- North Pass, Juneau, Alaska
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Interesting question.
I think it is fairly accurate, but as Butch mentions it is speed over ground, not through the water. I adjust engine speed a tiny bit and it shows on the GPS. It shows increases of 0,1 knots at times. Accurate? Don’t know, but seems right.
I trolled my old 1990 Revenge 22-W.T with a 9.9 kicker just above idle. I needed speeds between 1.7 knots (2.0 mph) and 2.0 knots (2.3 mph) while trolling for different types of salmon. Kings (chinook) needed a slower speed, silvers (coho) faster. But sometimes while trolling along the shore at slow speed, the shore was ripping by quickly, speeds showing was 2.5 to 3 with the current. Going against it the speed sometimes dropped to 0.
The final determination to how fast I was going was determined by my trolled whole herring baits. Kings like a slow rolling bait, silvers a faster rolling bait. If I was trolling for kings and my bait was spinning too fast, then I had to slow down more. If trolling for silvers and the bait had a very slow roll, speed up.
Sometimes the fish are there. Sometimes they’re not. Sometimes there’s a feeding frenzy by the boat and they hit your bait as soon as you drop it in the water and you don’t even have a chance to put the rod in the holder. Other times you go home with a clean boat as you got skunked.
Don’t over think the problem.
JimP