Like a boat on a rope!

I think I have made Prowler Planers the best it can get. Like fishing in a barrel with a boat on a rope.  They make fishing more fun no matter how you fish. check out www.ProwlerPlaners.com
It has every rigging option you could ever want and can do many things you never thought possible.

The Prowler Hydrofoil

The hydrofoil is for higher speed currents or trolling.  When currents are way too fast and turbulent you want to ride over them and the foil and light weight foam Prowler will do just that.

It's getting better all the time!

This is my latest product development breakthrough in making the Prowler Fishing Floats (Planer Boards with directional control). I added a hole that runs through the keels. If you don't want it to flip move the pan head cap screw from the standard position in the far wing to the appropriate keel!  It is that simple, the weight put on a keel keeps it from flipping. I made the threads loose enough to easily turn the screw with a thumb nail. There were some times when I didn't want it to flip but it happened by accident. I did have some moments where the screw balanced on top and I had to jiggle it to fall over but only when the lure weight was a bit light for the bobber size. The extra holes means I have 3 positions for the screw. I can move it to go left, to go right or to flip when given a little tug. Unfortunately it can still point up in very fast currents instead of planing the preset direction with the screw so it will have a stabilizing hydrofoil to stick in the slot.
Honestly, I think it generally works great without the foil or moving the screw to a keel but there is always a time and place where men want more control...lol. The pegs have holes that can be used for slip rigging.

Ways to put on a bobber???

I am wondering if a spring or pegs are preferred. I can make both but wanted comments. The pegs can be used to hold the line in the slot or can be threaded on the line for slip rigging. The foil goes in the slot. There really isn't any need for a slot on the spring type except to add the hydrofoil.  There would be 6 loose pieces altogether with the pegs system but maybe only one piece for the spring style if I can make a foil that pivots in and out. The only thing I don't like about the spring style is they kink the line creating a week spot.

Slip Lock Prowlers - mini Planing Floats

This Prowler rigging is absolutely the most user friendly and versatile.  It uses a Slip Lock system patented by the owner of  http://www.clearlyoutdoors.com/slip_lock_bobbers and I am hoping we can work out an agreement. The slip lock system is the most universal user friendly rigging method ever made. I cut the ends off of a slip lock bobber and press fit them in the hole of the Prowler. The slip lock and the prowler are both slotted to put on and take off without breaking the line. The slip lock lever has 2 positions for the line, one allows it to slip and the other holds it in place on the line. I always slip rig with the BAD Beads also made by www.clearlyoutdoors.com/bad_beads.  My only other option is to provide pieces of flexible tubing with a slit to get  the same functionality but it is not nearly as user friendly as the Slip Lock System made by Clearly Outdoors.

The Black Night Steelhead Prowler

The Fish Prowler

Prowlers are made of molded high density rigid EPS foam.

Blog Update 10/26/2013

  The Ultimate Steelhead Fishing Float "The Black Foot Prowler".  It takes time to cut slot, drill hole, color the white parts black, add weight, cut out stabilizer, cut and slit tube pegs and package with bobber stops. These are the most advanced Steelhead fishing float ever, from the bank or a boat or wading even if they do look a little rough around the edges...looks aren't as important in a bobber as function.

  Black bobbers catch more Steelhead and I used a black Sharpie to color them only leaving one surface orange and one green for direction detection. Below shows the standard slip rigging assembly & spacing to fish through fast shallows and to get down in slow holes. Flip the bail or back reel when you get wherever you want to start a free drift. Some light jigging or trotting the lure on the drop is good practice. 

