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fishing planers
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2022, Fishing Planers - Trolling Nearshore
Planer fishing and your ability to fish various water columns efficiently is damn near a requirement for any fisherman endeavoring to catch fish on reefs and structure along the east coast of Florida and well past Virginia. In the heat of the summer and even the winter, wahoo, kingfish, tuna, dolphin and even sailfish will suspend at depth, with the only way to reach them being a boat trolled where these pelagics are holding. Why are they holding down deeper? Because, that is where they find the food. Planers allow you to troll baits and lures at a variety of water depths, depending on the size of the planer, so you can get your presentation down where the bait is holding. There are a couple of well established ways to troll planers. You can either run your fishing planers in-line or bridled. Both ways are super effective. In this In The Spread fishing video, Capt. Chad Raney shares basic "old skool" Planer Fishing techniques. Capt. Chad is a lifelong fisherman of the south Florida waters around Miami and owner of Old Hat Sport Fishing. With a lifetime of experience trolling nearshore reefs and other structure, Capt. Chad Raney exudes a subtle confidence in the way he transfers his knowledge to you on how to fish with planers. Chad is well versed in running in-line and bridled planers. Bridling your planers allows you to reel the fish all the way to the boat, where the in-line system requires reeling the planer to the rod tip and hand leadering the fish to the boat. The planer fishing system Chad shares is simple and if followed, will fine tune another skill set for your quiver. His ability to make it look so easy rises from a source of knowledge grounded in the confidence of having spent countless hours catching fish in south Florida's nearshore waters and doing so with lots of success. Chad dives right in talking about the absolute need to get bait and lure presentations down deep where the bait is, at specific times during the year. His mantra is as distilled as it gets. Find the bait, find the fish. He starts trolling on the reef and works his way down the coast, as he demonstrates every aspect of running in-line fishing planers.
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2020, Trolling Planers for Big Boat Driving
When trolling with planers behind a big boat or sport yacht, you really need to understand the relationship between your speed over ground, what the current does to your speed and how best to manage your planers when making a turn to get back on a school of fish. Let's say you are trolling with the current when you start getting good sounder markings or you get a bite. What is the best course for turning back to cover that patch of water again? Your first thought has to be how do you accommodate the long planer. You also have to consider the fact that as you make a turn into the current, your relative boat speed will slow. You may need to bump up your rpm level to maintain that same speed. How fast where you going when you got that bite? How deep are the fish you are marking? These are important considerations for the boat driver when trolling with planers. So, if you mark fish and need to turn back, be sure that you keep the long planer on the outside of your turn. The interesting insights shared in this planer fishing video are good food for thought. You really need to think about what is discussed here and try and apply it as you start your day trolling with planers. Everyday is different. One day the fish may be more triggered to bite a bait moving a little faster and the next it may be at a slightly slower speed. The fish will not always be at the same depth, so you don't want to drag baits over their heads. Use your electronics to measure where the fish and get baits down to them, at the speed required to trigger bites. Fish smarter and catch more.
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2020, Trolling Planers - Driving Center Consoles
One of the more important fishing skills to master for trolling with planers is how to drive the boat while hooked up to a fish. If your boat driver does not handle the boat in the right way, your chances of losing a fish are greatly increased. The first fundamental principle to master is to never take the boat out of gear. You need to continue moving your boat forward, at all times. This helps keep pressure on the fish. Many of the toothy fish you will encounter while trolling with planers, like wahoo and mackerel, have a strong proclivity to race towards the boat upon hook up. If you slow the boat, you could get cut off. So, just keep the boat in gear. You can even bump the throttles up, if that helps you to keep pulling the fish. Another key principle is how you turn the boat as you reel the fish in. The driver needs to focus on not tangling the line hooked to the fish with the other planer line. Keep in mind, you do not want to reel in the other planer. You want to leave that planer out, in hopes of catching another fish. Once the fish you have hooked is coming in, you will want to turn the boat to create a clean water lane. This is a very gradual turn. We will show you how to do this in the video. When the planer comes up, you will want to start a slow turn in the opposite direction. Which way should you turn and how fast is very important. You will see precisely what to do in this short video. Driving a center console while trolling with planers does not have to be difficult. Executed the right way, you will be catching loads more fish with unbelievable ease. Take your time and make sure the boat driver is handling the boat correctly. Be methodical and communicate. Mastering the fundamentals of boat driving is super easy. Enjoy and put these tips for trolling with planers to good use.
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