Fishin' Talk - Stern Planers
If you don't use stern planers, you are missing out! They are a great way to mix up your spread. They can add a little more spice and fun into your trolling game as you watch the rod tip vs a board going back. When you get a fish, you will see the rod bend over and pump. When you are bringing the fish in, it's you and the fish. No added resistance from a planer board. We run 1 or 2 stern planers at a time. We run them out of our Command Center or in the top tubes of our Rod Trees. Just depends on the day, how many people are on the boat, etc. You have to find your sweet spot behind your boat. Ours is 250' back behind the boat. Once the spooked fish reassemble after spooking them off to the sides of the boat, the stern planers bust right back through the school. There are many days where our stern planer rods are the most productive. Using them is similar to regular long line trolling, it just gets the lures away from the boat noise. They can also be helpful when trolling tight contours, weed lines, etc. As you turn your boat to follow the sharp changes, the stern planers react quicker than regular inline planer boards. The last few summers on Lake Erie when the catching was ridiculously good, we ran stern planers off the jigging rods and put the trolling rods away. We would simply cast our cranks out and took our best guess at the amount of line we had out. Clipped on the stern planers and ran a few at a time. It was all we could do to keep up with them. Reeling the walleye in on light spinning tackle was an absolute blast, so this is also another added benefit if you are looking for another way to pull some lines. You can use the stern planer as they come in the stock form, or customize to your liking by adding/removing the clips to make it work best for you. The stock black church clip they come with does have a pin in the pad to keep it from falling off the line. We wrap the clip one time to help reduce line slip. The back attachment point just slips over your line to keep it in line with the boat/ direction of pull. Easy on/easy off.
