[chaddy721]

Kpi I widened my amish boards I believe 3 inches. Boy do they pull so much better. I picked up flat aluminum at ace. Also moved the eye bolt down a little to. Definitely worth a shot.

 

[mkalink]

KPI, give me a call when you get a chance. I changed my setup some and I made a adaptations to my boards.

 

[spin the wheel]

If the boards are not pulling hard , relocating/designing where it's mounted to the boat won't make them pull harder. Need to change location of Eye bolt on the boards,If they are currently pulling straight just not hard relocate eye bolt about 3/4" towards rear of board [make small adjustments too far back will make them lag and appear to side skip] If they look like they are dragging move forward.
There is a sweet spot, [if i remember correctly] If you attach a line to the board and drag it on a smooth floor board should be at approx. 41 degree angle from tow line
I've spent a few hours with a spring scale on the four wheeler dragging boards along the pond a few years ago

 

[KPI]

Will up or down location on eye bolt make any difference I figured if I mounted lower it would pull and make them dig more


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[spin the wheel]

Will up or down location on eye bolt make any difference I figured if I mounted lower it would pull and make them dig more


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes ,but it doesn't have as much effect as moving front to rear. unless it is currently located extremely high. If I remember correctly the Eye ended up just above the center line of board, like 5" up from bottom of 8" board???. I've got it sketched out somewhere, I'll see if I can find it later this morning

 

[spin the wheel]

Will up or down location on eye bolt make any difference I figured if I mounted lower it would pull and make them dig more

The boards I have are 7-1/2" tall
And eye is located 5-1/4" up from bottom
The eyes are below the surface when running



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[privateer]

you are getting slack in your boards as they are surging and slacking... the rubber snubbers at the boards are not sufficient for lake erie. you also need a bungie system at the boat to handle the wave action sway at the boat too. otherwise as the boat sways away from one board (that board gets tight) and toward the other board (that board gets slack).

i have posted pics and drawings of the setup used on my boat and same as many charters. search the forum for that and may be most recent in the Jim Stedke's yearly walleye discussion post this year. i know i have posted it with pics not too long ago...

 

[Eastside Al]

Bungee system works
3ft wave you need 3 foot travel
Snubbers give you less than a foot

 

[dgfidler]

Weed eater line is great as long as you have aluminum spools. It has a tendency to crack plastic spools.

I currently use some sort of very large braid line on my planer reels. I have 3 foot Amish outfitter snubbers at the end where the board attaches. I use Cisco reels. Am I understanding correctly that I’ll get better performance by switching that braid to round weed eater line and still use the snubbers because the tow line itself will gain some stretch? I just built some new boards out of azek and assume they’re going to pull pretty hard. I had always assumed the use of weed eater line was for cost savings not for function, but it sounds like some stretch is desired if I’m interpreting this thread right.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KPI]

Privateer could not find it in the 385 replies if you can post again I have had a couple guys text me And offer advice going in the right direction!!!thanks guys


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ducknut141]

this thread is making my head spin and getting even me more confused . yes weed eater line is both slick and stretch. You do not need both weed eater line and a snubber. They do the same thing. You certainly don't need travel to match the wave height. We have run big boards in 8-10's with both weed eater line and the bungee system and they work well use one or the other. If you go with a bungee system I would suggest the Amish Outfitter Spectra tow line. I have tried dacron one trip and trashed it. Big boats you will find either Spectra or weed eater line. keeping you line tight COULD be the boat with no type of stretch in the system. The hard top is the most difficult place to get boards to run correctly.

