Controlling a skid / slide while Trolling with the 210 FSH

[FSH 210 Sport]

I looked for a similar thread that was posted before, but my patience was somewhat limited so just decided to make a new thread.

One of the very few downsides to a jet drive is trolling in the wind, with the worst being wind coming from astern as it will push the boat, and then the trolling motor, while in cruise control, slows its prop speed to try and maintain the speed selected which leads to loss of directional control and the boat will start to skid. This isn’t as much of a problem with an outboard or I/O as there is a big rudder sticking down in the water.

Yesterday I had an epiphany that I should have had a long time ago on how to control the skid / slide problem. On a whim I tied one of my dock lines to my five gallon bucket handle, dropped the bucket off of the stern about five feet back, ran the rope through the center mounted water sports tow hook and secured it to a stern cleat with a couple of cleat hitches. I could have just put a bowline in the line and secured it to the water sports hook, but I wanted to be able to adjust how far back the bucket was as part of the experiment. As it turned out, I left the original length and just set the bucket on the swim step on the upwind legs.

This worked out great! The bucket / drogue provided enough drag that trolling motor now had to increase thrust to maintain my 1.8 mph trolling speed, and the bucket / drogue was providing enough drag to hold the stern in line with the bow. I do think I’m going to try a small drogue instead of the bucket as the bucket was about maxed out on how much drag it could supply.

In the past I’d just leave the trolling motor in the water for my upwind leg, but I’d use the engines to provide directional control, usually using reverse and splitting the throttles to maintain speed and correct for any sliding or skidding. Now I think by using a large enough drogue and perhaps vary its opening I’ll be able to use the troller for a wider range of conditions before having to go to the engines.

@fatboyroy @Liveto99 @dels @HangOutdoors

 

[HangOutdoors]

Like it. The 5 gallon bucket works. I now use a drift sock with a float. I have multiple size socks and they are easier to store. I use the 5 gallon bucket to bleed out the fish. If I catch any

Amazon.com : Lindy Drift Control Drift Sock Boat Bag Parachute Drift Anchor for Fishing Boat, Fisherman Series, 42" : Fishing Marker Buoys : Sports & Outdoors

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Like it. The 5 gallon bucket works. I now use a drift sock with a float. I have multiple size socks and they are easier to store. I use the 5 gallon bucket to bleed out the fish. If I catch any

Amazon.com : Lindy Drift Control Drift Sock Boat Bag Parachute Drift Anchor for Fishing Boat, Fisherman Series, 42" : Fishing Marker Buoys : Sports & Outdoors

Right on…. Totally agree, I have a 54” one that is my main drift anchor.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Like it. The 5 gallon bucket works. I now use a drift sock with a float. I have multiple size socks and they are easier to store. I use the 5 gallon bucket to bleed out the fish. If I catch any

Amazon.com : Lindy Drift Control Drift Sock Boat Bag Parachute Drift Anchor for Fishing Boat, Fisherman Series, 42" : Fishing Marker Buoys : Sports & Outdoors

How big of a drift anchor are you using for trolling?

 

[Julian]

We use a sea anchor or drift anchor as you describe. Also, Cobra fins have helped me with tracking a lot.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

So my friend is “good with tools” and is always looking to improve things. He is a regular fishing friend and has been with me in some pretty harsh conditions while fishing, and he has been with me when we used the drogue to help control the skid while trolling in high winds.. he had built himself an inflatable kayak with a sail a while back, and had some extra parts lying around from that kit.

The other day he shows me this skag that came with the kit. He then bought some industrial strength suction cups like the ones he used to make a grab rail for his elderly parents‘ shower, and Wah Lah, I have a skag that mounts easily to the stern for trolling.







This thing takes less than 30 seconds to mount, and even less to remove. I can tell you it works really well on a windy day. The skag itself is on a friction fitting so if anything were to hit it, it will just swing up out of the way. The pipe clamps need to be replaced with some better units, but it worked great today in some 30-35mph wind gusts.

 

[zipper]

I like the drogue anchor for a following sea/wind. I really like the lee/dagger board mod. Nice idea from the sailing community. Well done, looks great.

 

[zipper]

Your friend should start production, patent that now. Just sayin...

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I like the drogue anchor for a following sea. I really like the dagger board mod. Nice idea!

That was all my friends idea…I still had to use the drogue in the following sea / down wind leg as a brake so the trolling motor would make enough thrust for directional control. It was a great first test / proof of concept, the trolling motor had far far less movement, fine corrections instead of larger ones. I didn’t put it on until the wind came up, I should have put it on early in calm conditions as I’m sure there would have been improvement there as well, but waiting until the wind came up and the boat started moving around a lot was provided greater contrast. I’m pretty sure this will pay dividends in less KWh used by the trolling motor as less corrections will be required. The wind yesterday was still strong enough to require consistent level 8 out of 10 prop speed on the trolling motor. MinnKota recommends not going above 8.5 prop speed for long periods with the LiFePO batteries, if it’s consistently running at 8.5-9 I switch over to the main engines.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Your friend should start production, patent that now. Just sayin...

Thanks! I’ll let him know!

