Anybody use a 'Black Box' on their boat?

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
1

I’ve fished at Strawberry from my boat for several years with some good days and some bad. I’ve had a few GREAT days!! Anyway, a couple years ago, I painted my aluminum boat white. Since then, I’ve had terrible luck fishing on Strawberry in my boat. Since I’m a perfect fisherman, it cannot possibly be me. It must be something wrong with my boat (insert loud hysterical laughter here…)

I went fishing last year and met up with Old Coot and his boat on the Berry. He had me pull up about 30 feet away from his boat and we fished together. He was pulling the fish in left and right and I was wondering what kind of vudu magic he was doing over there because I was hardly catching anything. We did a passenger exchange. I sent one of my passengers over to his boat and he sent one over to my boat to see what I was doing different and why I wasn’t pulling them in like he was. His passenger didn’t catch hardly anything from my boat, while my passenger was pulling them in left and right on his boat. We were all in the same spot doing the same thing, but Old Coot and his crew were pulling in fish left and right and my crew and I were just getting an occasional bite.

At this point I must clarify and say that Old Coot is a seriously AWESOME fisherman. I’ve always had excellent fishing days when I’ve fished with him on his boat. He’s got it down to a science. I just can’t figure out why I can’t seem to have the same results on my boat when I’m doing the exact same thing in the exact same place at the exact same time…

Anyway, I was bemoaning my miserable luck last year sometime when somebody suggested a ‘Black Box’ to me. I followed the link they gave me and read up on it. It’s a device made by Pro-Troll and claims to allow you to adjust your boats electric current in the water to attract rather than repel fish. So I found it on Amazon.com and ordered it. I figure that if it doesn’t seem to improve my luck fishing, that I can return it via Amazon prime..

I tested my boat’s voltage with a volt meter as suggested on the website and my boat was quite a bit out of the ‘good’ range for trout or any other kind of fish.

So, back to my question. Does anybody else use a ‘Black-Box’ to fix the electric current on their boat and attract more fish? Is it just a gimmick, or does it really work.

I’m very curious to hear from others how it has been working for you. From the instructions, it looks like it hooks up to the wire on your down-riggers. Does it work if you don’t use down-riggers?

Anyway, I’ll read the instruction booklet tonight and try it out when I go to the Berry on Saturday.

Any tips, pointers, advice, or ideas about how to get the most out of this gadget would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks !!

2

I would say you should fix this

I tested my boat’s voltage with a volt meter as suggested on the website and my boat was quite a bit out of the ‘good’ range for trout or any other kind of fish.

I have not heard of jigging with a hot boat having a major impact on your fishing results.

I troll most of the time and I think having the right positive electricity around your down-rigger cables and boat is a big dill and if the voltage is right you will catch more fish.

I have the Pro Troll downrigger fishing techniques book and they tell you some ways to fix this.

if you have elec. cannon downriggers I would not buy the black box.

some things to check
zinc anodes
grounds
wiring
boat bonding
kicker motors, run a ground wire from your main motor to the kicker
there is a lot more

3

I would say you should fix this

I tested my boat’s voltage with a volt meter as suggested on the website and my boat was quite a bit out of the ‘good’ range for trout or any other kind of fish.

I have not heard of jigging with a hot boat having a major impact on your fishing results.

I troll most of the time and I think having the right positive electricity around your down-rigger cables and boat is a big dill and if the voltage is right you will catch more fish.

I have the Pro Troll downrigger fishing techniques book and they tell you some ways to fix this.

if you have elec. cannon downriggers I would not buy the black box. [#800000]Cannon has built in electronics that sets the ion voltage around your cable to about 0.600 volts and its non adjustable. The ‘Black Box’ will work with Scottys and I plan to install one on my boat in the next week or two. If the ion voltage is properly maintained for the fish species your fishing for on any given day, it will not decrease your success. However, it may not increase it either if the stars and fishing gods are not favorably aligned with your pursuit that day.[/#]

some things to check
zinc anodes
grounds
wiring
boat bonding
kicker motors, run a ground wire from your main motor to the kicker
there is a lot more

4

Bananas. KEEP THEM OUT OF YOUR BOAT.
No black box on my boat but I did change the wire on my down-riggers to braid. I just didn’t like the constant humming while trolling. I say give it a try, won’t hurt nothing except your wallet.

