Anyone here use the Off Shore Tackle Side Planers?

I learned about this the other day and am thinking about getting one or two of these for trolling cranks. But they are not cheap. And there are many options to choose from.

Anyone in these forums have any experience with these things and have any comments for the group here?

I learned about these side planers in the Precision Trolling Book 8th edition.

I saw that Cabelas has them but they are out of stock right now and would have to be backorded.

Bass Pro Shop has them too and they are instock and can be shipped in about ten business days. But they want 43 bucks for one of these and I don't think it's got the flag system on it that tells you when you got a bite or a snag. They have a red flab but it's not the type of warning flag that I think I want.

I could order them from the Off Shore Tackle Web site but they cost almost 95 bucks for the setup that I want. I want the tattle flag upgrade kit on mine. And I want the one that runs to the right or starboard side of the boat for now.

I hate to have to pay almost 200 bucks to get two side planers. But that's what they will cost if I get them from Off Shore Tackle Direct. I was wanting to get the newer adjustable quick release that works the fireline fishing line. The regular quick release work with mono line from 10 lb test to 25 lb test or something like that.

They have several different types of quick line releases to chose from.

Most of these are used by Walleye fishermen up north. I figure I could use them to fish for Walleye or crappie at Patoka Lake.

[QUOTE=Moveon;475458]I learned about this the other day and am thinking about getting one or two of these for trolling cranks. But they are not cheap. And there are many options to choose from.

Anyone in these forums have any experience with these things and have any comments for the group here?

I learned about these side planers in the Precision Trolling Book 8th edition.

I saw that Cabelas has them but they are out of stock right now and would have to be backorded.

Bass Pro Shop has them too and they are instock and can be shipped in about ten business days. But they want 43 bucks for one of these and I don't think it's got the flag system on it that tells you when you got a bite or a snag. They have a red flab but it's not the type of warning flag that I think I want.

I could order them from the Off Shore Tackle Web site but they cost almost 95 bucks for the setup that I want. I want the tattle flag upgrade kit on mine. And I want the one that runs to the right or starboard side of the boat for now.

I hate to have to pay almost 200 bucks to get two side planers. But that's what they will cost if I get them from Off Shore Tackle Direct. I was wanting to get the newer adjustable quick release that works the fireline fishing line. The regular quick release work with mono line from 10 lb test to 25 lb test or something like that.

They have several different types of quick line releases to chose from.

Most of these are used by Walleye fishermen up north. I figure I could use them to fish for Walleye or crappie at Patoka Lake.[/QUOTE]


I use and my neighbor uses also the Church planers have used the off shore planers also worked well. Have used both on erie and Brookville without a problem most of the time I make a loop around the clip so board won't slide down Cabela's are having a pretty good sale on them right now

[QUOTE=lovetofish;475465]I use and my neighbor uses also the Church planers have used the off shore planers also worked well. Have used both on erie and Brookville without a problem most of the time I make a loop around the clip so board won't slide down Cabela's are having a pretty good sale on them right now[/QUOTE]


Thanks for the feedback. I went to Gander this afternoon and found one of the port side planer boards they have on sale for about 34 bucks. It's go tthe flag bit not the tattle tale flag setup which is what I want to get. And it's the older type line clips which I don't really want.

Brookdale has walleye there so that would be a good place to troll. Trolling covers so much water faster especially if you set out three rods. And if you have two people in the boat you can set up 6 rods with side planer boards and cover a lot of water.

I looked at the fireline fishing line and man that stuff is expensive. $17 for 10 test regular fireline. And they wanted over $30 for the Fireline crystal. That stuff sure is thin. I didn't buy any tonight.

I also looked at the Diawia Accudepth reels which sell for 69 bucks. They are not cheap. But the only reels that I could find there with the line counters were the Diawia's in the display case.

I wish that spring was here already.

I striper fish on cumberland quite a bit. The Offshore planers are hands down the best to use. Look on amazon and even ebay. I found my from a store in Wisconsin and paid like 12.50 each. They were going out of business. There are time we run 4 on each side. They always run true. I have never used the flags though.

As for reels i have 16 Diawa Accudepths. Fantastic reels. I started with a couple of brands like Okuma but sold them all and went to the accudepth. I like the 47's have a couple 27's but prefer the 47.

For line I use 40 lb mono and attach a barrel swivel with about a 10' leader of flourocarbon. Never lost a board. I have yet to run boards on Brookville but was thinking about it. I ran boards on Dale this year for the first time. We had a small group of guys that want to try to catch a few smallies but werent much of a fisherman "group". Had a ball.

Its a great way to fish if you have kids also. You can catch some very large fish and not have to worry about tangles and 400 tiny bluegill. My boys love to striper fish with the "mailboxes".

Any questions feel free to ask

Bill
[EMAIL="[email protected]"][email protected][/EMAIL]
812-212-0866

Thank you bill. That's just the type of information I was looking for. Great discussion here.

I am happy to hear good news about the Diawa reels. Thanks for that feedback.

[QUOTE=bill28wagner;475496]I striper fish on cumberland quite a bit. The Offshore planers are hands down the best to use. Look on amazon and even ebay. I found my from a store in Wisconsin and paid like 12.50 each. They were going out of business. There are time we run 4 on each side. They always run true. I have never used the flags though.

