Someone asked earlier about calculating the depth of your bait by the amount of line you have out. My trig is worse than rusty so I went here: Calculate Angle and Sides opposite, hypotenuse, adjacent of right angled triangle calculator to come up with this chart:

Name: Bait depth chart with grid 2.jpg Views: 77808 Size: 32.4 KB

In order to use the chart you have to estimate the angle your line comes off the rod tip and meets the water. When I troll at my usual speed the angle is about 45 degrees. If I go into a "slow" troll it falls off to about 20 degrees, and at "let's boogie" speed it increases to about 60 degrees.

In the upper left-hand corner of the chart is the rod tip. All measurements (except the depth scale on the left axis) are FROM THE ROD TIP. (my rod tip is 1.5 ft above the waterline). As an example, If my line is at a 45-degree angle and I want my bait at 15 feet deep, I need to let out 23.3 feet of line (remember, that's 23.3 feet from the rod tip). You can see the 23.3 about in the middle of the page. The number under it in parens (16.5 in this case) is the number of feet your bait is trailing THE ROD TIP, i.e. how far back?

If your rod tip height, line angle or depth requirements are significantly different from mine you can easily make your own chart. Just go to Calculate Angle and Sides opposite, hypotenuse, adjacent of right angled triangle calculator In the calculation box use the drop-down menus to choose "I want to calculate "Hypotenuse Side" & "Adjacent Side" (those sides of the triangle are the amount of line out and the distance back from the rod tip, respectively). In the "Opposite Side" box enter the depth you want to achieve...remember to add the height of your rod tip above the waterline to the depth! The box "Angle q" gets a little tricky because the angle number you'll enter is actually 90 degrees minus your angle, i.e. to calculate at 30 degrees you enter "60". The "Angle b" box thankfully will show "30" to confirm it's the angle you want. I know it sounds confusing but it's harder to type out an explanation than it is do.