TOPIC:

Deadeer wrote:

Decided to sit it out with the wind and temp. Bummer, as we have been gearing up in high hopes.
 

Yeah,  I really wanted to get out there but better safe than sorry...... next weekend it might snow,lol so maybe in a few

I have a question for the guys that use the big boards. I’ve used the big boards on Lake Erie on other people‘s boat. But that’s when they’re running all their lines at the m same depth. My question is. If you’re running Big boards on Lake Michigan. And let’s say one side has a 3 color, 5 color, 7 color, 10 color. And the other side has a 100, 200, 250, 300 copper. If you get a fish on the 3 color and the 100. Do you have to pull everything back in to reset? Or how do you get the shallow lines back on the outside? 

I've only ever used them in the spring with flat lines/2-3 colors max.  I don't see it possible otherwise.  I saw Russell Gahagan on Youtube use big boards with solely 300 coppers out on both sides, but they were all the same, so no different than running flat lines.

northwind wrote:

I have a question for the guys that use the big boards. I’ve used the big boards on Lake Erie on other people‘s boat. But that’s when they’re running all their lines at the m same depth. My question is. If you’re running Big boards on Lake Michigan. And let’s say one side has a 3 color, 5 color, 7 color, 10 color. And the other side has a 100, 200, 250, 300 copper. If you get a fish on the 3 color and the 100. Do you have to pull everything back in to reset? Or how do you get the shallow lines back on the outside? 
 

I will be running big boards for the first time this year...... my understanding is one depth per side.  You have to slide the rods down and always set the inside rod ( same way I run my small boards btw).  
I'm pretty sure you let your dipsys and downriggers cover the various depths and your boards are running the same per side..... that's how I'm going to run them ,  but someone correct me if I'm mistaken. 
 

That was always my understanding too. For spring Coho or walleye if you’re running three or four lines the same depth. Then once you get a fish, you just slide them all down. And it works fine. So I was just curious if people are running different depths on one side and what’s their system if so.

Rule of thumb about using long lines with mast and planer systems is to put the deepest sets closest to the boat, less deep to the outside. The simplist solution is to put all one length on one side - all of another on the other side, then you can rotate. Not many people have that many long line set-ups, since you'd need 2 or three 100s, 150s, 200s, etc.  
First of all, I seldom have a large enough crew to run more than 12 rods. 4 riggers, 4 divers, 4 long lines will cover that. Nine rod spread is more likely to pull two divers and one rigger. 
With only two long lines per side, when its necessary to reset the line farthest from the boat I just pull the inside set-up up to the boat, remove the line from the clip and position the rod as a flat line on the other side of the boat. Set the outside line and let it slide out to the board and then put the inside line back in place. 
I've fished with guys running Inline-longlines and realistically, I've seen as many tangles with them as with the big boards. 
I've been on several charters where long lines were doing the bulk of the work and have seen many people refuse to grab a rod with a fish on it because of the drudgery of reeling the planer board to the boat, then having to reel in another hundred yards of line to get to the fish. If it's not fun, just go to the market and buy a couple of fillets. 
No doubt in-line planers are simple, effective and simple to use. No doubt they diminish the amount of "sport" in what's supposed to be sport fishing.