 

[zipper]

I had meant to say Lee boards, which are similar but different than a daggerboard. Lee board design and why.

https://www.duckworksmagazine.com/01/articles/leeboards/index.htm

I bet another on the other side and more forward would take the crab walk out of the troll.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I had meant to say Lee boards, which are similar but different than a daggerboard. Lee board design and why.

https://www.duckworksmagazine.com/01/articles/leeboards/index.htm

I bet another on the other side and more forward would take the crab walk out of the troll.

Thanks! With just this one I’d say 80% or more of the slide is gone…

 

[Jet Boat Okie]

Really cool idea, I fish top water schools a lot and have found that without a prop the Yamaha drifts quickly and it’s hard to keep the kids at good casting distances/angles from a school. The trolling motor works well, but the boat turns quickly and it’s a challenge. This would be cool to help keep the boat trailing the trolling motor and slow the rotation of the boat.

Thanks for sharing, If you plan to make and sell, let me know.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Really cool idea, I fish top water schools a lot and have found that without a prop the Yamaha drifts quickly and it’s hard to keep the kids at good casting distances/angles from a school. The trolling motor works well, but the boat turns quickly and it’s a challenge. This would be cool to help keep the boat trailing the trolling motor and slow the rotation of the boat.

Thanks for sharing, If you plan to make and sell, let me know.

My friend made it for me… what I can do is get the parts and pieces he used and where he got them and post up. It’ll be a bit since he is out of town right now.

Probably better I don’t have all that info right now.. we are going to have to get some better clamps that attach to the seasucker suction pads anyway. But for a prototype test it was really good. There is a lot of force on that dagger board and even when it had slipped and was pointing the wrong direction it was still working good. I had also put it on upside down, with it mounted the way my friend had envisioned it would have been even further down in the water.

You can see in the pic below how it had twisted in the clamps, and the clamps don’t have a lot of purchase on the thin wall aluminum tube. Clamps that have a greater contact area will be forthcoming. I wouldn’t mind pinning the whole apparatus with thru bolts once we got it all set and then there won’t be a problem with anything moving under load. The sea sucker pads do allow a little bit of movement as they flex but it is inconsequential to how this thing operates, its just for low speed work with either the trolling motor or the mains. What’s really nice is that once mounted you can just swing it up out of the water if you wanted to take a cruise to a different spot.

 

[NeoBrew]

Your friend should start production, patent that now. Just sayin...

By posting pictures of it on the internet, you have killed your chance of getting a patent. Just an FYI.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

By posting pictures of it on the internet, you have killed your chance of getting a patent. Just an FYI.

Don’t really care.. I shared it here to contribute to this site as a small repayment for all of the help this site has given me.

 

[NeoBrew]

This solution looks really inventive. I was in one of those "other threads". At the time the common wisdom was the drogue chute. I just didn't like the idea of wasting all that energy by creating so much drag for the trolling motor. I also didn't like the idea of having something dragging in the water to snag on or get tangled up in when fighting fish.

I purchased some Thrust Vectors last fall with the hopes that they will do esentially what this board is doing without having another device to manage. I haven't made it out on the water to test yet, but I'm hopeful it will be effective.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

This solution looks really inventive. I was in one of those "other threads". At the time the common wisdom was the drogue chute. I just didn't like the idea of wasting all that energy by creating so much drag for the trolling motor. I also didn't like the idea of having something dragging in the water to snag on or get tangled up in when fighting fish.

I purchased some Thrust Vectors last fall with the hopes that they will do esentially what this board is doing without having another device to manage. I haven't made it out on the water to test yet, but I'm hopeful it will be effective.

Right on…. My friend is very inventive for sure. He was kicking himself for not realizing he had the parts and such to do this. He has a lifetime of experience in power and sail boating.

I know what you mean about the drogue trailing along behind and possibly getting tangled up with the line. I‘m using the smallest drogue right now, 18” I think.

I hope your idea works out for you. I’ve not put on TV’s as I didn’t want that stuff hanging down back there, and I don’t have issues with slow speed ops in the first place. I’m sure that Thurst Vectors will help with the low speed ops though. The only time I use the drogue is when I’m going down wind and it is windy enough to push the boat so quickly that the trolling motor on ”cruise control” will have the prop speed so low it loses directional control, so I toss out the drogue and it makes enough drag to keep the prop speed at least at 4 or 41/2. As soon as I make turn up wind I just drag it in and lay it on the deck behind the cooler to keep it out of the way.


And, get out on the water as quick as you can!

 

[NeoBrew]

The only time I use the drogue is when I’m going down wind and it is windy enough to push the boat so quickly that the trolling motor on ”cruise control” will have the prop speed so low it loses directional control, so I toss out the drogue and it makes enough drag to keep the prop speed at least at 4 or 41/2.

That makes sense. If you have a strong enough following wind no amount of rudder is going to fully solve the problem.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

That makes sense. If you have a strong enough following wind no amount of rudder is going to fully solve the problem.

Yep, it helps going up wind as well, only small corrections by the trolling motor when on auto pilot and cruise control. I’m thinking it is going to help with spot lock on windy days as well since the stern will be more anchored.