Side planers for saltwater

All it takes is current to help spread out baits

Even if you haven’t used one, I think most fishermen know what a side planer is. Sometimes called a planer board, it’s a device used to carry a trolling line out to the side of a boat. Oriented at an angle, as the boat moves forward, the flow of the water pushes the planer board away from the boat, along with the lure or bait trailing behind it.

Side planers work on the same principles as planers commonly used to carry lines underwater when trolling for Spanish mackerel. The big difference is they are oriented on their side and have flotation along one edge to holds that edge up. Their function is simply to plane to the side instead of down.

What if I told you that side planers would also work for you without the boat moving? Yep, it’s really pretty simple. Water moving by the boat is the key, and it doesn’t matter if the boat is moving through the water or the water is flowing past the boat. If a boat is anchored in current, the current can be used to carry the side planer — and a bait or lure — out to the side.

In case that light bulb hasn’t come on yet, using a side planer while stopped in a specific location allows you to position a suspended bait at a specific spot. Not all places have enough consistent water movement to do this, but in those areas where tide changes are regular and a couple of feet or more, this is a technique you can find multiple reasons to use. I’m thinking of this more for coastal saltwater, where the tide rises and falls, but it can be used in any body of water with a consistent current, which could be as simple as water flowing downstream.

A heavy sinker will hold a bait on the bottom in a current and a bait suspended under a cork can be drifted through an area, but a planer board can cut across the current to position a bait or lure next to the bank, an oyster rock or some other structure and hold that position.

I live near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, where the tide change is 4 to 4 1/2 feet on a daily basis and ranges from 5 to 6 feet on full- or new-moon tides. When that much water moves through the creeks, there is plenty of current to push a planer board away from a boat.

With an anchor deployed, I can position one or several lines off the stern and not have to tend them except to check baits occasionally and reel in fish. Live or natural baits require checking more often than lures, as bait thieves try to steal them or gradually nibble them away. With lures, the planer lines only need occasional checking for tangles and to see if they are collecting grass and debris carried by the current. While these lines are fishing themselves, I can be casting another line.

There is a little experimentation involved to learn how the planers pull away from the boat and how lures and baits sink in currents of different velocities, but there are a couple of basics. With lead jigheads, a heavier jig will pull deeper than a light one. Stronger current pulls the side planer out better, but also pulls the bait up in the water column. A larger-diameter soft plastic has more resistance in the water, and the extra resistance will pull the bait up in the water column. Larger-diameter lines have more resistance and tend to pull the bait up in the column. Most of the issues of bait rising in the water column can be solved by using heavier jigheads.

This sounds like a lot to learn, but it comes pretty quickly. It will only take a little time, and you can be positioning live baits or lures at your preferred depth, using the side planer to carry them to spots you think will be productive. Meanwhile, fishermen on the boat can fish as they always have by casting and retrieving from the bow. These are additional lines.

Once the side planers and baits are set, they fish themselves. The side planers hold the lures or baits in position, and live baits swim as they would otherwise and artificial baits move because of the current passing by them. When a fish strikes a bait or lure behind one of the side planers, the clip releases, and you fight the fish as with any planer. After landing the fish, the lure is straightened or the bait replaced and the side planer is repositioned for the next fish. This won’t account for dozens of fish in a day, but it is effective enough you’ll keep doing it, especially when fishing is slow.

Numerous makes of side planers are available. You won’t find them in saltwater tackle shops, but you might in combined shops. They are prevalent in freshwater tackle shops.

I’ve played with a few side planers, and the ones I like best come from Extreme Fishing Concepts (www.ExtremeFishingConcepts.com) in Lexington. These planers use thin pieces of aluminum for the planer blades, with strips of bright, durable foam at the top for flotation and visibility. There is a snap swivel at the rear to secure the line to the planer once a fish hits and the pinch clip releases. The line adjusts using a pinch release on a swivel at the end of a 5-inch arm, which creates the angle that grabs the water and pushes the planer away from the boat.

I really like two things about these planers. The foam is very durable and hasn’t gotten cut and beat up nearly as badly as most I have used. However, the most important thing is these planers are reversible. By simply loosening one screw and switching sides with the arm that holds the release clip, a port planer can become a starboard planer or vice-versa.  A Phillips head screwdriver and a pair of pliers are the only tools needed to move the release arm and change the planer, so it can easily be switched on the fly as needed.

These planers were designed to be used in freshwater and use aluminum and stainless steel for their corrosion resistance — and they work well there. However, when you drop them over in saltwater, you inadvertently introduce them to a gremlin named galvanic corrosion. A very minute electrical charge is generated by the saltwater on the different metals where they contact each other and it accelerates corrosion, especially where the stainless steel washers contact the aluminum planer blade to hold the arm in place.

A few easy steps will help retard galvanic corrosion and extend the life of the planer, especially around the hole where the machine screw goes through the blade and into the release arm. If this is allowed to corrode, it could prevent changing the planer boards from side to side. The first step is to put some dielectric grease on the machine screw that threads into the arm. Second is to always rinse the planer boards with freshwater after using them in saltwater, and third is to spray a little CRC or other corrosion inhibitor on the machine screw and around the base of it and the arm.

The fourth step has a little more detail but still isn’t hard. Ideally, the different metals can be prevented from touching. This is as simple as using something that won’t pass electricity as an insulator between the washers at the end of the arm and the planer blade. Plastic washers that are very thin and durable are just right for this and they are available at many hardware stores. Another option is to make washers from thin hard rubber, like gasket material, and it is usually available at auto parts stores.

Using side planers is an easy way to cover more water when fishing. In addition to enlarging the spread when trolling, they allow positioning baits in productive places using tidal currents, or downstream flow from an anchored boat. Positioning baits using side planers has generated strikes and added fish to my fish box and I believe it will for you also. There is a small learning curve, but directions are included with the planers and with a little experimenting it’s pretty easy to figure out.