#NOOTKA SOUND FISHING REPORT 2012 SERIES#

For most anglers, this will not be achievable, especially with saltwater boats, so try to achieve a ratio of 5 to 1 or better. The standard for ocean ships and steel barges is somewhere around 100 to 1. I have tested extensively with my tuned lures and the lowest ratio where I still see good fishing results is 5 to 1 (1 being the anode). You can remove some of the hull paint on aluminum boats, reduce a large portion of your anodes, or seal up a large section of them with paint or tape.

Paint-sealed and fibreglass hulls or components will not help. So how can you fix this? Change the ratio of anodes to hull/motor metals. Once again, the zinc ratio is out of whack. His fishing went in the same direction as the aluminum boat guys. He had recently replaced his old Mercury outboard with a new Yamaha, loaded with anodes. About the same time, an owner of a fibreglass boat also contacted me. Their newer outboards all have excessive amounts of anodes, and there is almost no visible metal for the anodes to protect, resulting in repelling fish. Guess what their old ones were? Bare, unpainted hulls! The math is easy. They all complained that their fish catch rates went “in the dumps.” It turned out that their new boats had totally painted bottoms right from the factory. They had all replaced their old aluminum boats with new ones. I was contacted by four anglers in a row last summer. In order to switch the boat from attracting to repelling mode, the wire is replaced with twine, so there is no electric connection to the aluminum hull. The boat is essentially as neutral as possible with all engine zincs removed. This gave me about a 350-to-1 ratio of bare hull to zinc. While doing my recent trout testing, and when my 14′ Lund was set up in attracting mode, I hung a piece of plain zinc off of the transom, attached with 10-gauge copper wire, so the zinc was electrically connected to and protecting the aluminum hull. I have since made a Mini Inline Tuner that works awesome for ice fishing. That “perch incident” was my first introduction to the fact that fish can be repelled by certain metals underwater. At about midday, he removed the anode completely and all catches became relatively equal. The two closest guys caught very little, while the three furthest away had decent catches. For the first half of the day, he caught nothing. My friend and I had a communication problem and instead of attaching the 1⁄4” round zinc anode to his lure metals, he used it like a lead split shot weight and attached it to his fishing line about 2′ above his lure. He and five friends went out on Black Bay and drilled their holes in roughly a 50-ft circle.

If it is by itself, or you have too much in relation to the metals to be protected, you end up with too many negative ions (volts) spilling and radiating into the water.ĭon’t believe me? In 2012, I sent some of my lure tuning anodes to a friend in Northern Ontario to test on ice fishing for perch. Fish Attracted-The ‘Fishiest’ Boats Are Commercial Trollers & Unpainted Aluminum Hullsįish Lightly Repelled-This Includes Most New Boats & Outboards Future testing will include both aluminum and magnesium anodes. Remember, if your anodes are not corroding, no positive voltage is being created. My saltwater lure anodes are essentially a zinc alloy, while the spoons are nickel and stainless, and they will give off a positive value in the +.7 volts range in saltwater. You can have aluminum anodes on an aluminum hull and still have a hull reading in the +.5 volts range. Most metals are alloys, so there can be many different ratings. This is subject mainly to the conductivity or mineral content of the water (electrolyte), as well as the proportions of the 2 metals. That leaves you with a surplus of up to +.6 volts. As an example, zinc is rated at -1.05 volts and marine stainless is rated at -.45 volts. When you connect these sacrificial anodes to a higher- rated metal (cathode), the ions from the anode bombard the cathode with the negative ions, and whatever is not needed to fully protect the cathode is released and dispersed into the water and converted into positive volts in the process. The more sacrificial the metal, the more negative voltage it will give up, also known as corrosion.

#NOOTKA SOUND FISHING REPORT 2012 SERIES#

Virtually all metals are rated on the galvanic series with a negative voltage value, except for gold, which is zero.

Nootka sound fishing report 2012