This thread was created to aid "Potatoe" in finding a better setup to achieve his goals for long line trolling crank baits. It is not a hard and fast rule but a setup that might aid him and others and avoid the dreaded tangles.
A picture is worth a thousand words!
Where have we heard this before? When we are knowledgeable about a particular product, the setup of a function, or a particular idea, we can usually perform it in our sleep. Unfortunately, it might be difficult to provide a good explanation to others regarding our knowledge. Providing a picture with our explanations can often times allow the reader to better absorb the information through a point of reference.
Recently, a question was posed regarding boat setup when referring to trolling. Many of us from the North take for granted the fact that we have been trolling most of our lives. From northern pike to walleye, salmon to steelhead, many of us have gone through a half dozen or more boat setups in order to find an effective trolling setup. Although trolling has been around as long as boats have been floating, regional fishing often dictates how people setup and use their boats. Just like spider rigging being foreign to the guys from the North, trolling planer boards and flat line trolling can be equally confusing to our brothers in the South.
I’ve written in length before how spider rigging in Michigan can be especially hard do in large part to our crystal clear waters. For that reason, many of us trolling for crappies have adopted methods that we typically use for other fish. My reference to “Southern boats” and “Northern boats” have zero to do with one location being better than the other. Many tactics that we utilize in fishing can be regional. For that reason, I specify Northern and Southern as “regions”.
When I see boat setups from the Southern region, I typically see a more traditional spider rig setup. Whether we are talking about pushing or pulling, the setups are largely the same. The rods holders are setup in a straight line. Although they can be angled slightly and pitched up or down, they traditionally follow the same plane. There is nothing wrong with this setup regarding the pushing or pulling of jigs and even crankbaits for that matter. Unfortunately, when we get in to the subject of long line trolling, there might be a better way.
Although I love trolling planer boards and will have a write up regarding the setup and usage of such in the coming weeks, today I will discuss how I would setup my boat for long line trolling crankbaits. I will go in to detail as to “why” I would use this setup, the benefit of the setup, and how to avoid tangles. There is nothing new with this setup. Long before the popularity of planer boards, many of us from the Northern region have grown up doing something very similar. Without seeing a setup like this, many of our Southern counterparts would be left in the dark on this particular setup for long line trolling!
We utilize this setup in rivers, lakes and streams where we are not trying to cover a wide swatch. We are usually targeting a specific depth zone or river channel, and we are trying to get our baits in the water as fast as possible. When tournament fishing, time is critical. We need to put our baits in the strike zone and keep them there. This also includes catching fish. When a fish is on, we have one less rod in the water. We want to get the fish to the boat and the rod back in the water as fast as possible. Adding other equipment to the mix (like planer boards) can sometimes reduce our overall water time. Oftentimes we usually don’t have an area to ourselves. Throw ten boats in a very small area with all of them are running planer boards and you quickly have a mess! I saw this last year in a tournament and we quickly switched over to the below method to target our fish.
Attachment 288675
Please keep in mind that I am by no means an illustrator. I drew this to be able to better explain the idea.
Notice that NONE of our rods holders in this example are located "inline" across the back of the boat. Keeping the rear of the boat clear of lines and rods is key. We need an area to fight and net fish. An area that we will not tangle other lines. My boat setup allows for the placement of rod holders based on a rail style system. I can move them in any location. This setup can still be accomplished however with clamp on style holders or the installation of a flat rail track system (Like Bert’s tracks or Traxstech tracks).
For this example, we are fishing overtop of 25 feet of water and the fish are suspended in the 8 to 16 foot range.
The first rods point directly out of the back of the boat. It does NOT need to be mounted in the fashion depicted in the photo. It could be mounted in line with the rest of the holders but facing directly out the back. We prefer to use shorter rods in the 6’6” to 7’ range. We want these baits to dive quickly with the least amount of line in the water. By having a low amount of line out and a steep dive angle, we can ensure our baits and our line will not tangle with other baits or lines. To accomplish our required depth we will utilize a #1 Off Shore Tadpole and a simple floating jig with a Charlie Brewer slider. Our tadpole will enter the water and the line setback will be 21 feet. This will put our offering at 16 foot down. Take note of the setback as this is important.
Our second rod is on the rail and the holder is set at an angle between zero (the rod out the back of the boat) and 90 degrees (our next rod). This rod can be the same length as your rear rod as the angle of the holder will keep the bait away from it. On this rod we will run a Bandit 400 with a setback of 40 feet. This will allow our bait to dive to 13 feet. Notice that this setback is LONGER than the first rod’s setback!
Our third rod in this example is set 90 degrees to the rail. We prefer to run a much longer rod here as it will help further spread out the baits in the water. On this rod we will run a size 5 Berkley Flicker Shad. We will run back 75 feet of line in order to hit a target depth of 8 feet.
This setup will allow us to spread out our rods to avoid tangles, hook fish on any rod without needing to clear another rod out of the way, and allow us to reset any rod out the back of the boat without worrying about cross tangles when setting in the holder. The key to all of this is how we staggered our setbacks. We utilized different bait styles and sizes to achieve a different depth. This can be duplicated on the other side of the boat or a completely different setup can be ran.
Baits can be 100% identical however you need to pay close attention to your setbacks. The longer setbacks will always go to the outside in this example. IF you transpose the two outside rods, you can quickly see that the shorter (and deeper) outside rod would tangle with the longer and shallower inside rod upon retrieval.
There is zero different between this setup and the setup we run for planer boards. We look at depth of dive, dive angle, and setback when determining our spread. When running the exact same baits with identical setbacks, we can very our board lengths from the boat to determine a better spread that will help clear lines and avoid tangles.
With this diagramed setup, you can angle your rods as close as you want to the water in order to ensure your proper setback is achieved with little to no guesswork. Remember, your setback and dive curve are determined based on the amount of line played out from wear it enters the water and not from the tip of the rod.
