I've thought about that ;)

Me and my Bro use to do planner boards in the canal when you were allowed to fish herring. It was pretty good, as we could get our baits out in the middle with out killing them. Boat traffic seemed to be a problem at times. I tried it one night with swimmers and got some nice fish, but again it just seems like more crap to carry

shore fishing with a boat
 

at the race we would use balloons when there was a off shore wind:

Back when the bass were just starting to come back, and no one was really fishing the run (believe it or not, in the mid to late 1980s you could have the place all to yourself on a weekday evening) we'd float herring under a balloon, and let it swim wherever it wanted. Sometimes we'd walk them half a mile downcurrent.

Sometimes the herring would take itself way out towards the middle.

You always knew when a bass was about to grab one, because the herring would start going bonkers, swimming around in tight circles, and then, you'd feel a bump and the line would go tearing off the reel (we kept our conventionals in free spool). That balloon would take off across the water so fast that it would throw a wake :grins:

took the words right out of my mouth.

Your still young. Another decade or so and a boat will start to look real good.

Sounds like you might want to look to the boys who live below the mason Dixon line for a contraption of this magnitude.

Would be great if you could get a jig out to the deep holes in the middle of the ditch though.

Small radio controlled helicopter with a release clip.

I'll kayak it out as far as you want.Just name the time and place.

Good thoughts. I do a lot of early spring fishing in the ice out Lake Ontario fishery. People have asked me if I ever tried downrigging or side planering in our fishery here. I have; and it fails miserably. And I can give you a one word answer about why this is so: weeds.