In-line Boards and Skis off 26’ Boat

[KA_Sportfishing]

Happy Friday All,

probably a dumb question but we’ve only been big water trolling for 2 seasons now. We have a pair of home-made planer boards that work great. However, I am interested in getting some inlines and wanted to know if they would be ok to run off of a larger boat. We have a 26’ Parker with a pilot house. I’m wanting to really spread lures out for early season steelhead since they are so skittish. 
 

thanks for any help!

[BILLY JOE]

will work just fine   it will take some getting use to reading the boards after using big boards  as you will need to watch what the board is doing not the rod  it would really help to tag along with someone already using them  

[KA_Sportfishing]

So I’m just trying to spread out multiple lines. I imagine I could run 3 rods or so off each ski? Spacing them out 20-30’?

[guffins fisherman]

You would need a holder, a rod and an inline planer board for each bait you want to put in the water.  If you want to run 3 baits per side of the boat, you would need six holders(3 per side), six rods and six planer boards and six baits.

[mr 580]

Not exactly sure what the question is here.  Can you use in line boards from a 26’ boat- yes as GF describes above.  Can you run three lines per side from a mast and planer board system - yes with distance limited by the height of your tow line.  Once tow line hits water that is about how far out you can go.  Can you mix an in line board in with a mast and planer board system- that is not a good idea- would be pretty hard to reset lines.  So pretty much an either or situation.  All in lines or mast and planer boards.  Either is effective and depends on preference, boat layout and experience of your crew.

[KA_Sportfishing]

Thanks all. Hopefully this diagram illustrates my point. Our planer spool is mounted to the roof of the pilot house. 

[CK3080]

By inlines, do you mean inline weights or inline planers?  What you have depicted there are what most call big boards (regular planer boards).  Inline boards are small plastic contraptions and are attached to individual rod lines, not the planer line.

 

What you have depicted there will work for sure, but getting reset will be an issue.  I normally fish three lines similarly off big boards, but say Rod 1 gets hit, it releases and you reel in the fish.  You are now at a risk of a major tangle if you re-deploy that rod at the same depth/set back as you previously got hit on in the inside position without pulling in the other two rods first.  Not an issue to reset all the lines, just making sure you know the situation.

 

If i deployed that setup and rod 2 got hit, I'd probably pull in rod 3 and reset it as the same set back and depth as rod 2, then send them both back out.  Doing the same for Rod 1 eventually.

 

If you know what setback and depth is working best, set all the rods the same and keep hauling in fish.

 

I too fish Erie (Lampe Marina) and once you know where the eyes are and what they want, its all production with big boards.

[BILLY JOE]

i run lines no more than 10ft different then resetting lines not a problem  so if far line catches  slide other 2 out and far line becomes inside line when you put it back out    if you want to run different depths  set lines longer on one side   example   starboard side     65 70 75   port     85 90 95    if one side starts catching adjust other the same  you can use different baits from side to side also till you figure them out

[KA_Sportfishing]

 

I guess it was a 2 part question. 1 was if you can use inlines (yes the type that connect to your line) on large boats. The reason I asked is that my dad always told me it wasn’t possible for some reason, but I never really believed him. my second questions was if the diagram was an ok set up.  I am really surprised by all of your responses and help! Thank you all so much. 

[mr 580]

Your diagram is fine- but you would want your set back and weight the same for all three rods per side. That way as you reset you just slide down then put a rod in.  That is a typical big board Lake Erie walleye setup with leadcore.  We’ll use three 3 color on one side and three 5 color on the other.  Now if your target is steelhead you might want to only do two per side- a hot steelhead can wad up a bunch of lines in a hurry.

[KA_Sportfishing]

On 1/7/2022 at 7:01 PM, mr 580 said:

Your diagram is fine- but you would want your set back and weight the same for all three rods per side. That way as you reset you just slide down then put a rod in.  That is a typical big board Lake Erie walleye setup with leadcore.  We’ll use three 3 color on one side and three 5 color on the other.  Now if your target is steelhead you might want to only do two per side- a hot steelhead can wad up a bunch of lines in a hurry.

Thanks for the great advice with running only 2 rods per side for Steelies. Thanks bud!

[KA_Sportfishing]

I appreciate everyone’s advice on this thread. I definitely learned how to run the set ups I want with either big boards or inline boards.  
 

i really do appreciate all the advice given!

 

 

[Yankee Troller]

Yes, we run Offshore in-lines off both of our charter boats. You can run them many different ways. I'll try to hit it high level below.

 

Spring BT fishing or offshore surface fishing - Furthest board from the boat is the longest lead and they get shorter as they get closer. For BT we typically run the outside board at 120' and come in 20' increments with each board. Separating the in-lines by 50'. This takes calibrated line counter reels to accomplish.

 

Offshore fishing many parts of the water column is done by putting the lines running the highest in the water column the furthest from the boat. So, lets take a 5 color, 10 color, and a 350 copper. The 5 color would be the shortest length of line out, but furthest from the boat. The 350 copper is the the deepest running rig and longest behind the board, but closest to the boat. In essence making a "V" pattern.

 

If you ever want an on the water instructional lesson I could offer that in my Lund on weeknights in the Sodus/Rochester area.