Planer boards?

[mweber02]

I just stumbled upon some cool light tackle planer boards at www.prowlerplaners.com

Has anyone played around with planers on a yak?

For regular use with 2 rods it would help keep the lines from getting tangled when turning or REALLY tangled like this when fighting a fish.
050515 tangle.jpg
But then, running 2 rods with a wide spread would prevent keeping both lures in the sweet spot along a channel edge...

Running more than 2 rods when the bite is slow sounds nice in theory, but what happens when one gets bit? Sounds pretty tough for one person to manage without creating even more of a mess.

[Memory Maker]

It's the same problem in a boat ........ Would try inline planner boards or dipsey type planers

[Yak Fish]

Funny enough, I have tried them. The guy sent them to me to test. He was interested in getting into our market space, which is a good one to be in. He was a nice guy that devoted a lot of effort to this product and it is a neat concept. The problem is that they just don't really work for what we are doing. They'd never plane an umbrella. They couldn't plane an xrap or even a jig head with a trailer. They are small and light. Because they didn't work for me I told him that I was sorry, I can't recommend these to anyone.

If you are in a still pond and have a very light lure...I'm talking pan fish or perhaps small bass, and you went slowly, they'd work. That's a lot of caveats. There was a video of a guy walking a shoreline with them. That'd be good too. I think for a very special purpose they'd be neat to have. That purpose is just not trolling.

I've used planer boards before and they just inevitably end up being a pain. They don't plane out as far as you'd think, turning radius is impacted, and it takes a few extra moments to get them out. I've not found the silver bullet for kayak planer boards. Like I've mentioned a few times, if you are trolling more than 2 rods in search of big fish, you are looking for trouble! Now add planers to the mix and by the time the fish is done spinning you around, God bless you. For schoolies they are easy enough to catch because they school up, and you'll catch them in numbers. Getting planers out of the way would just be a nightmare.

I would say that planers would be nice if you were trolling a long, relatively straight path while trying to locate the first fish....or trying to find more hot spots. Once you've located them, you don't need the extra hassle.

That's just my thoughts on it, which is based on how I fish. You guys may do it differently so I'll just caveat my discussion with that :-)

[mweber02]

Thanks for the input Alan. That's kind of what I expected but having never used them myself I thought I'd leave open the possibility that I was wrong.

I definitely see now the problem with trying to turn while having a planer on the inside rod.