Planing boards prove effective for catching walleyes

ON CEDAR LAKE, WIS. — Almost 30 years ago, Gary Gehrman was laid off temporarily from his job at Andersen Corp. in Bayport, Minn.

The furlough was unfortunate.
Then again, maybe not.
"I went fishing 61 straight days," he said.
In the years since, Gehrman has lost none of his passion for fishing.

It's not that he wants to catch every walleye in every lake -- just those that swim where most anglers think no sensible fish would.

"When given the right baits and the proper presentations, most walleyes will hit, regardless of whether a cold front has passed through, or whether the middle of the lake is fished instead of 'structure,' " Gehrman said.

As Gehrman spoke, he piloted his 16-foot Crestliner across this west-central Wisconsin lake. A friend of Gehrman's, Dan Weiss, was also in the boat, and together the two watched three small red boards flanking the craft to starboard, and three to port.

Each board carried a red flag, and each moved silently at the exact speed the boat was moving.

That speed was ... ?

Less than a half-mile per hour.

"Most people troll way too fast," Gehrman said. "If we trolled any faster than this, we'd catch northerns and bass."

Some background:

In 1980, Gehrman and a friend, Steve Halverson, who has since passed away, heavily promoted a trolling (also called "planing") board Halverson invented and patented. Called the "Rover," the board was made of wood, and was generally similar to the plastic trolling boards sold today, and to the larger boards that have long been used on lakes Superior and Michigan.

But the Rover itself -- vintage models of which we used on Cedar Lake -- was just part of an entire trolling system Gehrman and Halverson developed to catch suspended walleyes throughout a lake, whether the fish were near structure or not.

For the most part, the pair labored in obscurity, catching lots of fish while learning ever more about boat speed, weights, crankbaits -- everything that needed to be known to present a bait exactly where walleyes are.

The boards themselves served many purposes. They moved the baits away from the boat and the sound of its motor. They allowed anglers to cover a lot of water with their baits. And they allowed anglers to troll baits in waters of various depths, say 20 feet on one side, and 2 feet on the other.

"Not too many people knew about us and the boards and using them on inland lakes until Al Lindner did a TV show on us in 1982," Gehrman said. "That's when things really took off. The phone rang and rang from around the country. We couldn't keep up."

The Rover was, and remains, unique among planing boards, in that the Rover detaches itself when an angler sets the hook.

"Other boards are attached to the boat and are retrieved by a rope when they separate from a fishing line, or are reeled in by fishermen at the same time they reel in a fish," Gehrman said.

By contrast, the Rover, once detached from the fishing line, remains floating where the strike occurred. This gives the angler a spot to target as he or she swings the boat around and makes a return pass, thinking perhaps another fish might be caught in the same location.

"Just so long as we don't lose any of them," Gehrman said, adding, "We're not making them anymore."

Tough time to fish

If Gehrman wanted a challenging time to find fish, he had it. We trolled Cedar Lake beginning about midmorning -- and unlike the handful of other craft on the water, his boat was positioned nowhere near shore when he sent his six trolling boards swimming.

"Most everything I use is at least 20 years old, and that's the same with these lures," Gehrman said, holding up a Rapala-looking crankbait. "These are Whopper Stopper Hellcats. They aren't made anymore, and I paint them myself."

The baits had short lips, and about 4 feet ahead of them Gehrman affixed onto his fishing lines 1-ounce sinkers.

It's important, Gehrman said, that the baits maintain their action, or wobble, while trolling -- even at very slow speeds.

A half-hour passed. Then one of the baits to port was hit. Gehrman grabbed the rod and set it hard but missed the fish.

"Using this method, walleyes don't hook themselves," Gehrman said. "They hit the baits very softly."

The fish that struck one of Gehrman's baits a short while later wasn't so lucky. A struggle ensued in which Gehrman manned one of his vintage fiberglass rods until a big walleye -- a 23-incher -- was brought to the boat.

Weiss netted the fish and quickly deposited it into the live well.

So the day passed, nearly 30 years after Gehrman first fiddled with inland-lake trolling boards.

Our take within a few hours included the 23-incher, a 19-incher and a handful of walleyes that fell within Cedar Lake's 14- to 18-inch protected slot.

Not bad, considering we mostly fished when -- through midday -- and where -- the middle of Cedar Lake -- no self- respecting fish should be caught.

Dennis Anderson • danderson@startribune.com