Using Trolling Angles V1

This is documentation describing how to use the Trolling Angles app.

Expand and collapse sections by selecting the section headers.

[expand title=”Getting Started” tag=”h3″]

First, prepare the fishing rod, reel, line, and other terminal tackle exactly as it will be used to actually fish. A trolling reel with a line counter is preferred, but is not required.

Before using the app for trolling, a “calibration” for your trolling rig must be established. A calibration is a set of line lengths and angles that describe the geometry of the line profile of a particular rig as it is trolled at a particular speed. Select the Calibrate option from the main page to begin.

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[expand title=”Calibration Phase” tag=”h3″]

To add a new Calibration, select the floating Add Calibration button.

To change existing calibration data, press the name or lure image of the calibration, or select the Edit button.

[expandsub1 title=”Enter Calibration Data” tag=”h5″]

In the Calibration page, enter a unique name for this configuration of the fishing rig, and optionally enter descriptive information such as the lure, bait, line type, weight, and notes.  The name and descriptive information are not used in calibration or analysis except to identify and document the rig, and to search.

Set the boat running in a straight line at the desired trolling speed over water that is deeper than the depths at which you intend to troll.

Reset the line counter of the reel so that it reads zero when the terminal tackle is at the rod tip.  Place and adjust the fishing rod and attached reel in a rod holder.  Release a length of line from the reel so that the terminal tackle is submerged somewhat below the surface and is running true.

Enter the height above the water surface of the rod tip into the rod tip height field.

[expandsub2 title=”Speed Measurement” tag=”h5″]

The boat speed is recorded and shown as a convenience so that a consistent speed may be achieved throughout calibration and trolling, but is not used by the app to calculate depth.

Turn on the GPS switch to use the device’s GPS sensors to determine the boat speed. The current boat speed will be shown on a button. It may take a few seconds for the GPS speed to settle. Long-press the button to set the boat speed field to the GPS reading.

Alternatively, read the boat speed from the boat’s marine electronics, the boat’s speedometer, or other means, and manually fill the boat speed field of the user interface for calibration.

NOTE: For a sinking lure, the calibration data is valid only when the boat is trolling at the same speed that the measurements are taken. Be sure to maintain the same boat speed for all measurements of the calibration, and be careful not to change the boat speed field inadvertently. Trolling Angles does not adjust for differing trolling speeds.

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[expandsub1 title=”Measure Line Angles” tag=”h5″]

Release or recover the line with the reel to prepare for a measurement.  One measurement should be taken with the terminal tackle only slightly below the surface, but deep enough so that it is running true and undisturbed by the water surface.  Other measurements should be taken with reasonably spaced different line lengths, perhaps 10 or 20 feet apart.

Press the Add Measurement floating action button , to invoke the user interface for measuring line length and angle.

[expandsub2 title=”Measure Line Length” tag=”h5″]

Enter the current line length shown by the line counter of the reel into the line length field.  The analysis module software accounts for the unsubmerged portion of the line above water, so you always enter and see the line length as displayed by the line counter.

[expandsub3 title=”Determine Line Length without Reel’s Line Counter”]

Alternatively, you may determine the line length by another technique, such as counting reel handle revolutions, counting level-winder traversals, counting manual line pulls, counting line color changes, observing a pre-marked line, or others, then enter the line length into the line length field.

You may also use a commercially available line counter that is not incorporated with the reel.

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[expandsub2 title=”Measure Line Angle” tag=”h5″]

Measure the angle of the line with respect to horizontal with the smartphone embedded sensors.  This is a convenient and automatic way to measure and record the angle with no additional equipment or manual data entry.

The figure above shows how this is performed by holding the smartphone (not over the water!) parallel to the line and the boat’s travel motion.  Visually align the edge of the device to the portion of the fishing line evident above the surface of the water.

Note that you do not need to place the smartphone directly on the line to measure its angle. The rod can be deployed in a normal fishing position, and you can hold the smartphone inside the boat, as long as you hold the smartphone parallel to the line.

Enter the actual rod tip height when the measurements are taken. You can use a different rod tip height while fishing.

The app uses the smartphone sensors to obtain the angle of the device with respect to horizontal, and updates the line angle field.  When the device is parallel to the direction of the boat’s travel motion and is visually aligned to the fishing line, the angle of the device is the same as the angle of the line. While the device and the line are aligned, press the Done button to accept the displayed line length and line angle, or the All Done button to accept and return to the Edit Calibration page.

