tripping planer with senator???

[dry_aku]

first off, i'd like to introduce myself, my name is brock and i was born and raised in hawaii (island of oahu). i've been trolling for 10+ years but honestly i've never seen or even heard of a planer until recently. i'm so intrigued with the idea that i can get a lure sub-surface yet keep my surface spread virtually untouched. we target aku(skipjack), ono(wahoo), mahimahi(dolphin or dorado), marlin and our prize-fish, ahi(yft). trolling strictly on the surface we do very well, i just think we're missing so many opportunities by not having a lure(with some meat of course) in the deep.

i have made an order for an old salty #24 and i'm planning on trying the bridle system. because this is so new to me, i'd like to test it using what i already have(penn senator 12/0 & 14/0's on some penn nitro 80# bent butt stubbies). if it works for me then look into getting the sniper rod setup.

my question is, in all the videos and all the write-ups it seems everyone is using lever drag style reels, will i have a problem tripping the planer with my 12/0 or 14/0?

they do have that quick release lever that allows you to go from whatever drag is set with the drag gear to freespool and back. will that be sufficient to trip old salty #24?

thanks in advance...aloha!

[tunatamer4]

Dry-
I'm no expert by any means but here goes. I used to commercial fish with old salty's #8 for kings on Penn 9/0's and more times than not, the only way we could get it to work right was to pull the line from the stripper guide toward the reel to take some of the tension off the "bail lever." With the pressure off it was possible to freespool. Now the rods were fairly "limber" and the planers were only 8's so getting the slack was not really a problem.

In your case, IMO, I think using a shorter, stiffer rod and a much larger planer you may have a bit of a problem. Also you won't have the ability to fine tune or back the drag off when a large fish decides to come and play with the star drag as you would a lever drag. JM2cents

[dry_aku]

thanks. i have a tiagra 80 i just wasn't planning on using it for this. but if i want this setup to work need to give it an honest chance with the correct equipment. majority of people i know who tried a planer or z-wing out here didn't like it because it was a PITA to clear. i'm starting to think that thier difficulties were not due to the planer itself, but rather the overall setup and perhaps equipment.

the biggest reason i'm interested in trying this setup is to target yft. when they aren't on the surface feeding, they are known to spend majority of their life at 25-40 fathoms (at least that's true in hawaiian waters). so i'd really like to have the ability to get a bait down to the 100-150ft range. using the bridle setup with 130# spectra braid, is this depth fesible with an old salty #24? or could i get away with a #16 planer?