Newcomer

[wakina]

Flat lines, large boards and the inline boards. Seems everyone forgets about the Church inline boards. Both the Offshore and the Church inline boards are very good. I prefer the Church boards simply because they will pull a heavier load without as much lagging behind the boat as the Off Shore boards with heavier loads. With the Jet divers in either 30 or 40 the Off Shore Boards perform well but when using the Tru-trip divers they do not perform as well with the Tru-trip 40 divers. The 30 Tru-trip divers work well with the Off Shore Boards. Tru-trip divers dive deeper sooner than the Jet Divers do and they also pull harder. Both divers are very much alike in looks but the jets have a shallower dive curve.

I would start with a couple of inline boards , either Church or Off Shore and your dipsy rods and go from there. If you like the inlines then you can add more at a later time and would not have a small fortune tied up in equipment(big boards) that you may not like. It is usually easier to sell the small boards at much less of a loss than a big board setup.

With the size of your boat I would recommend that you take a charter or at the very least fish with someone who uses the big boards. The reason is that they need a different type of rigging than an inline board and require a little more space to set up and use efficiently. The big boards work better with 3 or more on board fishing(6 lines). The little boards can be maintained for just 2 people(4 lines) with just one person in the cockpit and one at the helm.

The perch rigs described are perfect, I would use a #4 or smaller Aberdeen(fine wire) rather than a bait holder in the same size hook I would also recommend that you spool your perch rods with a good braided line. It makes feeling them so much easier than mono line and you do not have to set the hook near as hard since there is little if any stretch in the braided lines. Once you get the feel of the braided line you can almost tell if you have lost your bait(shiner) just by the feel when lifting the rig off of the bottom.