Tech Tricks: Rigging paravanes and trolling boards

by Gordon Macdonald •

Anglers fishing in Moreton Bay waters will begin to see an increase in the number of school mackerel during September. Often found in the main channels, around structure such as beacons and on the outer margins of the bay islands, school mackerel offer anglers some tasty table fare.

One of the historically productive ways of targeting these silver streaks – a method which is still used nowadays by commercial line fishermen – is trolling spoons. Because spoons are not a diving lure and the mackerel are often fairly deep in the water column, a paravane or trolling board is required to get them into the depths. Let’s look a little closer at these two diving apparatus and ways to rig them for targeting school mackerel.

My first introduction to spoon lures was for securing some mackerel in the Bowen area. As a boy, with my father in our Quintrex Fish Nipper, we would troll from Grays Bay up to Innamincka Rocks and back if the mackerel were running during our holidays. These school and small Spanish mackerel were close to the surface, so all that was required to get the lure down a bit was a large barrel sinker a few metres in front of the lure. However, because you need to get down in excess of 5m when targeting mackerel in Moreton Bay, a paravane or diving board is needed when trolling spoons.

Paravanes and trolling boards are an economical way of getting spoons and low resistance lures down deep. Spoons, such as the No.3 Halco Barra Drone are ideal for targeting Moreton Bay school mackerel, which can be common in the main channels during the warmer months. Whilst not really a sporting method of fishing, trolling spoons is an easy way to harvest a few mackerel for a feed and will often work when many other methods fail to produce. Additionally, the paravane/trolling board and spoon combo allows you to cover a broad area of water in your search for a feed of tasty school mackerel. Get set up for some schoolie success soon.

The yellow apparatus on the left has a keel so is therefore a paravane. The blue one in the middle is a bit of a hybrid and the white one on the right (which looks similar to a small surfboard) is a trolling board. All these will do a similar job however the yellow one (ironically called a Blueline paravane) and the white one (Yamashita N0.6 trolling board) are definitely the more common styles to be found in the tackle stores. There are several different brands of paravanes available and a few different sizes of trolling boards on offer. The trolling board is favoured by most commercial anglers as they are extremely tough and the will not snap if they dig abruptly into the bottom during trolling.

Spoons are the main type of lure trolled for Moreton Bay school mackerel and there are several different brands on the market, including Luhr Jensen Ripple Spoons, Macka Spoons and Halco Barra Drones. The Halco product is the easiest to find, with the most common size being the No.3 for Moreton Bay applications. Other thin metal lures such as Toby Spoons, Flashas and the like are also good offerings. Shallow diving minnow lures can also be used behind paravanes and trolling boards. Diving boards and paravanes are designed to flip over and plane to the surface when a good degree of pressure is applied, so deep diving minnow lures and other lures with a lot of resistance will not work successfully.

Your paravane will have several towing eyelets at the front. The front eyelet will give the shallowest depth out of the paravane, with the diving depth progressively increasing as you move the attachment point further back. If you keep hitting the bottom, move the attachment point a little further forward. If you want to get deeper, move it a little further back. It’s that easy. Additionally, how far back you have the paravane behind the boat and the troll speed will also determine its depth, so there is plenty of variance available to allow you to put the trolled lure exactly where you want it.

The trolling board has a lesser degree of variation in its trolling depth, but in general it will troll deeper than the paravane due to having a larger surface area and therefore more resistance in the water. However, you can alter the depth a bit by sliding the attachment point back to get it deeper or forward to make it shallower. With this model, you will need a small spanner or pliers to loosen the nut on the sliding metal eyelet. For that reason, most anglers just set it to the deepest depth and then shorten the distance behind the boat if they want it to dive shallower.

Paravanes can be made to swim out to the side behind the boat, which is handy if you want to troll a couple of spoons and want some spread between them. When the paravane is sitting with the keel facing upwards, attaching the line to the left side hole will have it swimming to the port side of the boat. Attaching to the right side hole will have it arcing to the starboard side. As this model has several attachment points either side of centre, you have plenty of scope in how far apart the spoons troll. Be aware that the widest settings will also produce a shallower trolling depth. The deepest depth will be achieved using the central tow hole, which will have the spoon trolling directly behind the boat.

The trolling board only has three towing points: left, right and centre. Again, the left tow hole will have the board tracking to the port side etc. Personally, I have found these a little pedantic when trying to troll a lure to either side of the boat in turbulent current. I prefer to rig them with the central towing hole.

As the attachment holes are well in from the rear edge of the trolling board you will not be able to attach a snap to it. If you want to be able to use all three rear eyelets and change the one in use readily, a simple method to rig it is as follows: form a long loop (a little longer than the board) in the end of some 50lb fluorocarbon using a perfection loop, Cairns quickie or spider hitch. Insert this through the desired hole and simply loop it over the front metal towing eyelet. Once the main line is attached to this metal eyelet, the loop can’t come adrift.

Alternatively, you can simply tie a loop knot through the desired hole. If you want to change the towing position, cut the loop and re-tie in the new position. Regardless, you are wise to re-tie the loop every so often in either system to avoid the leader chafing on the edges of the hole or metal eyelet to a point where it could break.

Using a snap swivel to attach your main line to the front metal eyelet of the trolling board may seem like a good idea, but it’s not. Most snaps are offset to one side and will therefore affect the equal flow of water onto the front of the trolling board. In stronger currents or faster trolling speeds this can make the board begin to track off course and eventually come to the surface.

I generally attach my trolling board with a simple loop knot. Do not use a tight knot as this can affect the board’s ability to tow true. Again, this loop should be re-tied periodically in case the main line becomes chafed at this connection. Due to the resistance of trolling boards you will need to use at least 15kg (30lb) main line. If you use lighter line and the trolling board hits the bottom, especially if it ploughs into sand or mud, you are likely to pop the main line and lose the entire rig.

Spoon style lures spin constantly so you need a ball bearing swivel to avoid massive twist in the leader and also to allow the spoon to spin freely. I generally use a small 40lb ball-bearing snap swivel to conveniently attach my lures to the leader. My leader is generally 50lb fluorocarbon and I commonly have 4-5m between the trolling board/paravane and the lure.

Many anglers (including the commercial sector) run their paravanes on a handline as these are easy to use and the hooked fish is retrieved simply with a hand-over-hand motion and swung into the boat. If using a rod and reel outfit, the rod would need to be put down and the last few metres of leader retrieved by hand once the paravane/trolling board is at the rod tip. This pause can result in slack line and a lost fish. Additionally, a handcaster can be left rigged and stored easily for when it’s required. A glove of some kind can be useful to avoid line burns and cuts when using a handline.