The price for the the "Black Foot Prowler" is $10 each includes shipping and I will build on demand as time becomes available.  At this point all Prowlers are special order. Let me know what you want plieb2@neo.rr.com
If you want to build your own from scratch for personal use or resale the prices for 10 of the painted bodies without hole or slot are: 10 @ 2" $5.00 10 @ 2.5" $7.50 10 @ 3" $10.00 10 @ 4" $15.00

My mini Planer Board Bobber Hobby

My hope is to get a licensing agreement for my patents but until that happens…

  It is a hobby with me to build and test variations to my patent “Planing Floats with Lateral Motion Control”.  I think any fisherman will find this interesting and will see how they could help them catch more fish. I can get BulletBobbers to do what I want but many customers suffer a learning curve that is painful. By reading this you will get a better understanding of how they work and how to make them do more in your niche. Using them in lakes and ponds is easy if you rig it right and reel slowly so it can do its thing.  Trolling or river fishing can often require the reading and a deeper understanding of the instructions but they’re not really much more complicated then flying a kite. A kite often needs a tail and the tail of the BulletBobber is the line going to the lure. It needs the right weight tail to handle fast currents. If the current is to fast, the water too deep or you want to use a heavier lure then the BulletBobber can handle I have the DualFin to cover the bases. But please understand the BulletBobber inherently has its limits in planing power because they can flip direction but understanding the instructions makes it a very versatile tool.

    Some times it takes experimenting to shed light on the best way to do something and make any breakthroughs in design.  I was having difficulty doing anything to advance the technology behind the BulletBobber.  The BulletBobber is what it is and did not appear to lend itself to modifications. I needed a new material that was machineable to work with and decided to try some high density Styrofoam because they can’t leak.  I had to get them made in China because the molds alone in the US busted my budget!  I did have to order a lot more then I wanted for testing purposes because of the minimum order requirement but it was still 1/5^th the price from in the US for just the molds!  I have several thousand each of 4 different sizes 2”, 2.5”, 3” and 4”.  They are the same sizes as BulletBobbers but lighter.

  The BulletBobber is 35% heavier then the new hard foam bodies I call Prowlers. Weight balance is critical and the Prowler foam body allowed me to locate more of the weight where it will do the most good for planing and flipping.

  I built wood jigs to drill the hole at the same angle and in the same location as the BulletBobber. I can even use the same jig to cut the slot on the band saw. Unfortunately it isn’t easy to machine because the material melts easily. I use water cooling, run the machines at their lowest speeds and it still melts unless I back off drilling to get water down the hole. The same goes with the band saw only allowing me to cut a little at a time.  I am going to try a dimmer switch to slow down the drill press and band saw but I ran enough of the 3” and a few of the other sizes to begin testing.

  I wanted to find the ideal location and amount of weight to handle the widest possible lure weight range, to plane out wide and still flip direction easily. I used a sliding weight to fine tune the weight location for best performance. The weight goes on the far wing in front of the hole with the line to the lure. It holds the keel down and provides the weight needed for momentum of the flip when given a little tug.

  The black pegs have holes and are threaded on the line. The pink bobber stops pop on and can be forced up or down the line to adjust the depth limits of a slip rig. The slip rig is great for jigging vertically when the line is slack. Slip rigging also makes it much easier to set the hook.  There are bobber stops that are small enough to go through the eyelets for deeper depths, that don’t hang up much when you cast.  A very thin rubber band tightly tied and trimmed is a DIY bobber stop that can be put on without breaking the line and reeled up on the spool. Anyhow, the slot made it very easy for quick change of designs or sizes. 

  After completing weight balance testing I came up with the idea of testing various shape fins and tails inserted in the slot. I simply cut them out of a plastic water jug. My idea was to make an attachment that made it very hard to flip and very good at planing out farther to the side for trolling from a boat or by walking the shoreline. This would also make them better for just getting out into faster river and tidal currents. I knew this could be accomplished by adding more weight or making them much bigger but I didn’t want it to be any heavier or bigger for casting or when fighting a fish. P1 worked with the old style spring clips used on many bobbers but I have had the line break at the bobber to often because of how they kink the line and they do not work well for slip rigging. I bought 5,000 of the spring assembly parts at a very good price from china but think the smart fisherman will want the slip plugs. I can provide the assembly on the wire with a U bend on both ends letting the buyer un-bend one end, install the assembly and re-bend using small needle nose pliers. Using the slot and pegs to hold it in place on the line or threading the pegs and making it a slip bobber are both better then the springs in my opinion.  I keep the pegs and bobber stops on my line even when I am not using a float. I can’t say if they help attract or scare the fish but some folks use what are called flashers ahead of the lure when trolling and swear they help.

