# Trolling Doodad



## beefs (Jan 30, 2006)

Well I call them doodads but thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s only because I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t know the proper name for them Ã¢â‚¬â€œ am hoping the brains trust that is AKFF can help me out.

On Rexy the other night they were trolling for trout Ã¢â‚¬â€œ the problem they had though was that when they trolled over the top of fish it spooked them. To solve this they had a small boat/catamaran shaped Ã¢â‚¬Å"doodadÃ¢â‚¬


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Do a web search on "trolling board".

Some paravanes, which are designed principally for depth trolling, also can be set to veer out to the side, but not by much. Trolling boards are more the go


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## spooled1 (Sep 16, 2005)

Hi Beefs,

If it's a paravane or trolling board like Peril said, you'll need to compensate your paddle stroke to keep maintain course.

Great plan for clear, still water.


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## PeterJ (Aug 29, 2005)

trawlers use em to get the net spread out the back of the boat in the ocean. Have fun paddling with it out there.

Is it called an Otter board?


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

No doubt you are a genius, Scotty Beefs. Here is another idea. Since my yak is small, you can drag my yak along with me in it and I'll try and stay to the side. That might work. Whatta ya rekon?


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

I think they're planing or planer boards ya banging on about Mr Beefs. I have seen a trouter use em in a boat...odd thingo's...but don't know much about em other than thaey made me paddle extra wide to get around.


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## beefs (Jan 30, 2006)

After a bit more research it appears the things I was thinking about are in-fact called trolling boards. It seems that the smaller ones (check them out here) would be ideal for trolling along sandbar edges for flathead when the water is clear or even for getting the lure in closer to structure than what is possible when paddling ie along mangrove edges with overhanging branches etc.

However for my deep water idea I now think that a paravane would be much more effective. Could be a bit of a slog trying to drag those trolling boards around in the big blue. I've only really realised what paravanes do after researching these trolling boards (although they are mentioned occasionally on here i've never looked into it).

Could those that use them regularly post up a bit of info about using them from a yak, where I might be able to track some down in oz and what the better brands are? Thanks in advance,
SB


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Travis, paravanes tend not be be regularly available. You have to hunt around "proper" tackle stores. There are also several types. A common one, from which I have steered clear has a very large lead weight. They are usually blue or red. Might as well use a downrigger properly if you're going to use anything so heavy.

There is a Scandinavian one called Stim that is a good size but is very expensive. I have seen clones and bought one, but snagged it on my first outing so can't report how good they are.

Probably the most common, and the one that I have used most is the blue-line paravane, made in South Australia. This looks like a paper dart, only upside down. Comes in two colours, yellow and green. Yellow for small lures/baits, green for big ones. Eg small hbs versus whole squid. They sink naturally which helps when you're starting from a standing position but only have a small weight up front so are easy to manage out of the water.

Just remember my recent disaster involving a paravane. I was trolling with it, stopped to cast, hooked up and had to move. This meant I had to manage a hooked fish and the drag of the paravane while trying to paddle away. I stuffed up and the rod with the paravane went into the drink dragging other stuff with it. Fortunately the rod was leashed and all I lost was my net.

Biggest problem with a paravane is that it is inline, meaning that you tie the mainline to one swivel attached to the paravane and the leader to another. When you hookup, the pull of the fish is meant to cause the paravane to plane upwards but it is still a drag. That is why I will be experimenting to see if I can use it like a downrigger, releasing when I hookup.


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

Running one as a downrigger sounds the go to me. Would there be any advantage in slowly dragging an unweighted sp fishy thing behind a paravan? My thinking is that the sp would be down deep because of the paravane but the SP unweighted and possibly more lifelike. Is that stupid or okay?


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

troppo said:


> Running one as a downrigger sounds the go to me. Would there be any advantage in slowly dragging an unweighted sp fishy thing behind a paravan? My thinking is that the sp would be down deep because of the paravane but the SP unweighted and possibly more lifelike. Is that stupid or okay?


Have tried it, and had strikes but no hookups. Probably tailor. Think it is a good idea still


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## beefs (Jan 30, 2006)

Thanks for all your advice Peril, will let you know if I come across some decent looking ones and if I have any master strokes of genius RE: fishing them from the yak.

As for trolling a soft plastic on one Troppo I think it would produce. My brother has had some of his biggest strikes/hookups while trolling small berkley gulps, something I would never of thought to do as I thought it would just skip along the surface. Getting it down deep on a paravane would have to work. My mackeral I caught off Ritamada was on a trolled soft plastic squid that I had weighted down and let sink to the bottom before starting to troll.


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

Hiya Beefo, I use little paravanes called Fishseeker's made by Davis. A lot of trout shops should stock em, or Cabela's in the US also used to. Interesting use of the Sp, that may give me an option to target some snapper on the troll in deeper water's than my Hb collection goes to. To date I've struggled out wider. The Fishseekers are a gun, but limit ya to metal spoon of Tassie style lures. Behind Fishseekr's, Hb's with bibs create a fair bit of line twist with their tight shimmy. Maybe a combo of ya squid style Sp with the smallest Tassie devil in the range directly in front of it may give it some sweet action...who knows..but worth a try. You could also possibly use a wiggle disc..I haven't tried that one either. A coupla previous discussions are

http://www.akff.net/forum/viewtopic.php ... fishseeker

http://www.akff.net/forum/viewtopic.php ... fishseeker


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## Shane (Oct 18, 2006)

The gadjet I use is called a Witchdoctor made here on the Gold Coast by renowned lure maker Peter Pakula. It is towed directly behind vessel, is basically an 18" long piece of 4X2 timber with a chunk of lead buried inside and painted red and the bottom and sides covered in holographic tape.It has no hooks..you yow it with sashcord and have your preferred lure spread either side...on hookup you bring in the teaser First.
When you are doing about walking speed (2 1/2 knots) it wobbles and gives off disco like shafts of light through the water. I have had dolphins and pelags follow and bump it..sometimes even swimming upside down and following.
I couldn't see any reason why a yak shouln't have it's keel lined the same way..in Hawaii (I used to live there) and Florida they line the hulls of 30-40 foot game boats.
Contrary to popular opinion, most fish like sound(noise) and visual incongrueties.
For the inshore boys, take a bucket of gravel on board and throw a hand ful out so that the lures will soon go through where they landed..your target fish think its a baitfish shower or drag a short length of anchor chain on a sash cord..the puffing up of sand acts as another dimension in teasing. Aloha bruddah! Shane


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## Cuda (Sep 18, 2006)

So we did pinch the winged keel design from the dutch then! :twisted: 8) :lol:


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