setting up bigjon planner reels

[birddog1004]

I was looking for ideas on setting up my rail mount bigjon planner board reels on my 04 trophy pro 2052

because i dont have a rocket launcher and i was wondering if the rail was to low. thanks for you help

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Running your planer boards from a spool mounted directly from the rail will lead to frustration at some point. You want the starting point to be higher. This will allow you to run your boards out further from the boat, and keep the belly of the planer line out of the water. You can get away with an inexpensive simple system. My first booms were hardwood closet rods, with tarp hooks mounted directly on the wood to store the line. You could mount your reels to some kind of boom like this with an eyelet up top. Make it as high as you can comfortably reach it. I have known very good fisherman who used ocean boat roads as their planer booms. I'm sure there are many ingenius designs the guys on here can give you to get you started.

[Broadhorizons]

I have a Penn Yan soft top without a rocket launcher and I mounted my reels to a Traxstech net holder placed in the most forward position in my tracks. The planer line then runs to a mast in the bow.

You can see one of the reels in this pic above the middle guy.

Here's a pic of the mast in the bow (the boat close behind us). It's chain link fence pipe with 2 solid ring eyebolts, quicklinks and swiveled pulleys.

I'm probably going to make a shorter mast for running boards in the spring when I have multiple lines off the boards and then go back to the tall mast for running single core or copper off each side through the summer.

[momay4000]

Birddog,

Listen to these guys - mounting the reels directly to your bow rail without a mast is not good. You can get away with it on calm days, but with any chop the tow line will cut into the waves, constantly popping your releases and the boards will be harder to run farther out from the boat just as Vince said.

I have an '08 Trophy 22152 with an extended hardtop and I have my reels mounted to the frame of the hartop about a foot above the bow-rail line, but I run the line up to a pulley near the top of the hardtop and out. On my previous boat, I had homemade masts mounted to the gunwales. They were mounted forward from my rod holders. They were about 6' tall - again they had a pulley on the top with the reel mounted lower on the mast. The base was simply a 4" flat aluminum plate which I fastened to the gunwales with stainless bolts.

Keep it simple - keep it functional and keep it cheap.

Good luck,

- Chris

[birddog1004]

thanks you guy for all the advice. I cant wait to get the boat out and try some

of your ideas. here is a pic of my boat and i think i might have to hook something

up in the front becauase of the gas tank and nozel.