Anyone tried the on-line downrigger 'black box'?

[777]

LURE CHARGE it's a $24 gadget at the local fishing store that is a small cylinder that claims it produces a positive voltage of 0.6 V, the same as a black box. They want you to rig it on your flasher line, ahead of the flasher (seems like a great way to lose it). Has anyone tried these out? I run Dacron downrigger line, so i cant use a black box, but thought this might be worth a shot. Interested in what you all think of it...

 

[777]

here's the website:

http://www.lurecharge.com/#!page3/cee5

 

[Foxsea]

LURE CHARGE it's a $24 gadget at the local fishing store that is a small cylinder that claims it produces a positive voltage of 0.6 V, the same as a black box. They want you to rig it on your flasher line, ahead of the flasher (seems like a great way to lose it). Has anyone tried these out? I run Dacron downrigger line, so i cant use a black box, but thought this might be worth a shot. Interested in what you all think of it...

In theory, the black box monitors the voltage your boat sends into the water and then you tune the voltage so your boat actually attracts fish (if you are a believer in black boxes). The lure charge seems like throwing a $24 battery into the water and hoping it makes a difference. I've tried the black box and now am happily catching just as many fish with braid on the downrigger. I think a boat with proper bonding and good anodic protection doesn't need the "help". I would concentrate on fishing location, time of day, tide, depth, speed, presentation, etc., instead.

 

[Dogbreath]

here's the website:

http://www.lurecharge.com/#!page3/cee5

They have some nice looking Spoons!

 

[Island Fish Lifter]

Black box I love black boxes! Probably not the ones youre talking about though.. if youre not catching fish without a "black box" I guarantee you will not catch any with one. But have fun with that

 

[Barnacle Bill]

A black box is not needed when using braid on your down rigger! .......BB

 

[Peahead]

I think a boat with proper bonding and good anodic protection doesn't need the "help". I would concentrate on fishing location, time of day, tide, depth, speed, presentation, etc., instead.

Agree ^^^^ however a slight positive voltage has been proven to be attractive to fish. I believe though that the above is most important as long as you don't run stainless cable on a hot boat as that will repel fish.With stainless cable, the black box can be adjusted down a bit to a lower voltage to stop repelling fish. Braid eliminates this issue. With Braid you won't repel fish because you have zero voltage .

[/QUOTE]A black box is not needed when using braid on your down rigger! .......BB. [/QUOTE]

True, a black box won't work at all on braid but if you want to use a slight positive voltage to attract fish then this device may work to do this for braid fisherman or when not using a downrigger at all. It could also just be a an attempt to market something that in practice doesn't work for various reasons.
What I can tell you though is that a slight positive voltage around your gear has been proven to attract fish - BUT also repel fish if that voltage is too high .

Braid has no voltage advantage (or disadvantage) so when using braid, it is purely your tackle visibility/ action /smell that attracts fish. With a slight positive .6V surrounding the lure you add another 'sense' advantage to attract the fish. How much of an advantage I can't say for sure as I haven't researched results but it seems to be enough that most if not all commercial trollers will tell you it helps.

Having zero voltage while using braid can however have its advantages -

- you have one less thing to be concerned about adjusting
- You are consistently fishing with the same voltage (zero) so you know catch rate hasn't changed due to a voltage change.
- You won't repel fish because you won't have too high a voltage

I wouldn't put an additional $25 on my line- too easy to loose $25.

 

[Seafever]

Don't like the hooks on those spoons at all......cup is too shallow.....they look like Gamakatsu Ope Eye Siwash, which I wouldn't use even if they were free.

There's a few ways to get additional voltage effects on tackle without spending a lot of dough.

I think the original commercial black boxes were designed to CORRECT electrical issues on commercial boats to bring them up to fish-catching spec.

Somewhere along the way this got mis-interpreted and the black-box reached mythical proportions.....

I would be more concerned about CORRECTING electrical issues on a boat that's running wire and not catching fish.

Just putting a black box on and twiddling the dial isn't going to help much if everything else is out of whack on the boat.

For 25 bucks you can get a couple of flashers like the Betsy that will do the galvanic voltage thing for you.

And anytime you combine dissimilar metals on a spoon with a lot of metal showing on it you get it there too.......

A black box is not a mythical cure-all.....it is designed to help keep the boat in an optimal fishable state for a specie.

Don't waste your money on lure-chargers......you don't need it. if you are fishing the correct tackle in the correct place at the correct time , barring any other issues you'll get fish.

