Trolling planers

[Jonathan]

Tried trolling for the first time with the planer (The paravane type) today to get the lure down - I had the planer attached to the boat with 10fathoms of 0.80mm mono (definitely needed as the planer exerts a lot of pressure on the line - the min I would risk going down to next time is 0.70mm & nothing less). The planer did dive and it also managed to withstand a pretty surprising top speed of around 4.5 knots - From observation I think it was working best at arond 3.5 knots. As for lure, I first tried it with a 12cm minnow but as the guys in several Italian forums complained, the minnow immediately completely upset its balance resulting in the planer ending belly up on the surface. It did work fine with a spinner though. Unfortunately, we did not catch anything with the thing even though we had it behind us for a good 3 hours this morning. On the other side of the boat, we had the standard handlines with lead weights and we caught 1 small denci and 2 tumbrell. I wonder whether the thing could actually scare the fish off. However, I would like to give these planers a few more gos before deciding permanently on whether it's a useful trolling gadget or just some fancy decoration. Does anyone have any comments or experience to share about these planer things?

[skip]

Out of curiousity how far back was your lure from the planer as I feel this is crucial vis-a-vis the worry of scaring fish off due to the planer. Would be interesting to see what your further experimentation reveals as I too have my doubts. But it could be they're good for pelagic fish which are more aggressive by nature, so attracted by the planer and still willing to attack.

As mentioned to you before, so far we've never had  strike on a planer.

Skip

[Jonathan]

I attached the spinner to the planer with 8fathoms of 0.50mm line. The whole set-up looks quite good and I don't intend giving up before I've given it a good season's worth of tries. At the end of the day fishing is all about a game of perseverance. The next time round I also want to try towing it behind me on my small 14ft sailing dinghy.

[ganni]

at the end of september i've competed in a european trolling competition (campionato europeo di tarina costiera) and i noticed that other competitirs were using these trolling planers (AFFONDATORI STIM). i went to a local shop and asked about them about how they are use on a rod (since the competition permitted only the use of rods and no hand lines) and then bought some and used them. i found them really succesfull. there is no need of a .70 diameter line, i used .30 to attach mine on the 30lbs line mounted in my reel and it went ok.

you cannot use lures on them, you must use octopus lures feathers or rugloo which i found the best.

don't give up jonathan give then another try!!

it seems a bit strange calling someone jonathan cause thats also my name haha

[Kaptan Jr]

Hey gan from where di u buy them???

[ganni]

i bought mine form italy since i was them. if you want you can search the shop online, its called maddalunomare.

[shanook]

ganni i had a look at the shop online of course and it seems well equipped, prices seem reasonable as well.

[ganni]

i think that thats one of the best shopps in italy, as you can see it has a vast choice and prices are quite good.

the planers are best used on a 20-30lbs rod and a gd multiplier. if anyone wants to know how these must be mounted on a rod i can explain.  just ask

[Jonathan]

Hi Gan 2  , I'm really surprised to hear you say they were using 0.30mm line as my planer reaaaly pulls. I have no doubt it would immediately break a 0.30mm line. I know that there are 3 sizes of STIM - it could be that they were using the smaller size on the rods whereas I have the middle one which exerts more drag. After a few more months of trying, I'm quite happy with the results - I simply tie the planer to a cleat whilst I am sailing and I've caught tumbrell, kubrit, kavalli & sawrell on it. It's really simple to use - you simply drag it behind your boat and you realise when you caught because it automatically rises to the surface.

Gan how did they attach it to the rod? Do they use the reel till they get to the planer then continue by hand?

[Gazzetta]

Can you give an explanation  to all forum members Ganni ?  About a year ago I was interested in using one of these planners on rods but didn't find anything that would help just keep reeling in when a fish strikes.

I think one should have some type of lock up system that when you reel in and the planner touches the tip of the rod unlocks its self and keeps running till the lure, it that way you can keep reeling in till you gaff the fish !!

I was searching about this type of planner :

http://www.walkerdownriggers.com/deeper_diver.html

Got a lot of replies which helped me through the various experiments I did but never got a perfect final result !!

Chris 

[ganni]

mine is about 15cm in size.

to attach to the rod its quite simple.  you must have a 20-30lb trolling rod and a gd reel. about 20m away from the lure you must use a thinner line than that in the reel (i use 30/35, the thinner the better and the loops must be qutie small sinche these must be reeld in your reel) to make 2 loops on the main line, these must be about 1ft apart from each other.

you must then attach the planers by the use of swivels to theese loops, one swivel to each loop. the swivels must be chosen of a type that can be very rapidly removed, they can also be left open, the planer won't fall anyway since it is constantly on traction.

when you are reeling a fish you just have to remove the plainer as rapidly as possible and continue reeling.

remember never to use artificial lures that offer traction, ragloo are the most effective in my opinion

[skip]

I had posted this a while back. The_Gaffer and myself bought a couple of Z-Wings to try this out and whilst we only got around to try it once, it did work in getting the lures down deep whilst still being able to maintain 6 knots or so. Something that most planers can't achieve as they are more suited to the very slow live bait speeds.

We tied 300lbs mono off a cleat and The Gaffer was convinced the damn thing would break due to the sheer amount of strain that was visible, but it held!


I came across this article which seems pretty awesome, yet totally simple. As you can see from the author's comments, using a downrigger at over a few knots presents several problems, like the weight coming up far more than desired, excessive strain on the downrigger boom etc.

His solution is to use a Z-wing or large planer to get the depth you require and then using a rubber band and plastic shower curtain ring!!! attach the rubber band to your line once you've set the distance you want, clip that to the show curtain ring, slide the ring over the line on which your planer/Z-wing is attached and the forward movement/ water pressure will sink the shower curtain ring as it slides down your tether line and stops against the Z-wing/planer. When you get hooked up the rubber band snaps and your line breaks free. Then simply rig another rubber band and shower ring and slide back down. Fantasic! I'm definately going to give it a try.

http://www.floridasportsman.com/HowTo/H_9804_Fast/

Skip

[ganni]

nahseb idea tajba hafna. il planers li ghandi jien pero ma tistax tuza lures u affarijiet tqal fuqhom ax jibqghu fil wicc habba li jitilfu il bilanc

Translation: I think its a good idea. The planer I use cannot be used with heavy lures as this will offset the planer's balance and it will stay in the surface.
(ramio)

[blueskip]

Have you thought about using the sort of downriggers the yanks use? Its a great big metal ball attached to stainless wire, & mounted onto a drum & short "rod" on the gunwhale, it has a guage on it to let you know how deep it is. The lure is clipped to a spring clip above the iron ball, & when you have a strike it pulls clear of the clip & you fight the fish directly from your reel, no weights at all, its brill, I did it with salmon in Canada.
Im sure that anybody with a bit of DIY ability, could make something up out of the butt section of an old rod, comined with stainless wire wound onto an old centrepin reel, the weight could be a sash weight out of a sash window, & the release clip could be rigged up from some kind of clothes peg type clip, cost? the stainless wire that's all! C'mon you men of Malta, who is going to be the first to prototype the "Maltese Downrigger" or do I have to do it for you!    

[skip]

Those type of downriggers are only good for slow trolling, anything above 4 knots and that ball comes swinging up!