Offshore side planer board tips and tricks?

[clemmy]

Hello,

I'm going to be coming up to the Grand Rapids area the end of September from Florida (Igrew up in Bloomington). Seeing that I was going to be there in the fall, I just bought a couple offshore boards with the tattle flags for trolling at night for eyes. I was planning on using 14lbs fireline connected to a swivel with a flourocarbon leader, trolling #13 and 18 floating rapalas, or large husky jerk depending on how shallow I'm running the boards up on shore. The lake I'm fishing has a good cisco population if that matters this early.

I've never used boards before, and am kind of out of touch with fishing for eyes, so I was hoping to find out if I'm not in the right ballpark, or if theres rigging tricks to the boards..

Thanks!

Craig

[LoonASea]

Seeing Your boards at night will be your biggest obsticle even with the the tattle flags ,,,some tip up LED lights might help but I cant say who would carry them at this time of year ,,,you have the baits and line right so good luck

Randoid

[PerchJerker]

I run boards a lot during the year but I don't run them at night. I troll a lot in 4-8 fow at night in the fall but never use boards to do it.

If you're using fireline, especially that small of diameter, you'll probably need to do a double-wrap in the clips to get the boards to stay on the line, especially if there's any wave action. I mostly run mono on my boards because the boards hold it much better.

If I'm not using boards then I always use a line like Fireline, Power Pro, or Super Braid. I usually run heavier line to get larger diameter (equivalent to 8 or 10 lb mono) to get the baits farther away from the boat.

Also, there has been a lot of discussion on whether or not a flourocarbon leader is needed, and a lot of guys are split on it. Personally, I troll cranks a lot and do not use flouro leaders. I don't think there's any downside to them, I just don't think they're needed.

Given where and when you're fishing you should do good with the baits you're talking about. If the water's above 45 or 50 degrees you might want to try shallow shadraps too but I would bet it will be cooler than that when you're there. Smithwick Rogues are another EXCELLENT stick bait for in the fall.

Good luck, welcome back, hope you have a great time and stick some fish.

[Team Otter]

Cancel the boards at night and long-line behind the boat. Hold onto your rod, make subtle pumps with it, and hang on!

[Northlander]

Boards at night can be real tuff to do. Especially if your hugging a weedline or shoreline. Like Team Otter says just long line. You can only use 1 rod a piece anyways. I love the 2# diameter 10# test power pro for trolling. Baits get down quick and you feel everything incuding weeds fouling up your bait or the ever pesky little perch.

[clemmy]

Thanks Guys!

My question then is this... two years ago I tried the longline method, and hooked a couple decent eyes..The problem was when trolling I'd go from 18 foot to 4 foot to 20 ft to 2 ft in about 100 ft...I figure good structure, especially as ot marked on my map...but with 150' of line out, as I followed the curve who knows what my bait was doing by the time it actually reached these underwater contours....

Also, as the fish may be holding in 4-7 foot of water at this time of year, and you might have 3-4 of dying coontail/cabbage, and my trolling guide says even a #13 original floating rap runs

(according to the book) at 6', 7-8' with fireline, it seems like I'd spend my time clearing salad rather than fishing...

My hope was if they are shallow, I could run up on them with boards and only 25' or so line so to come accross the tops of most of the vegetation...

Like I said, I'm tryin to figure it out from down here in Florida for late Sept., so I've a steep learning curve, and all your help is much appreciated!

Thanks!

Craig

[Team Otter]

50 - 70' back should be suffice and if you're ticking vegetation just raise your rod tip a bit while you follow the structure.

[IrishZit]

If you want to keep you line on without double wrapping you can upgrade the clips to the new racheting type from Off Shore.

Also, you can put reflective tape on your flags and keep scanning with your headlamp.

[clemmy]

Thanks for all the help guys!

If I might impose 2 more questions:

1)When I trolled this lake a few years ago I did it without boards, and my problem was there was so many depth changes, none of which appeared on the lake finder topo. I mean literally 26', go fifteen feet and it would get to 3', so I'd hit a hard right and go 20' about 120 degrees till I got to 15', five more feet and it was 35' so hard left back to shore, then 30' later another ridge to 5'....on and on...

How would you troll this? I'd try to troll say 15 FOW, and could do this, but my lure 75-125' back would be who knows how many FOW, from 3 and hung up (lost a few lures) to over 35'....

I did managed some decent (3-4#) eyes, but never had an idea at what depth of water...

2) Am I correct in assuming that the big Pike will probally be in roughly the same location as the big Eyes? I figure they would both be chasing the avail. forage, in this case ciscoe..

Thanks Again!

Clemmy

Dover, Florida

formerly of Bloomington, MN

[Jim Hudson]

Clemmy

It's hard for anyone to troll up and down contours with boards, as you have already seen by long lining behind the boat. The best advice I can give is to mark these steep breaks and points in the contours on your GPS prior to trolling. This will allow you to know when you will be coming to these lure "hang" up spots and turn the boat correctly as you come to them, allowing your lures to miss the hang up points.

For precision contour trolling, it is almost best to go with leadcore to get down to your preferred depth. This will allow you to keep your lines close to the boat with a short amount of line, but down deeper in the fish zone. You can then manage your boat better through the depth changes along this break. But this method usually works best when fishing fairly deeper water, 15FOW or more.

[clemmy]

Thanks Again!