Planer reel suggestions

[wannabe trollin]

I have only been fishing Lake Ontario in my own boat for the las two years. Of that time, it has been mostly trolling for Kings in the late summer and fall. I really want to try my luck at spring fishing for steelhead and browns this year as well. My question is, I want to set up planer reels on my boat and was hoping I could get some suggestions on the best way to go about this. My boat is an Aquasport 275 Explorer with a hardtop. Should I clamp reels to the hardtop tubing or get a mast for the front? What reels would be best? I plan on using Amish Outfitter white boards. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Andy

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[bailey]

I would do both actually a mast up front and run lines back to reels on the sides , look at Trax tech great products imo.

[Lunchbox]

Big Jon great reels

[TileMan Dan]

I would install pulleys on the front corners of your hardtop with the reels mounted to the rear. This will keep boards running more even with your transom. You have plenty of height to run those boards a good distance off the sides. You will have to install ball retriever or rope will ring on tow line to clip on release. I run Big Jon manual reels with 200# power pro braid so the releases slide down tow line easily. Switching over to electrics as soon as boat wrap comes off this spring. Good luck. I am sure you will get other opinions. Do what is best for your rig and style of fishing.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[spoonfed-1]

I would install pulleys on the front corners of your hardtop with the reels mounted to the rear. This will keep boards running more even with your transom. You have plenty of height to run those boards a good distance off the sides. You will have to install ball retriever or rope will ring on tow line to clip on release. I run Big Jon manual reels with 200# power pro braid so the releases slide down tow line easily. Switching over to electrics as soon as boat wrap comes off this spring. Good luck. I am sure you will get other opinions. Do what is best for your rig and style of fishing.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

 

Good advice right there.

[tlr426]

I made small brackets to hold the upper pulley in place. Seems to work well I made home made boards and they still need a little tunning but I am happy with the setup

[Total Chaos]

Forget the Big Jon reels, I broke everyone that I tried when using the Amish boards. I ended up searching ebay for teaser reels. They're aluminum and they hold up great. It's hard to break metal! They're pricey but when I fugured what I spent on the Big Jon reels and the replacement parts, in the end I could have bought 2 teaser reels. I reinforced my grabrail on my hardtop and installed the reel on 1 end and a pulley on the other end. I did use a Big Jon pulley which was fine.

Total Chaos

[lineman49]

I have my Big Jon reels mounted on the frame of my hard top & run the tow lines up to a Big Jon mast on the bow of the boat. Then use a retriever line to get the tow line to hook the release on to it. When time to bring in the boards steer towards the boards (one at a time) & reel in the slack!

[wannabe trollin]

I like Tilemans idea of reel on back and pulley towards front of hardtop. I'm assuming like tlr's setup. I can put a retriever off the back of the cockpit to make it easier we hen putting lines out. After reading Total Chaos' post I checked into stronger reels than the Big Jon and found some by Cisco that look pretty good. Anyone have any experience with the Cisco reels? They're pricey but they look like they are solid.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Tim Bromund]

The Cisco's Rock!!!  All C&C machined aircraft aluminum, no plastic anywhere on them and the motors are twice the size of the big jons.  I've had em for several years and they pull in my Amish Outfitters boards just fine.  I also run them off my hardtop,  I have the reels mounted on the rocket launcher and the pulleys attached to the front of the grab rails  on top of the HT.

 

A couple pics

 

Mounted on the rocket launcher

 

Pulley on the grab rail.  The spring is gone and the pulley is now attached directly to the grab rail with a rail bracket

 

Tim

Edited January 19, 2015 by Tim Bromund

[FleetTracker]

Couldn't find a better picture I apologize it may be hard to see... but I rigged mine the same way with a pulley hard-mounted (no spring) as far forward on the hardtop grab rail on my Penn Yan 245.  I went one step further and instead of mounting the planer reels on the ends of the hardtop rocket launcher (not convenient), I used a second pulley mounted on a taller triple tree mast to send the tow line down to the conveniently located planer reel.  It worked out great last season.

 

[finsntins]

no problems with big jon reels here.bought them used and have used them for 2 seasons now with no problems.we run double keel otter boats.if you do ever need parts,they are carried by lots of local tackle shops.

[TileMan Dan]

Like I said Wanna, you will get lots of advice. Its a good thing. Fleet if you can do you have a better pic with the second pulley. Sounds like something I need to get for my boat. Thanks Gents. Always a tip to be found here.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[FleetTracker]

Sure thing Dan. Looking through my phone I found the following pics... None show the full routing for both pulleys but you should get the idea.

[TileMan Dan]

Fleet, I like the concept of your setup and would be easier to wire up for me. Thank you for the idea!!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[wannabe trollin]

Fleet, I love the look and convenience of your setup! So many great suggestions here and so much knowledge that everyone is willing to share with us new comers. That's what makes this such a great forum!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[BAZOOKAJOE]

Those cisco's look nice! Don't go with Big Jon if you are going electric. I broke one hand-cranking.

[finsntins]

if you have a limited budget and are just getting into it,there is nothing wrong with manuals.remember,for the most part,all you will be doing is reeling them in once a day,if you have enough releases.they arent like riggers  where you will be reeling them in 20 times a day.electric is nice,but expensive.

[mudflat]

Here's a picture of another set up

 

The pulleys are made by Cisco. I like that the side plates are machined out and the sheave is actually recessed into them so that the line cannot get off the pulley and caught between the pulley and the side plates.  Originally had BJ pulleys and had some problems with them but their reels have worked fine.

 

 

 

[tlr426]

I think that mine are berts reels they are a little heavier duty then the big jon reels and won't break the bank

Edited January 19, 2015 by tlr426

[Total Chaos]

Here's a pic of mine that I just found. You can see the reel mounted back and the pulley up at the front of the grab rail. Again, forget the Big Jon manual reels if you're going to pull Amish boards. You will break the handle off within the first few times of using them. Otters don't pull no where's near as hard as the Amish boards. I know because I've had both.

Total Chaos

Edited January 20, 2015 by Total Chaos

[ReelPower]

Cisco electric reels off the hard top hand rails, reel controls at hand height, Big Jon rail clamp pulleys off the front of the hardtop, 500lb. Spectra, Amish Outfitters Azak synthetic boards, use cheap micro carabiners to attach releases.

Edited January 20, 2015 by ReelPower

[baitrigger]

All great stuff. I wish i had something like this twenty years ago. Our set up is just like fleets.with one new wrinkle. We mounted masts with pullys at the bow. Kinda like a bow mount rig. We are trying to get the boards to run as far forward as is possible.

Edited January 20, 2015 by baitrigger

[FleetTracker]

All great stuff. I wish i had something like this twenty years ago. Our set up is just like fleets.with one new wrinkle. We mounted masts with pullys at the bow. Kinda like a bow mount rig. We are trying to get the boards to run as far forward as is possible.

 

On a hard-top boat?  How do you reach the planer towline? or do you have a walkaround boat and that's how you get access?  With the amish boards there are times when they're running so well horizontal to the boat that we can barely reach the towline with a fully extended dock rope hook (I found this to be my tool of choice for this application).  If the pulleys were mounted any further forward on my boat, no doubt the tow line would not be reachable to attach releases.

[baitrigger]

We also have a penn yan 245. We use nylon line with a metal dog leash connector attached to the tow line. We tie off the other end to the outside rail. We had to play with the length at first. Works great. We just got the boat in august and it was set up like yours. We had masts in parts in the garage.

Edited January 20, 2015 by baitrigger