  Anyhow, the P3 fin (shown above and below) was my favorite for trolling at higher speeds but all the tails, except P4 had merit.  One thing about the tails is I could bend the end up or down to only go one way where P3 needed to be laid in the water pointing the direction I wanted. Without the fin or tail at higher speeds the Prowler would roll on its side, point at me and loose all planing traction. With the fin it maintained the best side planing attack angle. I could see the little furl of water thrown up by the keel hitting the fin and that is what kept it from rolling. It was a discovery that the faster I trolled the harder the leveling force! This was almost as cool a discovery as the first one I made that flipped when given a tug. You never know what you’ll discover if you don’t try.  Having a quick-connect ultra-light slip-rig castable planer with directional control and anti flip fin attachments to have the planing power of much bigger planers is a lot to put into a bobber design… my hobby really is a new science and deserving of more work to make them do more tricks and be more user friendly to suit all freshwater and saltwater fishermen.

  I suppose there is a perfect spread pattern for the water sent out by the fin with the peg interfering or helping a bit.  Yes, it is tough to imagine how the water coming off the fin is related to planing power and stability through a wide speed range. I will see how small the fin can be before it looses effectiveness.  

  Here is P3 & P5 pulling lures longer then themselves out to the side of the boat being tested at speeds from 0.2 to 2.5 mph.

  As I said, I was brain locked trying to figure out how to do anything to the BulletBobber for more planing power but after making the fin for the Prowler I took a BulletBobber and simply taped on a fin!

  I trolled the shoreline by walking and caught some Bass and pan fish.  I tried this without the fin in the past and I was accidentally flipping them when I stepped from rock to rock or flailed my arms to keep my balance. I would have to stop and flip it to head back away from shore before it snagged in the rocks. With the fin I had to get it going the right way but it would not flip no-matter how erratic my steps or arm actions were. It would shoot forward always maintaining the proper attack angle. I slid the bobber down and took this picture with my right hand but I was fishing at a depth of 7 foot in about 10 foot of water, stopping frequently to let it settle down and/or regain my balance.

  Here is tip and trick sent to me. It is pop release loop to fish deeper from a wall, bridge, or boat.  You can drill a hole through the peg, thread it on the line and make a loop that will pop out when a fish hits. Everything slides down the line so you can reel in the fish without pulling the plug. It works with braided or mono-filament fishing line.

  Here is a way I came up with to attach a tail fin that can be rotated that I will be testing soon. Looks like a dive lip but goes in back. I did this to a bobber that leaked to get out the water and needed a toothpick plug but it got me thinking of doing more then just plugging a hole. I slotted the plastic to fit around the toothpick and taped both sides.  I will try drilling a hole in the side to attach a fin instead of taping it on so I can rotate the angle and see what happens. This opens up so many possibilities!

  Thinking that nothing could be better is not how I think. My son and I make DualFins and I have yet to test this but having a retractable hideaway fin that is hinged would be better then having loose attachments to keep track of.  I cut a slit with a knife but didn’t really need the screw because it holds pretty well just stuck in the slit. Without the screw I can switch out shapes and adjust location very easily. Fins may stop them flipping when given a tug but I would also like a way to make them right themselves if thrown over by breaking waves.  Maybe bending the end of the fin or a tail will do the trick.  I hope folks that bought a DualFin will do some experimenting too. It is a fun hobby and exciting when you make a discovery.  Attachments to the DualFin foam body can be made with toothpicks, nails or screws without drilling any holes!

The different ways you can use a BulletBobber to fish from shore are amazing.

Last but not least is my top water frog lure that you can steer and make dive.  But wouldn't it be better if it attached like the Prowler with a hole and slot so it could doubled as a planing bobber?  After all said, the more functionality you can get for your dollar the better.  This was a prototype made from foam RIM (Reaction Injection Molding) and can be made any density and be flexible or rigid for easy machining without melting!

That’s all I have for now.

Please share this webpage with other fishermen or anyone that likes ingenuity!

Best Fishes,

Paul Lieb

Cell 330 608-7539

BulletBobber Enterprises

3586 Wadsworth Rd.

Norton, OH 44203

www.bulletbobber.com

www.dualfin.com