Offshore board problem

[Ristorapper]

I recently updated my boards with the tattle flag and really have very little experience pulling boards. I let 50 feet out on a #13 floater last week while pre-fishing a tourney, hooked up the board and sent it out. The front end of the board wanted to ride up so as not to take off out to the side of the boat. I played around with it a little and did not see an adjustment to get the front of the board to come down. What am I doing wrong?? The front of the baord rides high and will not go out to the side of the boat.

bw(nd)

[lone wolf]

risto,
did you have these boards prior to updating anddid they work ok?
asuming you followed directions, i cn suggest a couple things to check.
if you have the old style masts (metal), they may have gotten bent or loose...check and correct
there is a sll black rudder that folds down on rear that can help boards pull harder and out
when attatching line to tattletale be sure to leave slack line between snaps
are you using the red or black snaps? if using black, change to red (or16) as your line may be slipping
hope some of this helps, let me know what you find

[ezmarc]

I've been waiting for someone to respond to this. Where's Juls when you need her? I've got a couple ?'s.

How fast were you going, were you using snap weights or anything else between the board and lure, were you just using one board and if not did the other one(s) work OK? Did the board work properly before you upgraded the flags?

I'm not sure what a #13 floater is either but I would assume it has nothing to do with the problem. This has never happened to me and I'm just curious as to why it happened to you.

[LCFISHERMAN]

Maybe it's on the wrong side of the boat!!

[Crown Juls]

If your boards were running fine before you updated to Tattle Flags, then they should still be working fine. Adding Tattle Flags does not hinder the boards in anyway. A #13 floater will definately NOT pull hard enough to tip the boards up, so my only guess is that either you put the right side board on the port side or vise versa. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. Don't think that someone couldn't accidentally put the board on the wrong side of the boat....I did it once when I was in a hurry to set up. My first reaction and question to myself was, "why the heck is this board not going out?"
"Ohhhhhhh... duh!" ;-)

Since I can't see your boards, or see how you run them, I can only guess at what went wrong.

Also, as someone else stated, make sure to leave slack between the two clips, or the Tattles will not work properly.

Let us know if you get it figured out.

Juls

[dungalo]

Hey Ristorapper
you said you were using a #13 floater, so what you used to bring your lure to the striking zone caused all these mess, it must be a 8oz dead weight ,a Pink Lady or the like? you can either use a bigger board or replace the floater with a long-lip diver and let more line out to get to the desired depth. once the board planes out it will go sideway. tell me i am wrong !
dungalo

[ristorapper]

thanks for the replies.

First of all I am almost positive i put the left board out the left side of the boat!! No I did not run the other one out the right side. I did not use snap weights. There was plenty of slack between the two clips. I am using the OR18 on the front clip and the original on the back. I hate to say this but do not think I ever ran the boards before so I can't say if they ever ran OK before the upgrade. I'm going out again in the morning and will give them another try and hopefully get to the bottom of this but if you have any ideas, please feel free to reply. thanks again.

[Nofish]

Howdy Risto!

It'd be fairly hard to put them out wrong repeatedly as well. One look at where the weight is will tell ya!! I also think it is nearly impossible to put the tattle flags on upside down.

Let us know what you find.

Have fun.............R

[ETT]

Risto,
The only way what you discribed could have happened is if 1., the weight come out of the board. I've never had one even come loose, let alone come out. or 2., If you mistakenly hooked it to the line backwards. Twisted lines and tangles on the board can cause some funny things. Make sure everything is clean and they'll work great.

Hope this helps. And I hope you see the reverse gear (fish on) real soon. Good luck.

[Walleye Express]

Risto.
You mentioned you never really ran the boards before, even before the tattletails were installed. I'm thinking of what my first reaction was a few years back when I first started using the inlines. I'm thinking a beginers first thoughts (much like mine then) when using these boards, would automatically think they were (back-heavy). And a #13 Rapala doese not really put to much pull on the back of the board even when running properly. So precise line placement on the board along with the proper pull ratio on the back end would be essential for optimum left to right dig. Give them another shot, they are one terrific tool when used properly.

[Dunn]

Try placing the eyelit lower on the back of the board. If it is to high towards the top the board might ride nose high and cause the planing front portion to not catch the water and thus plane. If this doesn't work try various positions with the eyelit and even try adjusting the keel weight.

