Without mentioning any brand names I have a true story for the salmon and trout anglers on this web board.
A few years ago a buddy of mine bought a newer boat that had been rigged for salmon fishing for the lake. I thought when he bought it he would mount the newer riggers from the old boat to the new boat.
BUT he didn't. He invited me to fish all 3 days of a long weekend during the GOSD. First day out we went fishless. Not even 1 hit. There a lot of guys doing fish around us. I said we better bring the voltmeter with us the next day. We did, but left it in the truck at the launch. Another day we struggled and it was getting really frustrating. I lengthened my lead out to 100 feet behind the weight and nothing. then to 150' and nothing. then to 200' and I started getting hits. I was quite sure what was happening. Next day we ran out to 70 feet of water dropped both riggers to 60' and checked the voltage. 1.185 on one rigger and the other was 1.235 volts. I just happened to bring 2 long jumper wires with me and we grounded out the rigger cables to the negative terminal of the battery and if memory serves me correctly I think our count for the day was over 20 mature kings. Basically what I did was McGiver rig a black box. That is all a black box does, is control the voltage produced by the dissimilar metals in the water around the boat. We found out later that brand and model of rigger had a problem right from the factory. Needless to say buddy had the new riggers from the old boat on the new boat before the next weekend.
Over the years I have jumped on other boats and tested the riggers when guys were having problems. With a little work we had them back in action.
During a tournament pre-fish, I had a buddy & competitor tell me he was having a very bad pre-fish. He was a very good salmon angler. We discussed a few options and he said he was having some issues with his instrumentation. He was also an auto technician and all the tools with him. We checked out the grounds on the boat but couldn't find anything wrong. The next day while pre-fishing, he had an electrical fire in the harness to his kicker. We worked late into the night before the tournament and got the wiring replaced and the kicker running again. The next day during the tournament he had a great day and finished in the money. We assumed that the problem with the wiring was inducing some electrical current into the water around the boat thus shutting down his ability to get a bite.
This is another reason I stay away from the pack. There could be a couple boats in the pack putting out some bad voltage shutting down the kings.
When I rebuilt the Grand Slam, I installed redundant ground wires on all the units in the boat. I also installed trim tab anodes and they are grounded to the main ground as well as the swim platform.
Like I said previously, as far as I am concerned a black box is the last piece of the puzzle.
If you are so inclined to carry a volt meter on the boat as I do, just check out the voltage some day on your wire divers. You might be amazed what they are producing.
Al
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Captain - Team ATOMMIK/Rockets
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J/K. Not really