I am looking at options for a planer rod setup. What size reels do you guys use? Wondering how many lbs of drag it takes to hold good and not slip.
depends if you want electric or manual, I use a penn downrigger if electric isn’t an option. The amount of drag it will take depends on the size of the dredge and how fast you are pulling it
25 seacraft
Downriggers work great unless you want to pull off outriggers then it can get more expensive
Im sorry I had a brain cramp, It was the end of a long work day. Planer rod setups?
Interesting though, I have never heard of pulling a dredge on a downrigger, we have always just tied it off on a cleat. How deep do you pull it?
Depending on the wake, back where you can see it in the spread if you want to actually pull fish off of it.
Planer rod, 80w on bentbutt rod.
I figured an 80 was the way to go. Thanks
Pinnacle Marine TSX50 bent butt or TSX80 straight butt and Avet EXW30/2 TRX or EX50/2 SDS w/ 130lb spectra.
John Volmer sells the Pinnacle rods on THT.
PJ’s wholesale also has good prices on bent and straight butt two-piece rods. I would go with their 80lb class for either one.
What I personally have is a bent butt TSX50 and EXW30/2TRX. I have also used Avet EX50/2 SDS’s. Both are open top frames without a cross bar.
The bent butt makes it harder to see a strike when pulling a planer, so you have to pay close attention to the angle of the line and be ready to pull the drag back when a fish bites. I use a bent butt so that the setup can serve other purposes on the boat. You have the versatility of high speeding and heavy bottom fishing/deep dropping with it whereas a straight butt is impractical for those things.
Make sure whatever rod you buy has oversized wind on guides.
Other options for reels are a Penn 70VSW, Penn 80VSW, Tiagra 80II,
or TLD50II or International 50 only half-way spooled so that it can produce enough drag consistently.
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Thanks for all the info
I’ve got the Avet EX50/2 SDS on the Daiwa Saltiga Dendoh Deep Drop style 56HF SA-B bent butt rod and am a big fan of that combo with some bridles made up by Z71Offshore on here. I only steered away from roller guides for ease of maintenance. tons of drag, good sensitivity on the rod tip, and it’s not a budget buster.
I second the TSX rods. I have a TSX50 that has worked great.
I went the budget route. Bought a short, stout, all roller-eyes tuna rod when Boater’s World went out of business and purchased an original Penn International 50 from ebay. $180 all together. The 50 is spooled with 80lb power pro and I use a dacron-sewn, wind-on bridle harness. I believe I run a #6 old salty planer. The reel will hold at about #18 pounds of drag @6knts but will creep if you get a good following swell. I run it locked- down at about 25lbs and have the drag-lever marked for 15lbs when fighting the fish. I always keep an eye on that rod and as soon as the planer pops will sprint across the boat and back the drag off. Catch a lot of wahoo on it and I’ve found with the drag locked down you will tear holes in their mouth and lose the fish if you don’t get off the drag before that first big run.
I’ll be completely honest, I catch a nice wahoo or dolphin every trip on that planer rod but the true value I’ve found in it is that a fish or school of fish will whack it once, miss the hook and as the planer trips and rises to the top, the fish will rise and pile on the rest of your surface-trolled baits. As far as I’m concerned,it’s the best teaser you could ever put in the water. Sorry for the rant, hope this helps.
Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.
- More Maxims of Mark, Johnson, 1927
31’ Contender
“Touche”
250 HPDIs
quote:
Originally posted by ToucheI run it locked- down at about 25lbs and have the drag-lever marked for 15lbs when fighting the fish. I always keep an eye on that rod and as soon as the planer pops will sprint across the boat and back the drag off.
</font id=“quote”></blockquote id=“quote”>Very good point. Be sure to mark the drag and don’t go below it. If you back off too much, there will be slack for a split second between the bridle and the planer, which can help the hook come out right after the bite.
Don’t be afraid to run the planer out in the deep too. We have caught wahoo on it in the middle of nowhere way off the ledge. There was interesting info in Don Hammond’s December dolphin tag program news letter, about how much time dolphin spent at different depths, based on a satellite tag data. We think of them as surface pelagics, but the tagged fish only spent 12% of its’ time in the top 30’. The average depth was about 100’.
First off, only use the old Salty planers. The others are not the same. We pulled a # 8 on a 30 tyrnos and it worked great up to 7 or so knots. Now we have been using a Tld 50wlrsa. It pulls a #12 fine. It is a lot of pressure though. I may go back to the #8 next trip. We have reeled in several cudas and kings that didn’t trip the planer and were DOA!
I agree with the others about watching the rod, it takes a lot to hold that planer and when it trips you need to back down on that drag!!
I’ll tell you whats an ever cheaper option that doesn’t take up a rod holder. Take 400# mono, crimp a large enough loop to fasten to a transom cleat, spool out 15-20 yards or so, then crimp a big planer on the other end (not sure what size we use tbh). After you throw the planer overboard, with the boat in forward, (attached to the cleat obviously, and make (**() sure your feet are out of the way too) take a snap swivel, clip it to the now tight mono and close it, let your lure out however far you want, then take a light rubber band and loop it between the snap swivel and your line, drop the swivel in the water, and down it goes. Then it acts like a release clip and you don’t have to buy a big heavy expensive 80. You can recover your snap swivels later. Also dont forget thats back there if you do decide to back down on a fish. We use this setup for wahoo so we are throttled forward the whole time anyways.
Don’t worry about how many pounds of drag you need to hold the spool tight. You want the line to creep a bit any way. The 80’s are the way to go. Fill them half full of 200# spectra and clip on a 12 or 16 planer…we have used 24s, but that’s usually too extreme for most folks.
quote:
Don't worry about how many pounds of drag you need to hold the spool tight. You want the line to creep a bit any way. The 80's are the way to go. Fill them half full of 200# spectra and clip on a 12 or 16 planer...we have used 24s, but that's usually too extreme for most folks.
Just make dang sure that your rod holders are up to that task. With backing plates and through bolts. Screws into fiberglass will never hold that kind of load.
I’ve got a small boat and I pull them off the stern cleat myself. As said above, much cheaper and it works:smiley:
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
quote:
Originally posted by cape_fishermanDon’t worry about how many pounds of drag you need to hold the spool tight. You want the line to creep a bit any way. The 80’s are the way to go. Fill them half full of 200# spectra and clip on a 12 or 16 planer…we have used 24s, but that’s usually too extreme for most folks.
Avet 50 SDS is cheaper, just as strong, has more drag than you need, comes in more colors than just gold and is American made.
quote:
Originally posted by Cracker Larryquote:
Don't worry about how many pounds of drag you need to hold the spool tight. You want the line to creep a bit any way. The 80's are the way to go. Fill them half full of 200# spectra and clip on a 12 or 16 planer...we have used 24s, but that's usually too extreme for most folks.
Just make dang sure that your rod holders are up to that task. With backing plates and through bolts. Screws into fiberglass will never hold that kind of load.
I’ve got a small boat and I pull them off the stern cleat myself. As said above, much cheaper and it works:smiley:
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
Might go that route for time being to save some $. Boat is a 258 Grady