Questions for somebody with experiance

[ebijack]

It's much easier to read boards when you have at least 2 per side. But tattle flags can help that. Your board rod should go in the water first since your going to only run 2 boards ( one for each side I'd guess). Run that board out 100 to 200 ft to the side till you get more experienced in running boards. Also the fish can be very spooky right now and you have a better chance with the baits farther from the boat. This will also be your shallower running bait than the second rod off the side ( no board ) that should be run ( lets say ) 25ft deeper than the board rod. The 2 rods on the other side should be running different depths than the first to rods so you cover more depths to find where the fish want the bait. ( get a precision trolling book for bait depths). You can clip your snap from your mono right onto the baits. If your running offshore boards you can buy tattle flag kits or you can make your own. http://www.dwfonline.org/Articles/tattle_flags.htm
Just read thru some of these articles, they should help.
http://www.dwfonline.org/articles.htm

[OneEyedWilly]

first thing I can recommend is the most important is duplication. Have your rods the same same line same program etc.. Altough tattle flags are helpful if you have duplication and your rod tips are close together you can read the rod tips much easier. If they are out of sync with each other then chances are you have a fish hanging on the line. Second, start with one program at a time. Work on it til you get it down. My belief is master one style of trolling then work on the next. Many guys have many different styles and by asking this question can cause a flurry of answers that may confise you. Not sure where you live but west of Cleveland in Sheffield Lake at Erie Outfiitters there is a pro day coming up on March 11th and you can stop in and ask any and all questions you may have. Not sure of their number but a google search will give you that easily.
Last buy a precision trolling book it will cut your learning curve. last if you have a few bucks to blow get a few buddies together and do a teaching charter with someone like gary zart or some other charter who does that. Your learing curve will be reduced by alot.......alot!