Trolling Angles also supports an external device, the Trolling Angles Autocline, to measure line angles.

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[expandsub2 title=”Save and Repeat” tag=”h5″]

The calibration data pairs, consisting of the line length and angle, are added to the calibration data. The depth of the lure at all line line length measurements is also calculated and displayed, using the new measurements along with all the existing measurements.

Release or recover additional length of line with the reel, and repeat measuring and recording the line length and line angle multiple times until a reasonable maximum desired length of line has been measured, and a reasonable number of data pairs have been recorded.

When you are done, press the Save button to save the new Calibration and return to the list of Calibrations.

You may select the Graph button to display a graph of the calibration, or the Troll button to go to the Trolling activity with this calibration. The calibration will be automatically saved before leaving the Calibration Edit page.

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[expandsub1 title=”Storing Calibration Data” tag=”h5″]

Press the Save button , the Up button, or the Back button to save the calibration and return to the updated Calibrations list. The calibration data, comprising the multiple length and angle pairs, the angler-defined name, the boat speed, and the description of the rig is stored in persistent storage so that it can later be retrieved and reused in another subsequent trolling session without the need to recalibrate.

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[expandsub1 title=”Adjusting Measurements” tag=”h5″]

The calibration data may be edited to add more length-angle pair measurements, or to delete inaccurate measurements. To edit existing calibration data, press the desired calibration’s name, lure image or its Edit button in the Calibrations page. This will display the Calibration Data page.

Use the Add Measurement Button to add a measurement.

Use the Delete button to delete a measurement.

To inactivate a measurement without deleting it, un-check the Active checkbox .

When done, press the Save button, which will add the updated calibration to the Calibration Manager.

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[expand title=”Analysis Phase” tag=”h3″]

An analysis phase occurs automatically as each measurement is added or removed, and before every trolling phase and before showing a graph. The calibration data is used by the analysis module to compute a curve data set, which is an approximation to the actual fishing line’s profile curve.

Invalid Data

If any of the line length and angle pairs of the calibration data are invalid or inconsistent, such that the analysis does not complete correctly, the analysis module will display an error message. You cannot graph or troll with this data.  You may inactivate any length-angle measurement, or edit the calibration data by deleting invalid measurements or adding new measurements, and the analysis phase may be re-executed.

Flawed Data

In the Calibration page, the calibration is checked for reasonable consistency flaws, which are shown as red notations in the list of measurements. These flaws do not necessarily prevent analysis and use, but probably indicate that one or more measurements are not completely accurate. They are noted to help you correct obvious errors.

Angles Decrease

In a consistent set of measurements, as line length increases, the line angle becomes shallower. That is, angles decrease. For example, the angle at length 50 is always less than the angle at length 40. (The first derivative of the line curve decreases monotonically) If comparison of two adjacent measurements shows that the angle increases, a flaw is noted.

Curvature Decreases

As line length increases, the line becomes straighter, or curvature decreases. That is, angles will decrease at a lesser rate. For example, (if length intervals are equal), the difference of the angles at length 50 and 60 will be less than the difference of the angles at length 40 and 50. (The magnitude of the second derivative of the line curve decreases monotonically). If comparisons of 3 adjacent measurements show that curvature increases, a flaw is noted. This flaw will usually not change the final depth analysis much.

Submerged Line Increases

If the rod tip is held above the surface, as more and more line is released, angles approach but never reach zero. As the line becomes very horizontal, more line length results in very little but at least some more submerged line or depth. If comparison of two adjacent measurements shows that submerged line decreases, a flaw is noted. This condition usually occurs when the angle is too small and/or the length interval is too large compared to the previous measurement.

Note that submerged length is determined by subtracting unsubmerged length from total length, and unsubmerged length is determined with simple trigonometry on the angle and the rod tip height. The curve of the submerged line is not involved.

Don’t Sweat it

Arguably, the Trolling Angles method is at least as accurate as other methods in common use to determine trolling depth.

It’s not really possible to measure fishing line angles absolutely precisely or accurately in real life. The angles become especially harder to measure accurately and to differentiate as they become shallower, especially under 5 or 10 degrees. You may find yourself re-measuring and making some judgement calls about which measurements to keep. It’s not necessary or practical to be absolutely perfect, but it is easy to get close enough for good results. And most fish will probably not notice the difference.

