Question re pulling Drone spoons

[Capt. Charlie]

Hi Guys....We want to try some Drone spoons. How far back do you run them?
I have #1 & #2 planers and both 1 & 2 Drones. We have never used these before and want to give them a try. Thanks for any help!
Charlie S

[5th Tuition]

Charlie, when I was on Jason's boat last week, we ran #1planer 120 ft #1 planer 80 ft #2 planer 60 ft #2 planer 40 ft


Jason ran 30 ft leaders with swivel in the middle. I only run 12-15 ft leaders with swivel in the middle of mine.

5th

[Skip]

Advice above is great.

I'll share tip for leaders.

I use about 15 feet of 40 lb from the planer - then a ball bearing swivel.

From that - I'll use 30lb - sometimes 20 lb fluro if water is really clear.

Reason is - 40 is easier to handle and less likely to coil up / tangle.

It holds up to abuse and simple to put on new short 10 foot piece of lighter stuff.

[Tawn]

FWIW

I run 9' of 40 lb line off the planer to a ball-bearing swivel and then 9' of 20 lbs fluorocarbon to the spoon.

#1 planers off the back corners. One at 120'. One at 140'.

#2 planers out of the next rod holder forward. One at 90'. One at 80-100' depending on what feels lucky.

#3 planers out of the deep rod / letdown rod holders. One at 40'. One at 50'.

When a fish hits make sure you customers keep the rod tip high and crank fast. If they drop the rod tip suddenly or decided to take a break while cranking, the planer can reset itself. If that happens I just have them stick it in a rod holder and crank - 9 time out of 10 you will lose the fish when that happens.

When you are fishing flip planers and one trips you don't need to reel it in to reset it. Just hold the rod high with the tip straight up and then very quickly lower it and point it at the planer and snap it back up - most times that will reset it.

Funny side not about leader length - we were in a bird pile and things were fast and furious - One of the leaders got buggered up and just to get the bait back quickly, the guy mating for me cut it off above the swivel, retied the spoon with what was left of the leader - about 6' - and put it back out. Bang - 25" Mac hit it even with that short of a leader.

[5th Tuition]

Originally Posted by Tawn

FWIW

I run 9' of 40 lb line off the planer to a ball-bearing swivel and then 9' of 20 lbs fluorocarbon to the spoon.

#1 planers off the back corners. One at 120'. One at 140'.

#2 planers out of the next rod holder forward. One at 90'. One at 80-100' depending on what feels lucky.

#3 planers out of the deep rod / letdown rod holders. One at 40'. One at 50'.

When a fish hits make sure you customers keep the rod tip high and crank fast. If they drop the rod tip suddenly or decided to take a break while cranking, the planer can reset itself. If that happens I just have them stick it in a rod holder and crank - 9 time out of 10 you will lose the fish when that happens.

When you are fishing flip planers and one trips you don't need to reel it in to reset it. Just hold the rod high with the tip straight up and then very quickly lower it and point it at the planer and snap it back up - most times that will reset it.

Funny side not about leader length - we were in a bird pile and things were fast and furious - One of the leaders got buggered up and just to get the bait back quickly, the guy mating for me cut it off above the swivel, retied the spoon with what was left of the leader - about 6' - and put it back out. Bang - 25" Mac hit it even with that short of a leader.

Look at you Have you already forgotten what it's like to run a small boat
That big wide transom (13-15 ft across) lets you run stuff a little differently than our 8'6'' boats.
I have to say, I hate long leaders. I only run long leaders off inline planers and or weighted surgical tubes (red hoses) when i have too. Inexperienced anglers and long leaders make for a bad combination
If I only separated my rods by 20 feet (your #1's) and possibly only 10 feet on your #2's (one at 90 and one at 80) while running 18 ft leaders (your 9+9); I would have a potential mess unless I never made a turn

That big Markley allows you more room for error. That's only one advantage you now hold over us "little" guys. Hope your season was a good one. I'm still looking forward to a ride on the "Lucky Strike"
5th

[CaptMikeS]

Great information for those who want to give those planers and drones a try. one question though, what sort of speed ( in kts ) do you pull them at? Thanks!!

[5th Tuition]

The answer to that is going to vary as well. Last year, we had nice rock in the Patapsco River. I was using inline planers doing 3.5 - 4 mph

If I'm targeting blues; we run 4-6 mph

If I'm targeting spanish; we run 6-9 mph.

However
We were running 8 mph last week (targeting spanish) and caught rock, blues, and the big Redfish


We all tend to overthink this "fishing stuff", and we are constantly reminded that we are not that smart
We have all been there saying; "Well that didn't work out the way I expected!". It's those days on the boat that make you a better fisherman

Adapt and try new things "on the fly" and your days of "catching" will improve. There were many times on the charter (especially in the late fall) when you could see the fish on the meter, but had either a hard time reaching them (down deep) or encouraging them to bite.

Patients and Frustration are two words in every fisherman's vocabulary
5th

[Maineman]

Originally Posted by 5th Tuition

We all tend to overthink this "fishing stuff", and we are constantly reminded that we are not that smart
We have all been there saying; "Well that didn't work out the way I expected!". It's those days on the boat that make you a better fisherman

Adapt and try new things "on the fly" and your days of "catching" will improve. There were many times on the charter (especially in the late fall) when you could see the fish on the meter, but had either a hard time reaching them (down deep) or encouraging them to bite.

Patients and Frustration are two words in every fisherman's vocabulary
5th

Great post.

[Tawn]

Originally Posted by 5th Tuition

Look at you Have you already forgotten what it's like to run a small boat
5th

Bite me ...

For whatever reason, the two that we have to watch getting tangled is when a dink hits the #3 while in a tight turn and it comes up into the #2 on the same side. Side-to-side tangle are fairly rare (luckily) but you are right - a 16' beam helps

In all seriousness, I agree - we over think this to the point of actually do more harm than good.

Today we had a 5 hour trip - within 10 minutes of having lines in, we had 3 macs on at once by 83A. Stayed in the area and never had another touch for 2 hours. Moved south, didn't see anything worth fishing on - moved back north and saw a huge bird pile. Put the junk back in and was instantly covered up in trophy 8-9" bluefish! Those 18 foot leaders very quickly turned into a $20 wad of fluorocarbon trash.

Basically retied everything - moved away from the birds and hung another two macs which shook off halfway to the boat.

Oh - And to top it off, the heavy rod with the #3 planer on it along with a new 330 decided to launch itself out of the deep rod holder.

Some days you are the windshield and some days you are the bug. At least I think the party had fun judging by the fact they filled a 55 gallon trash can with empties in 5 hours