, but I still think the wire performed better.