It’s not that much work, and it’s worth it.

Of course, the easiest way to troll is to simply guess at your lure depth. And if you don’t know what depth you want to be trolling anyway, guessing works as well as anything.

Other techniques and apps and charts seem like less work than Trolling Angles, but they are based on particular defined lures, line types, weights, and terminal tackle. You are locked in to a few configurations, which probably don’t quite match your own rig. Trolling Angles is totally versatile and measures your exact rig.

First, with most other processes, you need to mentally estimate and account for the unsubmerged line yourself. Trolling Angles does this implicitly.

To create a quick Trolling Angles calibration on the fly can be very easy and fast. If you take only a few measurements, say only at lengths of 10 feet, 20, 50, and one for your final depth, you will obtain a fairly reliable chart. You can take those measurements as you are deploying your line for an actual trolling run.

Trolling Angles provides seriously important extra features, if you choose to learn them, such as current measurement and correction and speed variation, but you don’t need to use them.