Running 5 rods now. Getting things sorted. Added a drift sock this past weekend. Worked great keeping me .1 - .3 until the wind died.

Some questions I have.

When deploy the planer board rods, how much slack in line before you clip them on? Rather, how much line is out relative to the current depth before you clip up?

I struggled to detect bites. Once I reeled in a fish I didn't know was there as I was ready to end a drift line. Maybe too much line out?

Next question, how to "set" hook. I'm using circle hooks. Normally I just start reeling fast.

A few times I had a tap tap then hard takedown on the planer boards. I reeled hard and put good pressure on the line but the boards did not let go. So all I was doing was digging the board hard against the water, not putting pressure on fish mouth. As I kept going hard the board would finally let go, and it snaped the line back going slack. I lost all 3 of those.

Each of the last few trips I've been rewarded with 1 fish each day. Which is something I guess...

Good news - the weather has been awesome and I fixed hydraulic leaks on the steering system and the trim/tilt.

Thanks fellas.

No wind days you tend to get chewed on more and when a good one bites they will often hold it in their mouth without grabbing it and turning hence you towing them. Line and rod awareness is critical on days like that and it takes a lot of experience to know what your looking at. We had a day like that Sunday where we had to hook up nearly every fish but a few. They would not hook themselves. Don’t feel too bad, my buddies in the 2 boats next to us were having a hard time hooking them up too. It was very difficult to even detect the bite even on trophy fish. I used to tow fish around half the day not knowing they were on the line and it still happens occasionally in the summer but over time I gained experience with line awareness and rod tip awareness and if that rod tip or planer board is acting a little strange I have learned how to detect a fish that’s getting towed or holding onto a bait and when to crank down. If you think your towing a fish or a fish is just holding the bait I will give it one good crank and if I feel pressure like the hook is in I keep cranking until the rod loads up. The reason for the doing the 1 good crank is incase I pull the bait out of the fishes mouth I’m not yanking the bait to far away. If I feel the fish but he lets it go I open the clutch and let a little line out for several seconds and then engage the clutch again and start pulling. This will often trigger a reaction bite if the fish is still there. These are very subtle details and ones that are best learned with experience but that is what I do and it works for me.

The length of line out before you clip on the board is relative to your depth your in. If I’m in 30 ft I try and cast out 50-60 ft and clip on the board.

When you get one to bite you crank down on em hard until you feel pressure and then you pick the rod up keeping the tip high and lay back into em so the hook sinks. Hold this position and keep the pressure on em for several seconds. Your not trying to set the hook like a bass but laying back into them to sink in the hook.

If your running long planers there is all that line out plus the planer board so you gotta crank hard to get all the slack out before the hook will sink. In a light bite no wind day you tend to miss more fish because the fish comes up from behind and grabs the bait and holds it in its mouth and then you crank down and pull it right out of the fish’s mouth. It can be very frustrating for sure. The bite is always different from day to day and figuring out all this stuff is going to take some time. Keep after em and it will pay off!