White cap splash gaurds..Wave Wackers ?

[esoxanator]

What are they? I've never heard of either.

[JEM]

They are nothing more than big old chunks of something that stretch across the transom. The fancy ones are plexiglass while the next tier down would be old truck mud flaps installed he long way. There were usually some type of rubber surround for the motor to seal it too.

They were popular with walleye fishermen that backtrolled a lot. In rough water they would deflect the waves and whitecaps out of the boat while running the big motor in reverse to slowly move along the structure you were fishing. They worked slick for very slow livebait presentations in rough water.

For muskies, I couldn't imagine an application that would require them unless you are in a boat with no other means of locomotion other than the big motor. Moving a boat forwards works much more efficiently than in reverse and that super slow speed control isn't used in any presentation I've ever seen work. Muskies and walleyes are so different as predators that the methods that work for one are usually a poor choice for the other during most of the season. (Yes, I know jig/minnow combos work in spring, but the season usually isn't open for muskies when that combo is the most effective)

[esoxanator]

That would probably be why I saw them on all the used boats for sale on walleye central! I'm not much of a walleye guy. I only fish the Detroit river before muskie season opens. All I do is vertical jigging. Thanks. I know it was a dumb question.

[fishpoop]

I have the wave wackers, which is a brandname, on my lund. I bought the boat before I got into muskie fishing. Also I run a tiller motor. There have been times when casting to a very shallow rock reef in a heavy wind that the wave wackers have come in handy. If the wind is to strong for your bowmount motor to handle you can put the big motor into reverse and slowly backtroll the boat while casting to the rocks, breakline, etc. The wave wackers will keep the water from coming over the transom while doing this.

Also they can keep the boat from swamping in an emergency. One evening this summer I was getting off the lake for the night and the boat struck some underwater floating debris from a tornado that had gone through the area the week before. This was in the main channel in and out of the bay where the resort is and all the boats go through the area so I'm certain that I didn't hit a rock or reef that I didn't know about. I had been through that spot many times before and since. I was traveling at about 5200 rpm on the tachometer, so I wasn't quite at wide open throttle when the boat hit something very hard. I was almost throwen out of my seat and onto the floor of the boat. The tiller arm of the motor was tornen out of my hand and as soon as I let go of the tiller the throttle closed to idle speed as a safty device. Traveling about 40 mph the boat went to almost a dead stop in the water. SO the following wake wash filled in behind the boat and some of it washed over the wave wackers. If the wave wackers had not been on the boat I'm certain the boat would have swamped. Fortunently there was no damage to the motor or lower unit. I was very surprised. Also I didn't brake any rivets in the aluminium of the hull. We were very fortunate. So the wave wackers saved us from swampping the boat. Or at the least having a lot of water come over the transom. I will have wave wackers on any boat I own.