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I bought a old tri hull boat last fall, so I have been trying to get it all ready for fishing while I wait for spring.
My question is what do you guys use to find your boat speed? My boat doesn't have a speedometer, so I am wondering how to get repeatable speed for trolling.
I am thinking about buying a lowrance X96 with the speed and temp transduser, for a fish finder and to solve the speed problem. The price is pretty good too. Does anyone have any experience with the speed 'ducers and are they accurate enough?
I thought about going with a sonar/gps combo so I could have gps speed but I wasn't wanting to spend that much.
I thought about the a handheld gps to get my speed but then I would be right around the cost of a sonar/gps so I am not sure what to do.
Any help will be great, thanks.
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I've looked into this myself. I found a trolling speed indicator made by Luhr. It is supposed to be more accurate than the fish finders and gps's. I didn't end up buying it because I already have a hand held gps. Here's a link.
[url "http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0012326014883a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=trolling+speed+indicator&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1"]http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0012326014883a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=trolling+speed+indicator&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1[/url]
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You can make your own, with a tube, a coat hanger, a magic marker, and a c-clamp. Total cost: Less than 10 bucks.
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GPS Speedometer
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I would spend the money and buy a sonar/GPS. Cabelas is selling last years models at low cost. If you do a lot of trolling it is the single best investment you can make. You can get away with older rods, motors, lures, but a high quality sonar/GPS unit is worth every penny. You can get a color ( very good) Lowrance unit for $500 to $700.
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Hey BigLew why don't you make me one and I'll give you ten bucks for it.[sly] And next time Dave and I go fishing we'll give ya a call. That sounds like a good deal to me.
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Until it broke, I would use my GPS it seemed pretty accurate. In my truck it was more accurate then my speedometer, when tested. I am not sure on the speed ducer question.
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Maghunter is right about the Luhr speed guide. Professional guides often use this method. They swear by it. The least reliable is the fish finder. I double check my Humminbird with GPS all the time, and sometimes they agree and sometimes not. When there is a lot of junk in the water, the depth locators often get jammed up, and to clear them, you have to pull in your gear, and crank up the speed to clean out the little paddle on the transducer.
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My buddy uses an etrex GPS. I think it's going for a measly $100-150 now. I don't know how accurate it is, but once we find a speed that the fish are hitting at we can replicate it and keep catching them for a while until the usual times that the bite dies off.
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]. ( wish me luck )