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Preds and the Planer

Ian Wakeford

Well you never cease to learn new things and I am the first to latch onto a new piece of tackle that I think is great.  On a Ebro trip back in May Geoff Maynard had one with him that a mate had given him to try out.  I was very impressed with the way that we could fish from a boat and the way the current pushed the planer board out from the boat, at an angle of about 25 degrees.  When I got to the UK it was time to acquire a couple of these myself, so I got straight onto the Cabelas website and ordered 2 of these, for about 20 dollars each.  For those of you who have not seen a planer board before, the type I had ordered were hollow plastic paddles, with a wedge shaped front.  For ballast they are filled with lead shot.  If you pull it along in the water at about 3mph it will simply follow you along and drift out to one side, like a toy boat with the rudder cocked over to one side.

I tried this out in a swimming pool at a holiday apartment prior to trying it in the river, apart from some funny looks, it was well worth the practice.  The planer board was a reversible one which allowed you to fish it to the left or right.  Most Planer boards are not reversible, so a useful tip here.

So how do you rig one up, well fishing a standard pike or catfishing float rig you attach the planer board above the float.  

Casting is limited to a few feet and they can then be fished in three ways.  Trolled behind a boat, walked along the bank, or held static in the flow of a river.  I was particularly interest in seeing how the planer would work fished from the bank on my last trip to the Ebro.  Usually we fish bottle rigs which involves a lot of messing about in boats and needs three people to manage.  Now with a planer fished in a reasonable current, you can let out 100 metres of line, and be fishing 25 metres out, which is more than adequate for Ebro catfishing, and no reliance for a gang of mates to get the livebait out into the current.

In the above picture the current is running left to right, but the planer and large float can be clearly seen held static in the current.  I have proved it works from the shore in Spain my next task is to try it out in the UK on English rivers maybe drifting out below weir pools.  Anyway, food for thought.