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[expand title=”Trolling Phase” tag=”h3″]

In the Trolling page, select one of the saved calibrations from the drop down menu. Enter the current rod tip height to be used while trolling. This may be different than the height used while calibrating, and the app will adjust.

The Boat Speed field is taken from the Calibration, and is the speed which should be maintained while trolling this rig.

If the GPS switch is turned on, the app will display the actual boat speed, and will show a warning if the current boat speed differs from the calibration’s speed. You may change a setting to determine what percentage speed difference to allow before warning.

Specify the desired depth at which you wish to troll the terminal tackle, by moving the slider widget.

As you change the desired depth, the corresponding total line length value required to reach the desired depth is displayed. The app automatically includes the length of the unsubmerged line, which depends upon the rod height.

Release or recover line so that the line length value is displayed by the line counter of the reel and continue to troll.

The Line Angle, Unsubmerged Line and Submerged Line lengths are also shown as predicted by the app for this configuration at the total line length.

At any time, without additional calibration, you may slide to a new trolling depth, obtain the corresponding total line length, and adjust the fishing line accordingly.

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[expand title=”Graphing” tag=”h3″]

[expandsub1 title=”Graph a Calibration” tag=”h5″]

You may view a graph of the curve data by selecting the Graph icon .

The graph is shown with the terminal tackle (lure or bait) at coordinate (0,0). The vertical (y) coordinate represents the depth and the horizontal (x) coordinate represents the submerged line deployed to reach that depth. Unsubmerged line is not represented in the graph, so the horizontal axis numbers do not correspond to the numbers in the Calibration Edit or the Trolling page, both of which include unsubmerged line.

Several separate lines may be shown on the graph, depending on the user’s preferences.

• Points may be displayed, which represent the points at the water’s surface at which measurements were taken.
• A Line Profile graph shows depth versus horizontal distance. This represents a virtual view of the submerged line as seen from the side, and is the best option to understand the shape of the line curve.
• A Line Length graph shows depth versus submerged line length. measured along the line curve. This directly represents the data that is shown in the trolling page after adjusting for unsubmerged line.
• The Straight Line option shows three separate interesting if useless lines, which represent the simplest approximations that can be generated assuming that the calibration’s measurements are accurate. One line assumes that all line between two measurements has the angle of the top measurement. Another assumes that all line between two measurements has the angle of the bottom measurement. Neither is close to being right, of course, but they place upper and lower bounds on what we could expect from any formula at all based on these measurements. The middle line assumes that half the line has the angle of the upper measurement and half has the angle of the lower measurement. This might be closer to reality, but is not a smooth line curve.

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[expandsub1 title=”Graph Multiple Calibrations” tag=”h5″]

In the Calibrations list, you may select calibrations by long-pressing their graph icons . The selected icons will be highlighted. Then, use the Graph Multiple icon in the top toolbar to show the Profile lines of all selected calibrations in the same graph display. This is a great way to compare different lures, or the same lure with different speeds or weights.

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[expand title=”Lure Photos” tag=”h3″]

You may photograph your lure and Trolling Angles will show the photo in several places to make it easier to identify your calibration. A small version of the image is presented on the Trolling page, on each line of the Calibrations page, and on the Edit page. If you have not added an image for the calibration, then an icon is shown in its place.

On the Edit page, press the lure’s image or icon to go to the Lure Image page. Here, you can take a photo of your lure/rig, or select any other image available on your smartphone or other accessible cloud location, or clear the image. A large image of the photo is shown on the Lure Image page.

All images are stored in the location of your choice, and are accessible from outside the Trolling Angles app. You may use any external image editing software to crop or adjust the image. Trolling Angles will show the center 16:9 portion of the image.

To take a photo, select the camera icon . To select the location and name of the image Trolling Angles will turn control over to a “File Picker” and “Document Provider” which supports the “Storage Access Framework”. This is separate app on your phone, which will differ depending on your smartphone vendor or apps you have installed. It is recommended that you navigate to or create a separate subdirectory, for example “Trolling Angles” on your phone. Trolling Angles suggests a file name based on the lure’s name and the current date and time, but you may change this.

When you have picked and created the empty image file, Trolling Angles turns control over to your smartphone camera. Place the lure and rig on a neutral background, and take the picture, preferably in landscape mode in 16:9 format and at a lower resolution to save space. Trolling Angles will record the location of the photo with your calibration.

Similarly, to use an existing photo, press the Image Library icon , to use the File Picker to select your image.

