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Planer Boards for River Steel |
Small on-line planer boards offer river steelheaders a way to cover
more water, experiment with more different lures and put plugs right
into a colorful bullet’s snaggy winter living room.
“I use small planer boards a lot when I’m on the river after
steelhead,” affirms Michigan angler Bob Lausman, who chases them
from his 18-foot Starcraft customized with a “camper top” and
heater. “Even when I’m anchored and working spawn skein along the
bottom directly behind the boat, I’ll put a little Church TX-6
Planer boards with a plug on each side of the boat. Sometimes those
are the hottest rods, especially if the fish are moving upstream. If
they’re moving up and not in the path of the bait, those planer
boards increase the chances of fish contact.”
The same is true when trolling.
“It’s just like on the big lake when you’re forward trolling,” says
Lausman. “For forward trolling with high-action plugs on the river,
I move up to a TX-12 planer, but the TX-6 is terrific for drop-back
trolling. Boards not only let you experiment with different colors
and actions, it also gives those plugs a wider range of action and
speed when you make gradual ‘S’ turns with the boat. The plug on the
outside of the turn speeds up while the plug on the boat’s other
side stalls and floats up a bit. Both actions can trigger fish.”
“Planer boards also let you put plugs closer to logs and brushy
snags and keep them there, provoking any steelhead hanging there
into biting,” says Kevin Essenburg, river-trolling vet on Michigan’s
snaggy upper Kalamazoo. Essenburg targets winter steelies with plugs
exclusively. “You can put a little TX-6 planer board just five or
six feet in front of the plug because it doesn’t spook fish. Then
you hold your rod and manually maneuver the plug right next to snags
where fish can see it—these fish rarely see another lure, and
certainly not for an extended period of time.”
Gearing up for planer board fishing in rivers is simple and calls
for common sense. Most anglers find regular baitcasting gear that
they would normally use for trolling to work just fine for planer
boards. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use spinning gear.
One key is to make sure you have the right line. A favorite set-up
of veteran trollers is a reel spooled with 30-pound braid, which can
also double for Dipsy Diver fishing for salmon and steelhead on a
Great Lake. One reason anglers opt for Church Boards when using
braided line is the clip holds the board in place without damaging
the line, which can happen with clips from other companies. In fact,
one competitor advises to tie in a length of monofilament when using
their board so the damage their clip causes is more visible. This
isn’t an issue with a Church clip, which has a coating that is
gentle on all types of line.
Opaque braided line needs a leader to the lure in most cases for
steelhead. Not only is it far less visible to a steelhead that might
become line-shy in a heavily fished river, it also provides a “shock
absorber” when fighting the fish. Stretchier monofilament and some
types of fluorocarbon have just enough stretch to keep a fish from
tearing free, which could happen if the whole line was no-stretch
braid. Leader weight depends on where you’re going to try and put
your plug. If you’re going to keep it in fairly snag-free areas, an
8-pound test leader will work fine. If you’re around a lot of snags
and are going to try to put your plug in the heart of it, best go
with 12- or even 14-pound test. Although that’s heavy, a river
environment around a snag has a lot going on, and the sudden
appearance of a crankbait in a steelhead’s strike window will often
get a strike right away before a steelhead thoroughly inspects the
lure and gets turned off by seeing the leader.
On the other hand, keeping a crankbait wiggling right by a steelhead
hanging in a snaggy area can eventually provoke that fish into
striking even with a heavier, 12-pound test leader.
A wide range of rods work well for planer trolling in a river with
small boards. While some anglers like shorter, 6- and 7-footers for
plugs, many who like to manipulate boards into snags feel they have
better control with longer downrigger-style rods, from 8 to 10 feet
long. |
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