I have been trolling with big boards and mono or 1-2 colors of leadcore for years. This year, I have been playing around with full cores and boards and have been having some problems that I'm hoping some of you can help me with.
I am trolling 6-8 colors and I have 10 colors on my reels. The mast is mounted as far foward as I can go and I keep both leadcore rods as far back as I can. When there is a little chop, the lead wraps around the planer board line and we have to keep a very close eye on it as it will wrap 5,6,7 times and the release will get tangled. It is a giant pain in the neck.
Are you keeping your planer board rods pointing straight up? It sounds like you have a similar setup to what was on my boat. I always kept the leadcore rods standing straight up and about midship, with the planer mast at the bow. Never had much trouble with leadcore getting wrapped on the planer line. Sometimes it would lay on it, but never saw it wrap around like you are dealing with.
Anytime I run two or three colors I use them as "in-line" setups... but yes, I do run 10 color setups off the boards as you're saying.
Only thing I can think of is to keep the rod tips up and keep tension on the leadcore line. My furthest out, I always kept at least a couple feet away from the boards just to make sure the release was still on the planer cord even when the planer board was slack from a turn.
Thats all I have for suggestions...
Oh... I used big jon otter boats, maybe they have more tension in the line than what you're using?
Maybe try to pick up as much slack from the leadcore as you can without releasing it. Sometimes I pinch the leadcore almost as deep as I can in the release so that I can pick up the slack and not release it. When a fish hits you should know as the release will be bouncing or dragging back a lot further then normal, this is if the leadcore doesn't come out right away. So just grab the rod and give it a pull (I sort of whip the line out of the release) and you should be set to bring one in.
I have had to do some trial and error due to similar problems but this worked best for me.
you have to get your release clip and lead line away from the tow line. take your ring that goes around the tow line and disconnect the actual clip from it. now tie in 2-3 feet of 80 pound mono and then tie the clip on the end of the mono. Now your lead line will be far away and never touch the tow line and you will have no more wrapping.
