Badfisherman

I'm curious to see what kind of tricks or tips everyone hasto make a boat ride better in chop. Do trim tabs or a full tank make a difference?

PURPLE HAZE

That question can be answer several ways. First depends on what type of hull you are running. Displacement,V-hull,Deep V,Tri and so on. The boat I fish on is a Deep V T31 contender that is 34'6'' long. We run it at about 30 knots up to 4 footers into ahead sea with a short chop. If the chop extends duration some time I will slow down as muchto 18 knots. While running in 4 footers @ 18 knots I will lift up the bow,raise the trim on the motors to 5 to 8 degrees, take out all trim on the planes. And then plan for a long ride with no pounding. If running at 30 knots in 4 footers I will level the motors trim to 2 degrees up,take out all trim on the planes. And hold on. A little pounding can be expected. Anything besides head and falling seas. I just adjust my RPM's for best speed.If it is calm seas under 2 feet . I will raise the stern of the boat by lowering the planes around half way or 15 degrees,raise the motors up for best speed at cruise. Without the trim on the planes in calm seas, our boat will porpoise. Just a word of advise, make sure that you have the right props before you start chasing speed with trim. I am on my 4 set of props and as of last week just got the boat to run like i wanted it to. Boat loading can also affect your ride. Hope this helps a little. Gene

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Capt. Gene Kline

BBob

To your first two questions, Trim tabs, Yes, very much soand fuelyes, depending on how much fuel (six gallons plastic tank not really, 250 gallons oh yeah.).

Gene (Purple Haze)has many, many hours of long runs at the helm. Heed his sound advise. The only thing I would add is thatbean bags will make a bumpy ride much, much nicer for your crew. Too much or too little throttle can make the ride miserable. See if you can find an experience operator with a boat like your's and seek his advice/knowlege for a starting point.

fisheye48

give us your definition of "chop" because what you feel it is will be differant to the next person...trim tabs will help you alot...but what gene said will help alot...what will also help you alot is to play with everything on your boat to see what makes it ride better...i.e a little motor trim and no tabs, alot of tabs and a empty tank, full tank lots of tabs, and so on

Sea Monkey

The OLE Get There.

I fish out of a Wellcraft Steplift V-20. I don't have trim tabs, powered by an I/O. I have found that weight distribution and speed helps out alot. Some days in the Gulf there is not much you can do to avoid pounding, depends on how fast you want to get there.I will trim my outdrive to achieive maximum speed with whatever RPM I'm running. I think one major factor in the pounding is the weight of the boat hull. I have fished out of a 25 ft. Cobia CC with twin 115s , my boat took the chop better than the Cobia. All fishing trips in the Gulf are, take what you can get, when in comes to getting there and back. Some days you can change yourheading by 5-10degrees offcourse . Go a mile 5-10degrees and then go other mile at 5-10 the other way, kindazig zag.I'm not trying to sound smart , but some days its best to drive the boat , not set on such course and hell bent on keeping the course.

karma

i always start motor trim all the way down and tabs all the way down.. than slowly adjust the trim on the tabs to level boat and raise the bow.. then fine the balance with the motor trimmed up a bit.. find that sweet spot for the current conditions..



Being loaded with gas can affect speeds and boats ability to get on plane faster. Like meantioned before.. weight distribution of ice on the boat or the one buddy who is the same weight as two people can have some affect on the ride.

MGuns

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Nothing beats trial and error. Try everything you?re reading on this thread and see what works best for you.

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Mike

MGySgt USMC (Retired)
2006 Everglades 243CC w/ Verado 250 (for sale)
1994 Nitro 800XLS w/ Merc 150

user5505

One big thing I learned is your "fishing plan"

It seemed like last summer the waves were primarily out of the west. So I started going WSW (not directly into the waves) and stop to fish in a few spots, by the time we are ready to head home, we have worked our way west enough to almost have a following sea.

I learned that the hard way, headed east and when it was time to return, head sea the whole way. :banghead

swhiting

I'm with Run Dover on this one. Ride em back in. Seems like I can take a beating first thing in the AM. After a day of fishing, not so much.



Every boat I've been on has been different. Your going to have to figure yours out and decide if you want comfort or efficiency. Don't expect to have both most of the time. If you have to quarter the waves for whatever reason, sometimes it's nice to raise the bow to one side and avoid the spray. If you can't hack the lean, try the zig zag pattern mentioned. I happen to be a fan of the zig zag. I'll spend some extra gas to ride in comfort and DRY.



Finally, take someone bigger than you. If you just get sick of it and are ready to "SHOW ME THAT TRUCK", then put them on the side that will block the spray, tell everyone to hang on, then let her rip.

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"....during the public comment period that followed, comments were overwhelmingly opposed to the proposal. As a result, NOAA fisheries reopened the public comment period for and additional 15 days, but there was no change to the results. The regional administrator of NOAA Fisheries announced that the recreational greater amberjack season will close for June and July as scheduled..."

polar21

"Finally, take someone bigger than you. If you just get sick of it and are ready to "SHOW ME THAT TRUCK", then put them on the side that will block the spray, tell everyone to hang on, then let her rip. "

This is why I take Swhiting fishing with me. He is a professional at blocking any spray and much cheaper than having curtains put on the boat.