 

[Pippen]

LURE CHARGE it's a $24 gadget at the local fishing store that is a small cylinder that claims it produces a positive voltage of 0.6 V, the same as a black box. They want you to rig it on your flasher line, ahead of the flasher (seems like a great way to lose it). Has anyone tried these out? I run Dacron downrigger line, so i cant use a black box, but thought this might be worth a shot. Interested in what you all think of it...

Ya......I also maintain that certain songs/artists playing on the stereo attract fish. Give me $24 per line.....I'll come on your boat with my iPod and I am sure we'll catch fish!!

 

[Peahead]

Ya......I also maintain that certain songs/artists playing on the stereo attract fish. Give me $24 per line.....I'll come on your boat with my iPod and I am sure we'll catch fish!!

Funny you mention that as last time out as soon as the stereo was turned on we had a fish on.

I don't think this works with country music tho

 

[Almar22]

I have a black box and used it several years ago - now it just is sitting in a box in my garage collecting dust and taking space. The best part about it was the week we were fishing up out of Thasis, I had the black box on my boat and my brother didn't have one. And for once we completely outfished him. It drove his kids nuts and they then drove my brother crazy. Totally worth it for that alone. But we finally rigged it on his boat and still outfished him. Good to be lucky some times. As others have said, check your boat for stray currents, and change to braided downrigger line.

 

[Pippen]

I don't think this works with country music tho

Nothing works with Country. That is unless you're landlocked.....your gal left you and to make yourself feel better you drove your truck thru a mud hole and of course.....it broke down.

 

[Seafever]

I used a Scotty black box rig back a few years (still have it in the basement)


Aluminum boat with wire lines and black box.

Now I run Power pro braid and have used braid for 3 or 4 years.

Score;-

My braid outfishes wire by a country mile.

Black-box /wire was a continual pain-in-the butt trying to keep everything up to snuff and dialed in. (And I was absolutely anal about every single factor involved).

For some reason it seemed I got LESS blow back on wire.......and I still like the toughness of wire as far as abrasion goes.

My Powerpro 200 d/rigger line works great though.. and I think it has less blow back than Scotty braid.

I catch more fish on braid than I ever did on wire.

I no longer give a darn about voltage on lures as an attractor much.....

I've tried adding metals to the d/ball......yes it works...but it also works without.


For me a better attractant is to take some garlic oil (sparingly), herring oil, and a can of dirt-cheap tuna (Tuna in water not oil)...then mix them up to a squirtable liquid.

Goes inside the hoochy just before lowering......or lightly apply some to the paint side of a spoon........or just squirt it directly into the sponge inside a Brad's Mini Cut Plug.

Other times I don't do anything....just put the lure in the water....still catch fish.


A lot of stuff will work ..IF...you are right where the fish are......

If you hardly ever catch fish...that's when the desperation starts....and a person goes looking for all sorts of fancy "guaranteed killer" stuff......

99% of it is totally un-necessary....

 

[Dogbreath]

Don't like the hooks on those spoons at all......cup is too shallow.....they look like Gamakatsu Open Eye Siwash, which I wouldn't use even if they were free....

Yes that's the worst design Gamakatsu has and those look like imitations of that.

 

[Fish Nutz]

A freshly cracked lucky also works quite well to entice the bite!

 

[777]

so the reason i picked up one is that i feel my catch has dropped a little over the last couple years that i switched to braid. I'm as cynical as anyone when it comes to fisherman accessories (sh*t designed to catch fisherman), I've solidly teased my buddy for his black box. After a somewhat slow 2013 an a slow winter, I'm second guessing the switch from wire to braid? I dunno, fishing leaves a guy lots of time to think about things.

 

[Seafever]

I had "braid jitters" when I first switched over......continually kept telling myself I should have stayed with wire.....and was looking for any excuse to back my assertions up.

The only reason I would ever go back to wire is because IMO it is a lot tougher than braid as far as cuts go.

The voltage tweaks and issues I don't want to go back to.

There are guys that use wire and do really well...and there are guys that use braid and do really well.

So it's really about what you're confident with.......

 

[777]

well after about 7 hours of scientific research, the lure charge downrigger deal perform exactly as poorly as the other side...no fish on either one.

 

[Seafever]

777

where are you fishing?

what tackle are you using?

how deep?

what tide?

give us the juicy details......

 

[777]

well I put in about 3 hours on Saturday on beehie head (near Sooke), and about 4 hours yesterday. Everywhere from 45 to 110 feet deep in everywhere from 45 to 300 feet of water I was trolling 'chovies mostly, but then switch to a cop car coho killer, and later a coyote live action spoon. Not even a strike.

That having been said I spoke with 4 boats at the dock, and they all got shut out too. I suppose I'm going to have bite the bullet, and push on with my research. The sacrifices I make for science.