Planer Boards

[deer139]

Hey Guys,

This will be my first Spring fishing for Rock Fish and, I have a few questions that I hope you can help me with..In the Spring is it better to use planer boards or are you just as productive running your lines from the boat? Also are the fish usually closer to the surface in the Spring so that lighter baits may be needed or am I wrong about that?? I mostly have tandum rigs for trolling (4 to 8 oz.)..

Thanks for any and all help!!

[Sea King]

Spring is the best time for planer boards. I use tandems and singles of various weights and usually are not too far back from boat 40-60 ft. I always have a couple of 12" baits in the spread too!
Good luck!

[sweetale1]

Since I started using planer boards (I only use a port set I made) the ratio of board fish vs. boat fish is probably 10 to 1. If your boards pull well you can also run some umbrellas off of them.

[Thrillseeker]

I have a set of the orange cannons I bought from boatersworld use 75 ft. line out but they seem to come in to about 45 feet is it because there is only two boards (not three) ?
I hooked two together what a mess they flipped and ran over all the lines anyone got a answer

[satterly]

Boards are definately the way to go in the spring. The fish arent going to be schooled up so it is more of a troll around and hope to get one of your baits in front of the fish. The larger area covered by the boards increases the footprint of your spread from 10 feet to nearly 200 feet. I have heard people say that the majority of fish run high in the water column in the spring but the largest fish I have caught and probably the most have come off one of my deep rods on the boat with a heavy inline sinker. The planer board rods do catch fish but it seems like my deep rods have seemed more productive the last couple years. I like to have the planer boards be cause with increasing your area on the water will increase your odds of a hook up.

Thrillseeker : The canon planer boards are better suited for light baits in calm water conditions. Your best bet would be to build or purchase a set of 3 board planers made to run in the bay and rivers. The third board helps to increase the lateral pulling power, as well as making the boards to be used as a port or starboard boards, as opposed to the canons which can be used as either.

[bob reed]

You can see an excellent set of boards for small boats at the Chesapeake Boat Basin's open house , Waverly Ave, Kilmarnock on Friday April 30th and saturday May 1

[deer139]

Thanks for all your help!!!!!!!!!!

[capt. dave]

I'm not familiar with the Cannon boards, but if your boards tend to converge towards each other it could be that the point where your cable connects to the board is too far foreward on the board. If you can move that point further back toward the rear end of the board your pull will likely move the boards further apart. It might only take a few inches further back to correct the problem. I've made a number of board sets and put several holes in the inside board spaced a couple inches apart so the connection point can be changed as needed.

[52mayfair]

there is a very good set of planner board plans on google .. just ask google for planner board plans . requires minume skils and tools and you will have a good pulling set of boards.
Good luck

[jthardy]

RocksandBlues makes custom boards! Bmail him. He makes them cheap.

[cmoore47]

jthardy... the system is not allowing me to Bmail you but I would like the contact info for RocksandBlues.