Planer Boards?

[tjbassmaster]

Here in southern mn we fish alot of shallow lakes around 6ft at the deepest with the deeper lakes in the area being around 10 to 12 ft max. I am trying to get more in to trolling but am not have much success.

Do you think it is worth while to purchase a couple planer boards? I would think it would help alot in the shallow water to get the lure out farther away from the boat. To where the fish aren't spooked from the motor. Has anyone had success with this strategy?

Also this might be a dumb question but is it possible to use the planer board to help keep a certain depth? For example if I was trolling in 6 feet and I had 100 feet of line out and I am constantly bouncing off the bottom. Could I use the planer board to set a depth I want to run then set it back a 100 ft or so and not have to worry about it always bouncing off the bottom?

[Tipupdown]

I know first hand that some lakes seem to produce better when you use the planer boards. Your exactly right, it gets away from the motor a little more.. I'm not much for using them consistantly unless there is three + people in my boat or in SD, then its a must

As far as depth, u can use them for long lining bottom bouncers and spinners but never have used them that way... Because if i'm doing them i use the trolling motor. The way planer boards work is lets say you are fishing a 5-6 ft basin, u figure out your SR5 runs about 4-5 ft when you let out 50ft of line.. so let that amount out off your reel, pick your planner board up which has two clips one in front and on in back. The one in front acts like your rod tip, make a circle with your line and clip it. Pull it tight this acts a the stop so it cant slide one way or the other.

That means at the top of the water/planer board u have 50ft out.. Now the second clip comes into effect with fish if you have a flag on it. Give a little slack (line) between the two and then just clip it on the line. U can make another circle if you would like. When a fish hits the lure, it will pull that second clip out hence the reason why you need some slack line in between the two and your flag will go down..

Downside.... Fishing with other people on the lake them bright things kind of are a magnet to other fishermans eyes...

[Purpledescent]

It's the only way to summer fish on our puddles down here in the SW corner. Great investment if you ask me. Get some Deep Diver #5 Raps and put them out 40' behind your boards. You'll see results compared to drapping raps 100'+ off the side of your boat.

[knoppers]

I am on a shallow lake in aitkin co. and been using planer boards on my pontoon with good success. like said it gets the line out of the boats path. I have caught my biggest using boards here.

[goose89]

It's the only way to summer fish on our puddles down here in the SW corner. Great investment if you ask me. Get some Deep Diver #5 Raps and put them out 40' behind your boards. You'll see results compared to drapping raps 100'+ off the side of your boat.

What Purpledescent said.

[tjbassmaster]

Thanks for the info! Looks like I will be purchasing a few soon!

[tjbassmaster]

UPDATE:

I went and purchased some planer boards a couple weeks ago and they are really helping put more fish in the boat!

Just today I was absolutely destroy the 14" to 16" walleyes trolling a bottom bouncers with a gulp leech behind the planer board. I was catching so many I thought it would be easier to just fish without the board. So I then tried just trolling without the board and didn't catch a single fish. However, once I switched back to using the boards I started to catch fish again until it got to hot and bright out.

I would defiantly suggest getting some as I have found out already it greatly improves your catch rate!

One thing I do suggest is to practice taking them off your line before going fishing so that you can get them off as fast as possible when there is a fish on the line. I lost many fish when I was first starting to use them, but now that I got the hang of it I seldom lose a fish.

[TrollnDrift]

The ones i have just slide down your line after tripped till they hit a barrel swivel you tie inline, no need to remove them at all. have only used them once so far but worked fine.