McClintock: I use St. Croix planer board rods and Shakespeare Ugly Stik Dipsy Diver rods, all 10-footers. They're rigged with Penn 320 and Shakespeare Tidewater 20 reels, and spooled with 50-pound Ande or Berkley Big Game mono. The extra-long rods spread my planer board presentations so I can cover more water, and whip big fish faster than shorter rods can.

Dallas: I use G. Loomis saltwater rods, which are exceptionally light and strong. I'm not a fan of extra-long rods; most of mine are 7-footers, but real stout. You need a reel with a lot of line capacity when you start fooling around with river stripers -- a big one runs off 200 yards of line in a heartbeat. Still, even with the big reels Fred and I use, we get spooled several times a year by fish we can't control. Most of my reels are Ambassadeur 7000s, spooled with 130-pound Bass Pro Shops MagiBraid. This braided line has no memory -- it's super-limp and won't get springy, even in cold water. I've had very few fish break me off since I started using MagiBraid, but it can happen, especially if they get you down in a submerged tree.

Wirth: How about hooks and riggings?

McClintock: With 5- to 7-inch gizzard shad, I use a small short-shank hook like a 5/0 tarpon hook with a beefy shank, or else a 6/0 circle hook. With larger shad, I use a circle hook or octopus-style hook up to 9/0. I hook shad up through the lower jaw and out one nostril. I don't like to hook 'em sideways through both nostrils like some guys do; you miss a lot of fish that way. I've had good luck rigging skipjack on a sturdy treble hook. Run one tine up through both lips and out a nostril. As soon as a striper hits a bait rigged with a treble, you must set the hook or you'll gut-hook the fish. I normally don't use stinger hooks on my skippies. You end up handling the bait too much while rigging it, which knocks off scales. On days when the stripers seem to be just messing with your bait instead of attacking it, though, a stinger isn't a bad idea.

Dallas: I use Eagle Claw's 84 hook exclusively, or classic offset bronze style with a plain shank. I've tried others, but huge stripers break or straighten almost every other type. For gizzard shad, sizes 4/0 and 5/0 work well, but I use up to 10/0 for big skipjack. Larger baits require a treble stinger hook. I feed the line through the main hook, then slide it through a small worm weight and tie my treble stinger to the tag end. Rig the main hook up through both lips of the skipjack and out a nostril, and insert the treble into the side near the tail. The worm weight keeps the two hooks separated without creating excess line slack, and prevents the bait from rolling into a C-shape when you pull it downstream. This setup eliminates the need to cut and tie a separate line from the main hook to the stinger, which is time-consuming and always increases the risk of breakoffs.

Wirth: All us river rats use planer boards. Which ones do you guys like?

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