Attaching A Smartcast To A Bait Boat

[Elton]

Posted on behalf of a site visitor:

 

quote:

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I am trying to have my smartcast fitted to my bait boat would be gratful for any advice

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[dazler]

Will let Rabster do all the typing on this one

[rabster]

I take it you're little orange gadget is called a Smartcast then Daz?

 

If so, I witnessed Daz sending out his Smartcast, attached to rod & line, trailing from the back of his baitboat. The boat also contained his terminal tackle & hookbait & obviously was trailing his mainline, oh, plus there was more loose feed than I use in a month .

 

I warned him it looked destined to end in a huge tangle, but Dazler was not to be put off.

 

He expertly guided his boat to the area he wanted to fish, whilst keeping one eye on the info. the Smartcast was sending back. All was going well until he decided to back the boat up, which was probably the point when the mainline & Smartcast lines crossed.

 

The loosefeed & terminal tackle were dropped on the required spot, problem was by the time Daz had guided his baitboat & smartcast back to the bank, he realised he was also towing his mainline.

 

I did warn him it would all end in tears!

[dazler]

:confused: Rab's you forgot to include your part in the plan

[rabster]

dazler:

:confused: Rab's you forgot to include your part in the plan

You know what my memory is like - Remind me? :confused:

 

I do recall, when I had a dabble with the boat to send out my own bait, that I immediately tweaked the wrong knob & nearly deposited my bait & pellets about 6 inches from the bank! Just how gutted would that have made me, I think I'd have gone in after 'em!

[dazler]

I was thinking more of who had the rod with the smart cast on the end keeping the tention thus stopping the lines crossing

[Polly]

Elton:

Posted on behalf of a site visitor:

 

quote:

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I am trying to have my smartcast fitted to my bait boat would be gratful for any advice

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Only work up to 100ft (30 mts) so why cant you cast on rod and line? Do you need a B/Boat?

[Jim Gibbinson]

Re. Smartcast range. If the receiver unit is elevated a couple of feet or more above the water surface, and turned sideways on to the water (left-hand side of the unit facing the water), you'll get about 50 metres range with fresh batteries (I learned this from my son, Peter, who has a lot of experience with the Smartcast).

 

Incidentally, I mount my transducer on a short wire trace to eliminate the risk of 25 quid's worth of orange "bung" disappearing down a pike's throat! I've not had the transducer grabbed yet, but it's a risk I would imagine. The wire trace does not affect the signal.

 

It should be legal to blow bait-boats out of the water with a 12 bore.

[steve17]

jim do you have problems deciding what species of fish they are that your smartcast is telling you? and what do you do to help this?

 

just wondering because my dad has one and we keep fishing to areas of fish, which later we believe to be shoals of large rudd instead of carp.

[Steve Burke]

I echo what Jim says about raising the Smartcast. I'd add that in most cases if you then lower the unit to chair height you retain the signal.

 

You definitely need to use a wire trace on the transducer if pike are present - especially in the warmer months when pike are active on the surface!

 

Steve, I don't use my Smartcast for finding fish (which of course it does do). You can't tell the species, but you can often work this out from your knowledge of the fish. BTW, if you turn the fish symbols off the raw echoes are displayed on the screen. These show a lot more detail and are more accurate, but need a bit of practice to interpret.

 

I use mine for feature finding. Here a Smartcast is invaluable, being extremely quick and easy compared with a plummet or marker float. This also means that there's less disturbance.

 

In fact, I reckoned I knew Wingham well from often being out with a boat and conventional Hummingbird fishfinder. I didn't! In an area that I thought was pretty flat I discovered a wealth of deep bars. I'd missed them from the boat because then you're on a moving platform and it's hard to visualise where features are in relation to the bank. With a Smartcast it's dead easy though!

 

I was so impressed with the Smartcasts that I bought a batch recently and sold them all almost immediately. I've just one RF10e left if anyone is interested at £160 post free to AN members (no offers please as I can sell them very easily!). This is the European spec model and so is legal in the UK, and comes with a full warranty.

 

[ 25. April 2005, 04:26 PM: Message edited by: Steve Burke ]