Planer boards on KY Lake.

After our trip to TN to planer board fish with tenncrappie and sailfish1, I was anxious to get out and try what I learned on my home waters. MY boards are factory units so they act differently than Chris's do.

I saw what the weather is shaping up for the rest of the week so I took my Dad out this afternoon. We didn't find any concentration of crappie until 4 PM or so. The fish were in 4-8 feet of water and very scattered.

We ran into dvuks and the Mrs while trolling. Nice folks and they were catching some also.

It took a while to figure out my depth setting and what the fish wanted but when we did, the action was steady for a couple of hours. We ended up with 20 really good quality keepers (up to 1.5 pounds), mostly whites, with 3 keeper green carp thrown in.

I have pics but can't post them. Maybe one of my buddies can.

Here's Doug's pix from his planer board experiment ...

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...psfewtrled.jpg

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...psrvzpjojd.jpg

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...psikzndrtr.jpg

Rickie

Thanks Rickie. Wife did an upgrade on my I-phone and it won't let me do any of the old stuff I knew how to do.

Great job Doug. See you guys this weekend. Guess i'll be bringing my boards with me. :biggrin

Are you pulling jigs or crankbaits under the boards?

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Originally Posted by slabseeker1

Are you pulling jigs or crankbaits under the boards?

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Pulling hot grubs and baby shads on jigs. Using some double 1/16 and single 1/8.

Nice job Doug. Were the fish releasing the board ?

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Originally Posted by wilbur

Nice job Doug. Were the fish releasing the board ?

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I was just placing the line in the clip, not putting loops or multiple passes. The majority of the fish were not pulling the line out of the release. Since we were only running up to 8 or so feet behind the board, it wasn't an issue for the EGO net. I do have all my board rods set up with barrel swivels and beads so if the board does release, it won't get to the hook. At 1mph, we did lose some fish on the way to the net. Most were light hooked that came out in the net. Little different technique to set the hook and play the fish than when longlining. I did enjoy the looks from the folks who got in close to try to figure out what we were doing. I guess I should be used to that by now. I get folks right in my lap trying to figure out the Bandit set-up.

Rickie and I will be putting our heads together to make these factory boards perform like the custom boards the east TN guys are running. 1st thing is getting them to float.

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Originally Posted by chaunc

Great job Doug. See you guys this weekend. Guess i'll be bringing my boards with me. :biggrin

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Come on down Ol' Friend. Really looking forward to sharing the boat with you. I have every intention of picking your brain about the boards. I think I remember you asking a couple of questions on your 1st longline trip.

Rickie and I will be putting our heads together to make these factory boards perform like the custom boards the east TN guys are running. 1st thing is getting them to float.[/QUOTE]

I have 4 of them boards I bought a few years ago,never used much but when I did I caught fish. I will bring em with. What do you think about using my linecounter crankin poles? I cant see why it wouldn't work seeing your not casting the jig out.

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Originally Posted by wilbur

Rickie and I will be putting our heads together to make these factory boards perform like the custom boards the east TN guys are running. 1st thing is getting them to float.

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I have 4 of them boards I bought a few years ago,never used much but when I did I caught fish. I will bring em with. What do you think about using my linecounter crankin poles? I cant see why it wouldn't work seeing your not casting the jig out.[/QUOTE]

I have 2 of my board rods rigged with line counter reels. I'm not running Bandits right now and they are just sitting in the garage doing nothing. All the reel is used for in this type of fishing is to hold line and get it out and back in.

Here's one of many videos on using the boards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly0I0fCMlow

Doug you guys keep talking and Sailfish and I might show up on your door!!!

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Originally Posted by tenncrappie

Doug you guys keep talking and Sailfish and I might show up on your door!!!

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You and Tim are always welcome at my door or in my boat.

Will someone that knows about these factory boards please explain to me why they do not float...

This doesn't even make sense to me...

:dono

Rickie

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Originally Posted by rnvinc

Will someone that knows about these factory boards please explain to me why they do not float...

This doesn't even make sense to me...

:dono


Rickie

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I tried the hard plastic ones in a bucket of water last night. They will float flat on the surface with no tackle attached to them. Tinkering with something that might help.

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Originally Posted by rnvinc

Will someone that knows about these factory boards please explain to me why they do not float...

This doesn't even make sense to me...

:dono

Rickie

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What kind of board you talking about? they float. I lost quite a few on Lake Michigan and trolled back around to pick them up. They do lay down though which makes em hard to see.

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Originally Posted by wilbur

What kind of board you talking about? they float. I lost quite a few on Lake Michigan and trolled back around to pick them up.

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The other night after this trip, I was talking to rnvinc and he asked if I had any issues with the factory boards. Granted, I had never had these boards wet before I put them on my lines Tuesday. I told him with them rigged, they didn't float (sank pretty quick actually) and some of the time they started out tumbling underwater and twisting my lines. After having fished with tenncrappie's boards, I was hoping that the factory boards would float high and upright like the Crappie Sharks did. They do not.

I played with some ideas last night and may have come up with a solution to get them floating upright rather than flat on the surface. My concern is when they are rigged and I break it off trying to get it loose, are they going to float back up or is just the weight of the line and bait going to keep them down.I realize if the release clip still holds the line, the board is gone. In shallow water it shouldn't be an issue but deeper, it may be bye-bye board. I am using quite a bit heavier line from the reel to the swivel then a lighter leader to the bait. Since I fished for 6 hours Tuesday and lost one jig, I may be concerned over nothing. In that time frame longlining, I will normally lose a coffee cup full of jigs.

What did you do to stop them tumbling and diving under? Were they rigged wrong?

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Originally Posted by wilbur

What did you do to stop them tumbling and diving under? Were they rigged wrong?

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The Shark boards float upright. The plastic minis lay flat. When letting line out on the Sharks, we just opened the bail and let it go back as far as we wanted then closed the bail and let the board do its thing. The plastic boards must be let out under constant tension to keep them upright or they will nose under and dive/tumble. I may have solved that issue.

I have used these with good results. http://windsorsbobberplaner.com/

It was a pleasure meeting and talking mrducks. Still fishing the same area, caught 22 yesterday and 16 this morning. The wife caught most of them today, did pick up a few gills also. We're done for the day, look forward to seeing you again out on the water. The people at the resort were talking about the guy out there trolling with plainer boards.

Thanks dvuks. If you and the Mrs are still in the area over the next few days, you may see me down that way. Hope to have my buddy from PA in the boat with me real soon.

I have been using them for years used to use them for salmon and walleye and caught crappie on them trolling for walleye so we switched to small jigs and it worked great first time was early 80 s at KY LAKE

New May Infisherman magazine talks about the Northerns who won the fall 2013 Gernada Crappie Masters. I have the feeling more trollers will be out soon! Gives details on the boards, lines, rods and tackle.