Line Depth

[Vermillion]

This spring will be my first time out as a HT. I have been gearing up for some time now but I have run into a problem I can't seem to solve on my own. I will be fishing on my own for a couple of months, and I will need to be able to keep track of depths so I can get in tight against rocks and other structures. Does anyone know a way to keep track of how much line they have down without keeping track in their heads???

[Abundance]

I personally tie a piece of twine to the desired depth on my wire, if depth is critical. I know people who tie a piece of line every ten fathoms, and just keep track of them. After a few thousand times of pulling the gear up and down, keeping track in your head becomes ingrained instinct, but mistakes still happen.

[Kelper]

If you have a decent sounder, and aren't fishing too deep or have a ton of blowback, you'll track your balls on your sounder when Ht. 25lb ball in this pic.

BTW, I caught that king on the screen.

[mydona]

When you see the depth of your leads you can set the depth alarm for a fathom or 2 below them. I've had to turn the gain way up at times to find the depth, set the alarm, and then adjust gain back to clear the screen clutter. 2 other tricks; colored yarn for depths at 5-6 fm intervals (especially if your working w/ 1.5 fm spreads). or # of knots (1/2 hitches) to mark depths when using mending twine/Oregon leader. This also works for attaching the float bags. I hate it when done setting the gear out and look back and see a float bag (shear board) 50 yds behind the other. Hint; yarn/twine should be tied between the line beads. They tend to slide up and down the wire as your pulling and setting

[Salty]

Great question, thanks. Here is what I do: I get colored telephone or other wire, cut it into 4 inch sections and then mark the wire at the depths I commonly fish. Red for 15 fathom, green for 24, etc to blue for 60.
I have an article coming out soon in Pacific Fishing Magazine on how I had to change the colors because of my wife's synesthesia.

On the using your fathometer to track the depth of your cannon balls. Remember that the distance from your transducer to your cannon ball is not the same as the distance from the surface of the water or even your keel to the bottom. For example if the closest cannon ball to your transducer is your port main and it is out 40 fathoms it will likely be hanging back a ways and dragging up a bit. So it will be quite a bit further from your transducer than it is from the surface of the water. Thus you will notice that you can drag your leads through the bottom on your sounder without hitting the bottom. Because while your leads may be 38 fathoms from the surface when you have 40 fathoms of wire out, they might be 42 or more fathoms from your transducer. So when it is 40 fathoms under your boat you might be dragging your leads through the bottom on your screen without hitting. After a while you get so you know how far your leads are under the water when you have different amounts of wire and gear out.
Then you have the fact that the leads on bow poles are a lot closer to the transducer than when on mains. Almost straight down at some depths on my boat.

Hope this helps.

[Vermillion]

Great info!!! Thanks alot guys this will help out alot. Someday, someone is going to invent a line counter that installs on your davits and counts the line for you.....maybe I should do that. But I think the info given will work just fine for me now, thanks. Good fishin'