Rear view mirror for monitoring a planer board from a kayak

I made a mount for a rear view mirror so I can monitor a planer board which is behind and off to the left side of my kayak, while comfortably facing forward in the kayak.  It works great, and makes it much easier to use a planer board when trolling from a kayak. 

The first three pictures show how I can monitor a planer board on the left side of my kayak while downrigger trolling on the right side of my kayak.  The planer board is visible off to the left of and behind my kayak.  The fourth picture shows how the mirror is mounted on my kayak.

You may be asking, what is a planer board? And why does a rear view mirror make it easier to use one when kayak fishing?

A planer board is a rectangle of plastic and foam or wood with a weight on its bottom which keeps it floating vertically in the water, which is attached to a fishing line with a clamp on a bracket which holds the rectangle at an angle to the fishing line.  If you attach a planer board to your fishing line when trolling, the planer board will pull the line off to one side of your kayak or boat.  Planer boards allow you to present lures off to one side of your kayak, rather than directly behind your kayak or boat.  There are a lot of YouTube videos which explain how to use planer boards.  For example, a group of people fishing from a motor boat might have three planer boards on the right side of the boat at 30, 60, and 90 feet from the boat, another three planer boards at similar distances on the left side of the boat, and in addition be long-line trolling or downrigger trolling directly behind the boat.  And some of the planer boards could be pulling lures near the surface, while others are pulling leaded line or divers which are presenting lures at various depths below the surface.  So planer boards allow a single boat to cover a very large area when trolling.

You probably aren’t going to be able to pull a spread of six planer boards behind a kayak.  But it’s easy to pull one planer board on the right side of your kayak, and another planer board on the left side of your kayak.  In the pictures shown in this posting, I’m downrigger trolling off the right side of my kayak while pulling a planer board off the left side of my kayak.  I use a planer board with an indicator flag which goes down when you get a strike, because when you're viewing a planer board in a mirror, it's a lot easier to tell that the flag has gone down than it is to tell that the planer board is getting pulled back out of its normal position by a fish.

If a line drawn through your kayak seat at right angles to the keel of your kayak or boat is zero degrees back, a planer board will typically be running at 40 to 55 degrees back.  If you are in a motorboat, you can sit in a chair facing a spread of planer boards and monitor the boards in comfort.  But if you’re paddling or pedaling a kayak, you need to turn and look way back over your shoulder to monitor a planer board.  You will probably be able to watch the planer board considerably less than 25 percent of the time, which means that you’ll miss a lot of strikes.  As you can see from these pictures shown below, you often need to turn quite far around to monitor a planer board.

I bought a rear view mirror at an auto parts store for about $15, and mounted it on a block of plastic with an angle bracket.  The block of plastic is bolted to a Scotty rod holder extender with a 5/16th bolt.  The rod holder extender is mounted on a gear track on the gunwale of my kayak with a Scotty Grearhead.  The rear view mirror can be adjusted with a stiff ball joint.  Once you get the mirror adjusted up and down, you won’t need to change that angle.  And when you’re going in a straight line, you won’t need to adjust the mirror to the left or the right.  But as you turn your kayak to the left and the right, you need to be able to turn the mirror to follow the planer board.  The angle bracket is bolted to the block of plastic loosely enough that I can easily move the mirror to the right and left to follow the planer board when necessary, without affecting the up-down angle of the mirror.

This rear view mirror mount is an easy and cheap project which will allow you to use a planer board comfortably and effectively while paddling or pedaling a kayak.

About the time I think "pmmpete can't possibly mount one more piece of gear on that Hobie..." you come up with something entirely out of left field and prove me wrong.

Clever idea!  Thanks.

   Pete,
  I have to admit that you have some interesting "gadgets" attached to your kayaks and I'm glad they work for you.
  But I have to go in a totally different direction. It seems that the longer I have fished --- the more I want to take a minimal amount of gear with me . And make that work. I have to make good choices with what I take out but keeping fishing simple gives me a lot of pleasure without a lot of headaches. I am a simple man and try to live my life in a simple way. I am happy to leave complicating life to other folks. Good luck with all your "stuff".

   But I have to go in a totally different direction. It seems that the longer I have fished --- the more I want to take a minimal amount of gear with me . And make that work. I have to make good choices with what I take out but keeping fishing simple gives me a lot of pleasure without a lot of headaches. I am a simple man and try to live my life in a simple way. I am happy to leave complicating life to other folks.

Lots of gear or minimal gear, it's all fishing and its all fun.  Here is my complete outfit for fishing from a whitewater kayak.



But even with this outfit, I couldn't resist adding on and customizing.  Note the hook protector on the shaft of the rod, and the custom-made plastic clip for attaching the tackle box inside my kayak or to my PFD.

I like the idea.I'm guessing one of the little bicycle mirrors that clips on a helmet or hat wouldn't give you much of a view?

I was at drano lake on Saturday chasing springers and the water was super clear. You could see your herring spinning 16ft down easily. With water that clear the fish seemed super spooky. You could see a pod of fish at 16-18 ft on the ff and would see a line as the fish dove away from the boat. Right now early in the season the lake isn't full of boats but here in the next few weeks it will be and you need to keep your presentation close to the boat.I could see using a planner board to move the bait from the boat to keep from spooking fish directly under.

Lots of gear or minimal gear, it's all fishing and its all fun.  Here is my complete outfit for fishing from a whitewater kayak.