 

[dgfidler]

Ducknut, I think the message in this thread is that for optimum results, there must be some sort of mechanism for taking up slack in rough water. Otherwise the tow line will go slack sometimes. At least I think that’s the message.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ducknut141]

it will at times under certain circumstances you just can't prevent all of it

 

[privateer]

Privateer could not find it in the 385 replies if you can post again I have had a couple guys text me And offer advice going in the right direction!!!thanks guys


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

took me a little while to find too. had to search my posts and then read context...

start here and there are a few others following nearby with respect to rubber bands and such used with this sytem.

https://www.ohiogamefishing.com/thr...im-stedkes-14th-annual-midwinter-online-seminar-2020.359079/page-9#post-2830175

 

[eye-man]

I have Scotty down rigger weight retrievers and snubbers on my tow line retrieval ropes. They run through cam locks attached to the boat. I use these to pull the tow line close enough to attach the planer release. When it’s bumpy I will lock them so there is tension on the retriever. This creates a “bend” or “kink” in the tow line and allows the snubber to absorb some of the shock. I attached a pic of the snubber and the cam lock.

 

[BFG]

8-10's. Did you limit?

 

[ducknut141]

If that question was for me, yes daily

 

[captainshotgun]

this thread is making my head spin and getting even me more confused . yes weed eater line is both slick and stretch. You do not need both weed eater line and a snubber. They do the same thing. You certainly don't need travel to match the wave height. We have run big boards in 8-10's with both weed eater line and the bungee system and they work well use one or the other. If you go with a bungee system I would suggest the Amish Outfitter Spectra tow line. I have tried dacron one trip and trashed it. Big boats you will find either Spectra or weed eater line. keeping you line tight COULD be the boat with no type of stretch in the system. The hard top is the most difficult place to get boards to run correctly.

Ditto on the hard top being the most difficult place, especially if you are running crosswise in troughs

 

[FreeByrdSteve]

Kenny - the other guys have covered changes to tow eye to get a little more pull.

My strong preference for tow line is 0.065 weed whacker line. You need to find the ROUND line, not the octagon line as the round line lets the releases slide down better. Also you will look at the .065 line and think it is too thin. The larger diameter will also hinder releases sliding down. Using the weed whacker line your whole towline becomes a bit of a "snubber" and stays "loaded" up to help with board surge.

For your boat this will work very well in my experience without going to all the extra steps of the bungee cord multi pulley setup that the big charter boats use. I totally understand why they do that setup and have done that on some of my boats and over the years I've fished with and first mated for some of the best big boat charters on Lake Erie. If I was running charters on a big boat and especially if I was farther east running deeper leads / 50 jets / wire / 3-4 ounce weights AND regularly fishing in rough conditions I MIGHT consider the bungee / pulley setup and that does call for the 500 or 800 pound spectra braid.

My first experience with the weed whacker line was many years ago first mating for a true Lake Erie legend Captain Ron Johnson on THUMPER and it was one of of the roughest days we fished that fall out of Vermilion. After seeing how well it worked I switched one of my Cisco reels over to weed whacker line and kept the other tow line 500 spectra. After a few trips on my boat I switched the other reel to the weed whacker line. Captain Ron Levitan PASSIN TIME who brings his Tiara to Huron in the fall and fishes more rough water in the fall than anyone else I know is also a "weed whacker" guy. I decided that if weed whacker line was good enough for the two "Captain Ron's" it was definitely worth a shot and am glad I did.

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND BEFORE YOU CREATE A BUNGEE / PULLEY CONTRAPTION ON YOUR BOAT SWAP ONE OF YOUR REELS (ASSUMING YOU HAVE CISCO METAL REELS AND NOT PLASTIC BIG JOHN) TO 0.065 WEED WHACKER LINE AND SEE FOR YOURSELF.

You do need to keep an eye on the line for abrasions and replace it every so often depending on how much you fish and sun exposure but as a recreational angler you will probably get several years out of the weed whacker line before needing to replace it.

The bungee / pulley setups have there place - but it is an example of making things more complicated than they need to be.
Steve

 

[KPI]

Thanks for all the input here guys I am running Cisco’s how big of a spool of weed Wacker line are you putting on the reels ???will be working on this coming up as this water warms up this is going to be a good year after all the other distractions are gone !!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk