Trolling My Hard-Chined Trawler

[Tom Bates]

I was wondering how to slow my boat down to troll for salmon. The boat is 40 ft long and is hard chinned. I have a 120 hp diesel motor with a 2 in shaft and a capitol gear.I have solar panels and lots of batteries and was wondering if i could put an electric motor with a electric clutch. Will this work, and if so what size motor and pulley do i use. I would like a speed of app.2-2.4 knts.

[brutb]

Tom,

On my old 40' displacement wood boat with a 80hp lehman when I went salmon fishing in Tacoma, I found that buy slipping the boat into and out of gear I could surge the deep divers I used. This seemed to attract a few good size fish and it was a rare morning that I did not catch legal fish before sunrise. I you have an old twin disc trans you can just nudge it into turning the prop over enough to get your speed and then put in back into neutra...
this work well on my 40' with the 80hp and on my 43' with a 6-71 and a twin disc. Of course, I was lucky because the pilot station on both boats had sliding doors that a pole could fit out off and it was easy to keep track of the pole bend. You knew you had a strike because the end of the pole would straighten out when the deep diver was released.

Well, it worked for me, so it should work for you if your cabin layout was similar to mine. Nothing like fresh salmon for breakfast, along with enough for your friends for an evening meal.