5

Bananas. KEEP THEM OUT OF YOUR BOAT.
No black box on my boat but I did change the wire on my down-riggers to braid. I just didn’t like the constant humming while trolling. I say give it a try, won’t hurt nothing except your wallet.

Bananas, got to love that. I knew a guide in Portland that would inspect everyone’s stuff to make sure they did not bring them on board. Claimed them to be bad luck. I therefore snuck them on and smeared the Sturgeon bait with them…best day of the year. LOL

The Bananas thing dates back to a boat that sunk while shipping a load of Bananas from South America…never quite understood how it got equated with fishing. For fun, I use this as a worm oil on occasion. http://www.pouryourownworms.com/Cotton-Candy-Worm-Oil-and-Marinades-2-oz-Cotton-Candy-2oz.htm

If you use a Cannon Electric, it stops the lift as soon as the ball clears the water, but this only works if you have the wire cable. Changing it to superline will disable the auto retrieve ability. The other brands use a cable stop so you just install the stop on the new supeline.

Superline sure does hum a LOT less for sure, but I could never tell a difference.

As for a correct ion charge, I have seen various studies and test and it seems that the investigators are at odds with each other. I would say that for any non-electric downrigger, and all brands other then Cannon Electric, it won’t hurt.

Try the fixes first, but, Sherlock Holmes said something like when you have ruled out all the logical options then whatever is left must be it.

Good luck.

6

Anyway, a couple years ago, I painted my aluminum boat white. Since then, I’ve had terrible luck fishing

Looks like you need to unpaint your boat.

7

I looked really hard into the Black Box a few years back but because I run Cannon down riggers I opted to not spend the money. Instead of using your down rigger cables you can also run a cable from bow to stern on the aft of your boat. That method would be more effective if casting or vertical jigging anyways.

As for the banana I’ve seen the voodoo on more than one outing. No clear reason exists as to how this superstition came to be. Common explanations include:

  • When top-heavy ships of earlier eras would sink, precious little other than the bananas they’d carried would be found floating on the surface, thereby leaving some to conclude conveyance of the fruit itself had led to these naval mishaps. - Spiders, snakes, and other poisonous vermin living among bananas carried in the hold would, on long haul trips, expand their horizons by infesting other parts of the ship. - Because the speediest sailing ships were used to get bananas to their destinations before they could spoil, those attempting to fish from them never caught anything while trolling. - Fisherman became ill after eating the fruit. - Other fruits would spoil more quickly when bananas were being shipped along with them, causing folks to deem bananas “bad luck.” (Actually, it wouldn’t have been ill fate that resulted in the spoilage of other foodstuffs, but instead the ethylene gas emitted by bananas as they ripen.) - Crew member injured by slipping on discarded banana peels. - Fisherman misses landing the big one due to a case of “the runs” caused by bananas he’d ingested. - Banana oil rubs off onto the hands of fisherman, thereby “spooking” the fish. - Early anglers in Hawaii would embark upon lengthy fishing trips in dugout canoes provisioned with (along with other food items) bananas. The farther they went, the fewer the fish, causing some of them to mistake correlation for causation.
8

I have a black box on my aluminum boat and it is a fishing machine. My previous aluminum boat was a fishing machine also and it didn’t have the black box on it. (the voltage was in the favorable range on the old boat and not as much with the new-old boat) I don’t think jigging would be influenced by the black box at all, but trolling with steel wire down riggers may be.

I think the effect is also greatly diminished by the set-back from your cannon ball to lure too and if you have more than a few yards of line out then voltage does not matter.

I’ve had the same experience watching one boat catch and others not catch. I’ve had friends who fish with me a lot come out in their boats and have much different results than me, even using some of my gear.

If I were to vote it does not make much difference (I usually only fish strawberry with downriggers and steel cable) but go ahead and buy one and get that monkey off your back and start catching fish and enjoying your day!

9

So are these out-of-whack ions just related to downrigging on an aluminum boat? or is it a potential problem with any boat with wire downrigger line? … mine is a fiberglass boat, Manual Cannon downriggers, and regular steel cable…could I have whacky ions with my set up?

10

I thought the black box was only needed if they were electric diwnriggers. Am I wrong?

11

any boat can put a charge into the water that replells fish . the black box will help control it . you need to check your boat for voltage problems periodically for problems . that said i never noticed a difference when i ran one but have always ran cannons with pos. ion control .