To clear an image, use the icon . This will ask you to confirm that you wish to clear the image from the calibration, and if the image is no longer used by Trolling Angles, will let you totally delete the image from your phone.

This process gives Trolling Angles permission to load these specific image files. If you uninstall Trolling Angles, these images are still on your phone. However, if you reinstall Trolling Angles, it loses these permissions, and you will need to re-select each image.

The software used my Trolling Angles will store temporary cached versions of the large and small image in the app’s memory and on the smartphone. So, if you edit a photo, save it with a slightly new name and then use Trolling Angles to re-select the new version. Otherwise you may continue to see the old version of your photo.

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[expand title=”Search / Filter” tag=”h3″]

The Calibrations list page provides the ability to narrow down the list of calibrations based on a simple text filter. Use the search icon , and enter any text. The app will show only those calibrations that have that text in some part of the calibration name, lure, line, weight, or notes. The speed field is handled a bit differently: Enter the whole desired speed and units exactly as shown in the description, like “2.0mph”. Trolling Angles does not support complex search expressions like ranges, and/or/not, etc.

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[expand title=”Editing Calibrations” tag=”h3″]

The Calibration Edit page allows you to change any of the descriptive information for the Calibration, to add or delete Measurements, and to add or change a Lure Photo.

[expandsub1 title=”Change the Calibration Name to Copy a Calibration” tag=”h5″]

If you change the name of a calibration, which is the unique identifier, Trolling Angles will create a new calibration with the same data as the original calibration. If you enter a name that conflicts with a different existing calibration, or enter a blank name, Trolling Angles will warn you and will not save the new calibration. Leading and trailing spaces are trimmed from the calibration name. If you change the name, Trolling Angles will present a checkbox to give you the choice to remove the old calibration, or to keep both the new and old calibration.

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[expandsub1 title=”Warnings for Changing Height or Speed” tag=”h5″]

In order to be accurate and valid, all Line/Angle measurements of a calibration must be taken with the same Rod Tip Height and Boat Speed. If you already have existing measurements and you start to change the Rod Tip Height or Boat Speed, Trolling Angles will warn you, and you can continue (OK) or Cancel.

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[expandsub1 title=”Using the GPS to show and update Boat Speed” tag=”h5″]

If you turn on the GPS switch in the Calibration Edit page, a button will be displayed which shows the current speed as determined by the smartphone’s GPS sensor. If you hold the button down (a long-press), the GPS Speed will be transferred to the Boat Speed field. Take care not to do this inadvertently.

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[expand title=”Backup, Restore, Merge” tag=”h3″]

With the Elite package, you can save a copy of your calibration data in a location outside of the Trolling Angles app. You can then use the saved copy to completely restore/replace your calibration data, or to merge it with your existing calibrations.

These operations are available from the overflow menu of the top toolbar of the Calibrations list page. Like the Lure Photo functions, they use a system Picker and Document Provider to allow you to select the location and file name of a new Backup file, or to an select existing file for Restore and Merge.

The Restore operation will completely erase your existing calibrations before loading the file, and the Merge operation will overwrite only those calibrations with the same names as those in the file.

You can send a backup file to a different user and they can load it into their own Trolling Angles app.

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[expand title=”Settings” tag=”h3″]

The Settings pagelets you change the way Trolling Angles behaves and appears according to your preferences. To open the Settings page, use the settings icon on the top toolbar of the main page.

The Theme Settings page lets you choose a Daylight, GrayScale, or Dark theme for all pages. The Dark theme may be preferable at night.

The Upgrade setting page lets you buy the Elite upgrade package from Google Play.

The Speed Options page lets you select to use mIles per hour (MPH) or kilometers per hour (KPH) for speed fields and GPS (Global Positioning System) readings. Trolling Angles does not convert your calibrations data between MPH and KPH, though it does convert GPS speed readings to your preferred setting.

The Graph Options setting page lets you select the types of data that is displayed on line curve graphs.

The UI Settings page lets you select from a set of fish silhouette icons to use to select the Trolling page and from a set of lure icons used as stand-in for unset Lure Images.

The Autocline Setup page lets you select to use the optional Autocline, and to configure it.

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[expand title=”Icon Overview” tag=”h3″]

Trolling Angles uses several icons as buttons and menu items to navigate to different pages, and to provide functionality. Most are industry-standard icons used in the normal way. Here are specific uses in the Trolling Angles app.

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