View Full Version : Making your own markers
Has anyone ever made there own markers for throwing out to mark a spot or for help with making a trolling pass. I made one once out of a plastic ball bat, it worked fairly well, its nice to have a tall one so you can see it from a distance or in the waves. Just wondering if any one has any cool ideas.
Rog
david anderson
03-19-2002, 07:27 PM
Obviously anything will work however my GPS162 has all but eliminated the need to even have them in the boat anymore.
mbrandt
03-19-2002, 07:45 PM
I'd like to think that a gps can get you to the boulder on the end of a point that is about 3 foot across, but it just won't do it. Maybe WAAS will help, but to mark the spot on a spot, a marker is really needed. I agree for trolling, the gps can't be beat, but markers still have their place. I have found that a piece of styrofoam works well. The square shape keeps the line from continuing to unravel after the weight hits bottom. If it keeps coming off, your marker might be off the spot as much as the gps.
Mark
RickK
03-19-2002, 07:47 PM
I use the "Blue Fox" one,...its fairly cheap,..enough so that I wouldn't waste my time trying to make one,..its slick too,..unwinds,..catches the cord so it doesn't drift,..then the botton fills up with water to have it stand way up...good color and refective bans. stores nicely and EZ to toss out,...I can't make one nearly as nice,...
Mike(Co)
03-19-2002, 07:51 PM
Powdered Gatoraide containers work good. Drill a small hole in the lip and tie dacron or fire line on. Wrap 30-40 ft of line and tie a wheel weight or two on and drop inside then screw on the lid. They store surprisingly well and are easy to deploy. When jet skis steel them you don't loose much!
Good Fishing!
Mike
Explosives Guy
03-19-2002, 08:00 PM
LOL.....I'd like to make one that resembled a Lindy marker but was packed with C5 on a radio controlled sendoff. I get tired of guys edging in on my marker buoys and sometimes anchoring on them and its time for some payback. I'd wait till 4 or 5 boats were all bunched up and then.....BOOM!!!! (Just kidding guys but it would be great fodder for a Mad Magazine gig)
I would the agree GPS with WAAS is great but I still would not be with out markers.
Actually, I will make up a dozen or so out of gallon - bright red / orange tide bottles.
They work very well for marking the edges of flats, key points etc.
Often, if there are a lot of boats in an area - I will throw out two or three markers in an area about 1/4 mile away from where I really want to fish.
As soon as the first two or three boats are attracted to the area - to bring in the rest - I will go fish where I really want to fish.
Then after they have fished for two or three hours, and not caught any fish - and have left I go back and pick up my markers.
It has backfired on me a couple of times - when I actually dropped my marker on a really hot spot - that netted many fish for the folks that worked over the area.
Take care
REW
p.s.
I go over and pick ut a box of duck decoy anchors for these markers and a 1000 foot roll of cord.
--
With GPS, I seldom bother with markers any more - but if I am working a small tight school, and if the wind is really blowing - it is often more convenient to visualize the spot more easily with the use of a marker.
W'eyes Guy
03-19-2002, 10:10 PM
One thing I found to work really well is these water bottles with the ring on the top( I think it's Evian bottled water). The ring is nice for tying the line to and they have a nice "bouy" shape to them. But the thing I like most about them is you can drop a glow stick in them and they work excellent for night fishin'.
#610
george
03-19-2002, 11:10 PM
Buy seagull decoys they work real well keeps people out of your spot they think it is a seagull not a marker. Works great on lake erie.
appleye
03-19-2002, 11:16 PM
In a tourney I've taken a worm box and ran fishing line through with a weight and left it on the spot on the spot. People come by and think it's another litter bug and go on.
appleye
Scott5019
03-19-2002, 11:58 PM
For night fishing, we have been using Orange juice(Sunny D) bottles and they have worked fine. The color is like a gallon milk jug and with a pen light inside, they show up very well. The neck on the bottle is narrow and you can wrap your line around it easily. I still use my GPS most of the time, but with a couple of markers out, I know exactly where I am without having to watch the GPS.
Cangl
03-20-2002, 08:09 AM
Tang jars are almost round and by tying chalk line to the threads and wrapping the line the same way the top twists you can lock them at depths. Weights will lock up inside the containers pretty well, 2oz bell weights and painted plain red. Dark day's it turns black on (enhanced contrast) bright days its bright. Costs little and when set to drift I can put the green weenie on even incrutching "fisherman" with GPS Give em a curve you might say. 50 feet is 50 feet plain and simple as is 15ft ;) Yesterday took 25 10+ inch Crappie out of a spot that measured 20ft long by 5ft wide in the middle of nothing. No brushpile either.
Throwing out a marker on the lakes I usually fish can really bring them in. "Other Fishermen" We call them people attractors, people that have been looking for that spot all year and all of a sudden the marker is out, here they come...
david anderson
03-20-2002, 08:52 AM
REW,
Your point was my observation to a tee. My boat is 20 feet. My error rate without WAAS has is typically less than 20 feet. I have dropped buoys on drifts to compare the accuracy vs my buoy position and am amazed at the correlation, within a reasonable time period. I have also been frustrated to drop a buoy then have to drift, troll, or cast away from that buoy in order not to catch it's anchor line. The reality is my GPS can mark the spot and I can literally drift over at a closer tolerance to that spot than I would be as I try to avoid tangling. The down side is the visual relationship to the GPS screen, your surroundings, and where that spot is in reference to your actual boat position. I do carry a few buoys when I need that visual correlation, especially casting an edge in the wind. On the other hand staring at the GPS as long as I have, and referencing a past post regarding that magnetic iron stuff in guys brains, my confidence level of my exact location is very high. Or at least that's what I convince my fishing partners!