As for reels i have 16 Diawa Accudepths. Fantastic reels. I started with a couple of brands like Okuma but sold them all and went to the accudepth. I like the 47's have a couple 27's but prefer the 47.

For line I use 40 lb mono and attach a barrel swivel with about a 10' leader of flourocarbon. Never lost a board. I have yet to run boards on Brookville but was thinking about it. I ran boards on Dale this year for the first time. We had a small group of guys that want to try to catch a few smallies but werent much of a fisherman "group". Had a ball.

Its a great way to fish if you have kids also. You can catch some very large fish and not have to worry about tangles and 400 tiny bluegill. My boys love to striper fish with the "mailboxes".

Any questions feel free to ask

Bill
[EMAIL="[email protected]"][email protected][/EMAIL]
812-212-0866[/QUOTE]

I checked the cabelas web site right before pointing about this and they were out of stock on some of the Off Shore Tackle planer boards. I'd have to wait for them on back order. But that may be ok if I can save money. I priced one setup at the Off Shore Tackle Web site and it would cost me about 90 to 100 dollars for just one of these with the tattle tale flag setup and the OR 19 or OR 18 clip. The one that's used for braided line and that snaps into place and can be adjusted. That's the one thats needed for the Fireline type of fishing line that's really slippery and extra thin in dimeter.

The regular line clips are made for using mono fishing line which is larger in diamter and not as slippery as the new braids and fused polymer lines.

I've been reading about these the last few days just to pass the time until spring gets here.

[QUOTE=lovetofish;475465]I use and my neighbor uses also the Church planers have used the off shore planers also worked well. Have used both on erie and Brookville without a problem most of the time I make a loop around the clip so board won't slide down Cabela's are having a pretty good sale on them right now[/QUOTE]

[URL]http://www.fishing411.net/index.html[/URL]


WEll I broke down and bought a new line counting reel. I'm going to check it out soon. I bought the book on Precision trolling and it's graphs are calibrated with 10 lb mono or 10/4 fireline fishing lines.

But when I went to Gander and bought my Fireline 10/4 I forgot to check and see how much line was on the spool. I only got 125 yard and I need about 300 yard to fill the spool on the new reel.

The directions or manual on the new reel says that you must fill the reel up full or the line out readings won't be as accurate as they should. So now I need to order some 300 yard of Fireline 10/4 line. I guess they are using the regular Fireline. I'm hoping that's what they used in their books graphs. I'll have to give them a call and verify that or email them.

I purchased the Second Volume but I found out it's for deep water like the Big Lakes. The graphs for Vol 2 of Precision Trolling Big Water is geared for using lead weights, copper line, lead core lines and other add ons to the regular fishing line. Things I don't have or have never seen at Gander Mountain Store. So I'm learning new stuff every day about fishing.

Gander had some of the planer boards on sale last fall but it was the wrong side. I want one for the starboard side but they only had one left and it was for the Port side.

One thing I've learned about trolling from using my Humminbird 898c SI unit is that the motor makes a lot of bubbles in the water column where my boat goes. I learned this by making repeated passes over the same area and after the first pass I saw lots of turbulence (air bubbles) in the water column that were hanging around from my motor's cavitation. I was trying to map the lake and was making parallel passes and using the recording function on the 898.

So that tells me that why I may not catch fish right behind the boat. So maybe those side planer board get the baits out into the UNDISTURBED water where the fish are not scared by the motor's wake and turbulence. I'd move out of the way if I were diving and a boat came my way. I guess perhap the fish do that too. Unless they are very deep. But if they are in the top ten ft of the water column I think that they boat and motor may spook them just a little bit. Enough to make them not bite the baits coming behind my boat. So I think I'm going to give the side planer boads a try this summer.

Talked to one man who fishes for crappie all the time. He's an avid outdoorsman and a Conservation Officer to boot. He said that he was catching some by trolling down to 18 ft. Not sure how he controls his depth unless he's tight lining and measing out the line and going very slowly to keep his line straight down instead of angled back.

I did learn that thinner lines will get the baits down deeper. Which is why the new braids are good. They are stronger and have thinner lines with less stretch than Mono. Funny thing is that back in the late 1950's I fished with braid line all the time. That was long before the came out with mono lines. We caught a lot of big bass back in the late 1950s at KY lake using Braid type lines. Back then they didn't have the heavy duty rod guides of today and you could wear a groove in the reel's line guide quickly with that braided line. Dirt and dust gets embedded in the fishing line and that's like a sand paper on the old metal line guides.

I've still got some old rods that show that wear and tear on their line guides. One of them is an old Steel rod about 5 ft long. That was my father's first rod he got as a kid back in the 1940's or perhaps it was the 1930's.

I saw a rod just like it for sale at the Swap Meet in the Old Washington Square Mall in Evansville, IN.

They turned that old Store into a swap meet type store. Everyone rents space in the store and sells their old stuff. I'ts actually pretty cool. You can find a lot of good things in there really cheap.

I've been using the church planners for a few years. A litte less than off shore. The big difference is churchs walleye boards are super easy to put on and take off right out f the package. The churchs allow you to move the ballast weight toward and back which is nice for different bait configurations. off sure good to. I know what you are saying about cost. Took me years to upgrade from yellow birds which were a sin.