Trolling with Planers and Big Boat Driving

Boat driving is really important when trolling with planers. You need to understand the relationship between your speed, the current and what your planers are doing below the surface. You then have to marry this with where your bites are coming. It all may seem a little overwhelming at first, but it does not have to be.

This planer fishing video covers a few high level tips on how to drive your boat once you have located a school of fish. How should you approach that school? Let's say you are trolling with the current, at a given speed, and you get a bite. What should you do first? Well, you should never take the boat out of gear, for starters. While you are cranking in that fish, you need to start a slow turn to get back to the area where the bite happened, so you can work the school of fish. Which way should you turn? Your first thought should be on accommodating the long planer. Keep the long planer on the outside of your turn. Turn away from the long planer into the current, if you are getting lots of bites.

Now, when you turn into the current, your speed will slow. Think about this. If you are running your boat at a given rpm level and you are going with the current, you will travel faster than if you are going that same rpm level into the current. This makes sense, right? Of course. So, as you make your turn into the current, you may need to bump your rpm level to maintain the same speed at which you got the bite going with the current. You should always factor in how fast or slow you were going when you got a bite. And, this will differ day to day. Some days fish will be triggered to attack a bait that is moving faster and some days it may be at a slower speed. Just pay attention. If you are not getting bites as you pass over a school of fish you have marked on your sounder, then you may have to adjust your speed up or down the figure out your optimal boat speed at which fish are biting.

Speed over ground is always relative, when trolling with planers. It all comes down to how fast your bait is moving past fish, what depth those fish are and how deep your baits need to be. Speeding up or slowing down can make you baits move up or down in the water column. These are all fine tuning issues that come with experience. All you need to do is get out there and pay attention to what was happening when you got a bite.

Learn more saltwater fishing techniques related to Trolling with Planers.

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