------------
Marshall J. Dunn
701

[Capable Partner]

I would suggest sending an e-mail to Bruce DeShano at Off shore tackle products company. He'll give the straight skinny on what you describe

[Jess]

When I ran the old black clips on the back of mine I had problems with the line popping out of the back clip. I'm sure you would have noticed this but it is the only other thing I can think of. You might want to put some or-16's on the back. Also the line will pull tight trough the back black clips rendering your flag useless. You can either double wrap the old ones or use the or-16's. The red (16's) also have a pin in them so they can't pop. Just some tips.
Jess

[ristorapper]

UFDA!! I ran both boards out today and have the same problem with the right one too. Seems like the OR-18 clip is really long and tends to lean the board over towards the boat. May try going back to the OR-16 on the front and go from there. The weights in the boards are in place, in fact moved as far forward as possible the way it looks. I just do not understand why these boards seem back heavy?? I pulled #5 shad raps with them today in fact when we put the right one out we caught a fish on other side of the boat(with out board). Sure seems like I wasted some bucks with the upgrade.

Does anyone know Bruce Deshano's e-mail addy?? I'm sure he'd be the guy to talk to.

Seems like the boards are speed sensitive. The faster I went the more the front seemed to ride high. I did have an experienced planer guy along today and he's puzzled too. He thought just move the weight forward, but it is as far forward as possible. Anyone else using the OR-18 with success? Great! the fireline doesn't slip on either the OR-18 or 16 but the board doesn't run out to the side(back heavy)either. Signed Frustrated (except we caught a nice batch of fish without the boards today).

BW(ND)

[ETT]

I have the Snapper (OR-18) releases on 6 boards that I run and have no problem with them at all. I've used mono, fireline and powerpro all with zero problems. How long are the rods and in what position are you running them?


The rod tips need to be fairly high to keep the line from dragging in the water. If you are trolling at over 2 mph you can expect the boards to run bow high, but they should still pull out fine.

I hope you get to the bottom of this, and I'm confident you will. They are a very productive tool.

[Ristorapper]

Thanks ETT for the reply. I'm running 8'6" rods and diawa linecounters but had rod tips down near water level. Will put them up high on your suggestion. Been running 1.8 to 2.2 and sometimes to 3.0 mph. Buddy tells me to run to 5mph with # 13's to get the reaction bite of the big mammas but can't get the boards away from the boat at this point. I'll keep plugging away until I get them to work cause I've seen others have great success with them.

BW(ND)

[TEX]

You may be able to reach Bruce at 989/738-5600.

[ezmarc]

This thread has me humming the Twilight Zone theme song. Nothing makes any sense, also what's "UFDA"? A couple things come to mind but neither have anything to do with boards.

[ETT]

Bingo!!! That's it.

I run my outside rod in the forward rod holder about straight up and the inside rod to the rear with the rod down 2 clicks on my Tite-Lok holders (2 per side set up). Once you get used to it you'll be able to run up to 4 lines per side.

Put the lighter pulling (shallower lure) on the outside board (that will let it stay ahead of the inside board). And put the harder pulling (deeper lure) nearer the boat, where it can stay behind the outside board.

Make your turns wide enough to keep them in those positions and keep some pressure on the lines and you should be off the the races. That takes several hundred yards to turn 180 degrees, but stops the inside board from running over the outside line.

Phew, I'm glad we got that figured out, was beginning to wonder.

[Erie]

EZ my guess .. UFDA means Holy Cow in Norwegian :-)

[Chairman]

I think I need to do a chat forum one night to explain boards.
fshtrollerx@cs.com
Bruce DeShano
Chairman
NPAA #6

[ezmarc]

Bruce, I love your boards and have no problems with them but I'd love to see your chat!

[Capable Partner]

Thank you Bruce for your input. "Capable Partner" is Steve Dosch from Centerville, Minnesota.

[Andy K]

I would be there for sure!

[riskyhooker]

I have found that if you drill a 1/16" hole half way down on the rear of the board about 1/2" from the rear through the holddown for the foam insert, and install the screw eye there instead of on the top where the directions say, it gives the board a much more level attitude. However, it does increase the leverage that the pull wire has on the flag so you will also need to use a little stronger spring which I feel is necessary with the larger cranks or snap weights anyhow. I used to know the part# for the spring but I can't think of it right now. I have seen the number posted on here before, maybe someone else could help you out with that. I also upgrade to the OR-18 snapper on the front and use the OR-16 on the rear. I am running 8 boards rigged this way and love them!! They track perfectly at all speeds and in the roughest waters I have fished in. Nothing beats an Offshore board with the tattle flag!! Dont give up!! When rigged in the standard method with the screw eye in the top I had problems with the boards laying face down, and sometimes even rolling all the way over while retreiving the boards with large fish on, and also while using hard pulling baits with short line out lengths behind the board.I'm sorry if that was confusing. If needed I will explain further. Feel free to E-Mail me at www.aquaholic110@aol.com with any other questions.
Mark Leber

[ristorapper]

c-73 is the (stornger) spring number we are looking for. I have checked out several hardware stores but haven't come up with any yet.

Heck I have put so many fish in the boat in the past years without the use of these boards, I think I'll put the boards up on E-bay!!!!!!!!!!Everyone likes them so much I should be able to get about $60 a piece for them. hehe! good fishing