A friend of mine hired a guide to help him rig his boat for trolling for tuna. The guide suggested clips like you would have on an outrigger mounted to your transom. One on each side. This helps keep the line down. Does anybody use this method? If so where do you get the clips, and how do you mount them to the boat. Would this be useful when trolling for stripers?

I was going to try side planers...they use them in MD


Side Planers (http://www.worldstar.com/~dlarson/salmonsteelhead/LJsidepl.htm)

Yhose look like they are used from shore.:confused:

Yeah I use them. The way I have mine rigged is on a loop of 400 pound mono. I have hawse pipes to the stern cleats on my boat and the mono is just long enough so that I can loop it around the stern cleats and the clip rides just above the hawse pipes. They come in very handy for the flat lines run close in. I just used the "normal" roller troller outrigger clips. They also see them for flat line use, with a snap already attached to the release.

So the clip locks on to the mono, then your line clips on the other end. Sounds easy enough. Do the clips help keep the lines from crossing, or what...make the line go deeper?

We use cheap rubber bands. Pull the line coming out from the tip of the rod down to where the handle on the reel is. Take a rubber band and loop one end around the reel handle, then behind the line, and back around the reel handle again. The rubber band will break when a fish hits your troll. You need to use a rubber band thick enough that the drag created by the lure on the surface does not snap the band.

I like slapshots idea, simple, cheap and you can keep many sizes/strengths on board all the time. I just may try that this season.

I use the rubberbands. Works when you want the line high too like when trolling a big spreaderbar on the center rod and you want to get the rig back further while keeping the bar out of the water. I tie the rubberband off a rod mounted in a rocket launcher.

QD,
Not quite. The heavy mono is crimped to the wire that the roller troller is mounted on so when I loop the mono around the cleat the roller troller is at transom height. Then the line from the rod goes through the release portion of the roller troller.
Rubber bands work as well, but not as well as the roller trollers. If you use rubber bands use #64. You should always have a box on the boat, they come in handy for a zillion things. The problem with rubber bands is that they don't get your line as low as the roller trollers and you have to relaease the rubber band before you can ajust the line. With the roller troller you can still let line out or take it in without unclipping the line.

How many lines you planning on running. Start with outriggers. You want the lines up and out so they are not slapping the water.There is alot of time spent figuring what works where and every boat is different.

I use the flatline clips(about $20 apiece). I attach a small diameter rope to one of the transom cleats and string it to the other. The clips have a large snap swivel on them. This way I can position my lure anywhere in the wake by sliding the clips closer or further for the motor.:D

For flatline clips I use wooden clothes pins with a piece of heavy mono thru the spring that is long enough to loop onto the transom D-rings. In addition, a rubber band is wound around the end of the clothes pin and can be adjusted for holding power. This allows the lines to be just above the water line and the drag on the rod can be set for initial strike or close to free spool if you prefer. In addition, if you like a delay in setting the hook, a loop of line can be set out from the rod back to the clip to allow a drop back before the rod drag comes into play. Just my .02 . (about what this system cost me)

When rigging a vessel for offshore one should take the boat out into clear water and run at the trolling speed you are going to use most of the time. Say 5 knots..
Get the boat going at 5 knots and get up as high as you can on the bridge or cabin top or up the tower. Now you need to observe the wake pattern of your boat. Does she squat and have big roller waves in the wake at 5 knots? usually three big frothy waves and then a couple smaller wake waves and then a smooth area with all the bubbles and froth in the wake. Drop your out riggers down to put the outrigger top line out to bounce a bait on the farthest wave behind the boat on the outside set of bow waves. One on each side, far back.
Next if you are going to set secondary outrigger lines part way out to the tips they would be rigged to bounce your bait on the inside and closer in than the far outs.
Then you rig a couple rods from the rocket launcher with maybe a couple christmas tree spreaders or flat bars or a daisy chain..
then your outside flat lines up close on the second or third wake. Some times a big teaser up tight on the corners on the back of the first wake. Then a couple more flats in board of the corner flats out behind the corner baits but not so far back as to be beyond all the suds and foam. Right in that suds and foam area is good.
Then if you have a middle rigger you drop a far center bait way out behind, beyond the far out riggers. Use a bait here with a lot of movement. You are showing a bait that has lagged behind the big school of bait behind your boat and is trying to catch up with the school.
With this spred you will fish eleven rods and display a great bait pattern behind your boat.
Usual beam for a spred as above would be at least ten ft. beam up to as wide as you build the boat. As the beam gets narrower you have to cut out some of the clutter and reduce the say, secondary outrigger lines and maybe the two inside flat lines.
Keep the two corner teasers and the center rigger if you can. The idea is to picture the boat, wakes and bait pattern from below, as a fish would see it. It should look like there is a great school of bait chasing the bubbly wake of the boat.

Experiment with various distances, on top of the wake waves if towing skirted bullet heads and cedar jigs and then vary them from the top of the wave to the back of the crest but into the depth of the wave to back further till the baits are skipping on the front of the next wake wave. If you are in an area that is producing and you are not catching keep adjusting your bait display, the bait colors and sizes till you get the right connections. This is where your friendship with others in the fleet will pay off as you hear or see others using the color that is "HOT" at that time.
Also, vary your speed. Sometimes a change of a knot or a knot and a half or two knots faster or slower will be that "magic something" that turns the fish on to your boat, baits and spred.

Good Luck.

I am sorry about the long post and then I realize it was clips you were talking about.
We used the snap type cloths pins with rubber band for years and then the more modern release catches and pull pins and hell there are so many differen ones it is hard to suggest which is best. It mainly depends on your budget and the training of your Pit Boss or Mate. I know some old timers that insist the mate usethe old fashioned wooden clips with rubber band because he believes in them. What ever you have faith in and can afford is fine.