Fireball Jig Tip

I had some old models of Fox's fireball jigheads (works with all type of jigheads). They are fitted with an extra eyelet, which makes it possible to mount stingers and extra hooks. I have found that the stinger often gets demolished quicker that the shad, and a easy change of stinger takes time, if you tie them on. So I found some small quick change clips in my carp tackle box. The ones I use are from Korda, but there are many brands out there doing them. As for jigheads, some brands like Iron Claw also do jigheads with 2 eyelet's.

I wish you a merry Christmas

and may have a happy holiday

Lots of tackle under your tree :-)

Trolling with Planerboards

Line Release to be replaced

Different Planerboards

Most of my fishing for pike and zander is done from boat. A very effective method is trolling with live baits, and with great success I have been doing this for years. Over the years I have refined my tactics and tuned the tackle for this exact purpose. A great help when fishing from a boat, and when you like me often fish alone are planerboards or sideplaners. I have used a number of different versions, and always tuned them to fit my fishing. Most planerboards are made for trolling with crankbaits and swimbaits, so you sometime have to be a little creative. For a long time I have been using planers form Church Tackle, with a slight conversion. I have mounted some EVA-foam with superglue and tape. I do this is to get a better up-drift, so that the planers won't tilt when turning at really slow speeds. Normally when trolling with livebait you do speeds of 0,6 - 1,0 km/h, which can be challenging for some boards. Not long ago I bought some new planers from Savage Gear. They looked great and had some good reviews. So the first time I took them trolling I found you that the clips (line releases) were a big problem when fishing with braided line. The braid would cut into the rubber, that was supposed to secure the line in the clip. The result being that either the clip didn't release or it released to lightly. That day I had 15 pike in the boat, with 10 on the Savage Gear planerboards, only one time the clip was released. Some thought about this, not being satisfied, was either throwing the boards out or converting them. So when i got back from fishing, I went on the web to find some new clips that could be used instead. I selected some nice clips from Scotty, which had a nice track record. The first pull-tests with braid showed much better performance, maybe the clips that I have bought are to large, but tests next time I'm on the water will show how they perform. The conversion is illustrated below.

In action

But why do I use planerboards? It's simple really, to get a better spread in the baits, covering more water when trolling. But there are several bonuses using them. I have experienced that on days when the fishing is really hard and finicky, it's often the baits fished on the boards that are hit. My thoughts about this are that the fish are not that "scared" hitting baits when they are further away from the boat. These baits are not disturbed by the silhouette of the boat, the beam from the echosounder, the oscillations/vibration from the electrical trollingmotor and the clumsy fisherman hammering in the boat. This effect has been even more visual in my fishing log, when fishing in clear lakes and in shallow lakes. 
Another bonus is the control you have in combination with a trollingmotor with autopilot. These gadgets in combination makes the handling many rods an easy task, when you are fishing alone in the boat. I have no problem fishing 6 rods, and could do more. The way i do this is combining 2 different planerboard setups, and aggressive cutting version, and a medium cutting version. This way you can easily fish up to 6 rods, and the variations are many. One could be 2 rods in different lengths on bottom bouncers. 2 rods on Church Tackle planerboards (medium aggressive) and then 2 with the Savage Gear planers (aggressive). Normally I use floats, for better indication and fish the floats approx. 5 meters behind the planers. But you could also leave the floats and use the planers as floats.

Setup for trolling with planerboards

Benefits:

• You cover much more water
• Getting the bait away from a "scary" boat
• Better control when fishing with many rods
• Better control when fishing on your own

 So if you don't have a set yet, get one it's a enormous
help that WILL put more fish in the boat.

The new Scotty Releases

Open the bracket, dismount first

Cut the plastic for a better fit

Fit the old screw

Mount the Bracket and the clip

The finished conversion

It's beauty in itself

Mornings like this, with a crisp frost covering all surfaces and no wind, one should be on the lake with a hot cup of coffee. Just beeing there taking all in, with the hope of a massiv pike hitting the mat. But the sad thing is that I have to sit in this office all day long, with it being dark when I arrive and dark when I get home.

I long so much to get out again. Just behind these buildings the calm lake is waiting.

Making piketraces

Here is the first video... How to make a pike trace for trolling live bait. Enjoy!

Starting With photos

Hi everybody, i have slowly started to fill up some galleries with pictures. I will try to build them in categories for easier access and viewing.

I have started with some past captures of some nice carp. Have a look, and see what you think.

Further I'm planning to start up my youtube channel again. The first video will be at tuition on making wiretraces in combination with fluorocarbon. Rigs for trolling live baits. I will make more video's as I go along. Just bought a new camera with excellent HD-feature. Hope you like it.

Marcel

Getting started

Hi all, this will hopefully be the great beginning of this fishing blog of mine.

I have fished a range of different courses in the fishing scene, and today my concentration is about the following species: Carp, Pike and Zander.....

This blog will contain catchreports, tips and tricks, boating and boatbuilding, gear info and hopefully a lot more.