What are your thoughts on Side Planers?

[Troutster]

I picked up 2 of these on advice from someone in the know?.  I haven’t tried them yet but I liked how the arms fold into the center for storage, and they can lock out to either side. They seem really nicely finished and pretty versatile.  Take this all with a grain of salt because I haven’t ever used a planer board before.  Can’t wait to try them in a couple of weeks.

I am 100% NOT a fan of boards that actually attach to your fishing line.  Those boards might work by attaching them to a planer board mast line and use release clips that slip on the mast line and slid out to the board.  After catching a fish, attach another release clip and slid it out to the board.  Board stays in the water and requires no handling to fight and catch fish.  Check out the link I posted in post # 11 above.

I really like that idea.  The few times I trolled with pop gear I hated it. Could barely feel the fish.  So in theory I tie from my mast to the arm of my planer board. Then I let desired amount of line out on my fishing rod, clip rubber jawed thing to my line and it slides to my board. Fish hits, yank and I’m fighting a fish w/o the board nuisance.  Brilliant, one of my other rods for the mast seems good enough.  I’m going to try it. Do I need something to block the ring from sliding onto the trolling board arm?  Like a stopper?