Can I use both in combination?   Fishing for rockfish in the Chesapeake, I’ve been trolling, lately, with a #2 planer and I like it.  I’ve wanted to try an umbrella rig and I’m wondering if they can both be used together.  I ask because I think there’s a chance the weight and drag if the umbrella would trip the planer.  Is that likely?

Yes, if your planer is big enough. Like a # 6 or 8, run as a “house planer.”

A “house planer” is run off a cleat, with a double snap swivel plus HD rubber band used to send successive lines down. You can run one maybe two off a house planer, depending on the drag of each umbrella.

To attach a line to a house planer, run your umbrella or whatever out as far as you want it behind the planer. Take a #5 rubber band and wrap it about ten times around the rod’s line. Put both loops in one end of a double snap swivel al put the reel in freespool, controlling for over run and the drag will take it down as far as you let it. A second line can be set by running it down about 1/2 way.