The OR34 was the original concept. It was a great platform but required some improvements in order to refine it and make it the product that it is today.
The OR38 “Awesome Crappie Mini Board” took the place of the OR34 board. Actually it is the exact same board with a buoyancy float attached to the top of it. If anyone has the older OR34 boards you CAN purchase just the buoyancy float in order to upgrade your boards.
The buoyancy is the key to how well this board works. The channel allows the OR38 to pull more weight, plane further to the side of the boat, and makes it much easier to set than the original OR34.
Reading the board in the water is very easy. As Tommy Skarlis put it, think of the board as a “directional bobber”. The float makes the board easy to see when a fish is hooked and also when a fish is just nibbling at the bait. For those that don’t know, Tommy is a member of CDC and the only professional angler to win both a crappie masters championship and a Masters Walleye Circuit championship.
How easy are they to set? With your boat moving forward (trolling) at your desired speed. Let out the amount of line you need to get your offering down to your target depth. This could be a jig, small crank bait, bigger crank bait, or a crank bait with a snap weight. Once the “setback” is reached, utilize the rear OR16 RED clip to affix the line. Ensure you put your line BEHIND the red pin in the clip. This ensures the board cannot come off the line. Affix the front end of your line (the part that goes towards your reel) to the front OR10 YELLOW clip. Make sure the line is in the middle of the pads. Put the board in the water (out the back of your boat) and start feeding line to get the board to the desired distance away from the boat. Tension is what pulls the board to the side.
There really isn’t a one size fits all board but, if I was just getting in to board fishing and didn’t really know exactly what I was looking for, I would purchase the OR38 board. This is coming from a guy that owns and fished a dozen OR12 boards at one time! The reason I would choose the OR38? Versatility.
The OR12 boards have some advantages over the mini boards. But, they also have a few disadvantages as well. Those disadvantages become greater for someone like yourself that is looking to start crappie fishing with boards and maybe occasionally target other species with them. The OR12 boards require greater speeds in order to get them out to the side of the boat and keep them running properly. .8mph is about the slowest we run with an OR12 board. Although I have run down in the .06 category, and the boards can probably work OK at that speed, they are better suited for the faster speeds. The majority of the time when I am fishing for crappies, my target speed is between .3mph and .6 mph (for jigs) and .6 to 1.2 for smaller cranks. For this, the OR38 becomes much more versatile.
The OR12 out of the box does not come with the tattle flag system. This is a must when fishing for crappies and smaller fish with these boards. The fish take the fight and weight of a salmon or a walleye to pull the board out of the spread. The flag is needed in order to indicate the strike. Because of its size, the OR38 doesn’t need a flag system.
Another area the OR38 excels at over the OR12 is river fishing. In Michigan, we do something called “backtrolling” or “hotshoting”. This is a tactic used for river run Steelhead or Salmon. You anchor your boat above the hole and drop small lipped crank baits back to run in the hole. We can utilize the OR38 boards to get our offerings out to the side of the boat by allowing the current to take them away from the boat. This allows us to cover the entire length and width of the hole or run. In most of these areas, the current is not fast enough to take the OR12 away from the boat and keep it working properly. And if that isn’t enough, you can actually bank fish on the river with these things. Stand on the bank, throw out a plug, hook on the board and let the current take the offering away from the bank. Again, not really an option with the OR12 and slower currents. I’ve actually seen these boards CASTED from the bank. Yes, CASTED!
Unlike the OR12 that requires a board for each side of the boat you plan to run your baits on, the OR38 is interchangeable. You can run it on the left side of the boat, or the right side of the boat with a simple change of the front arm bracket (no tools required).
And if that isn’t enough, I’ve actually pulled 3oz bottom bouncers with my OR38 boards. The exact same weight I pull with my OR12’s.
I could provide 100’s if not 1000’s of tips, tricks, and tactics regarding the usage of boards and fishing for everything from pan fish in inland lakes, salmon and steelhead on tributaries, line ripping King’s and feisty walleye on the Great Lakes, and silvers in the streams of Alaska. But this is about the benefits of the OR38.
A couple of tips I will throw out. The OR16 and OR10 clips will have a spring in them. When the spring is in the front, it is “TIGHT” tension. When it is in the back, it is “Loose” tension. We start our OR16’s out on the back or loose setting and as the pads wear, we move them heavier. With the front clips, we may start the day out loose but, if waves come up and we start to get premature releases (line coming out of the front clip without us jerking the rod or “Tripping” the board) we put it to the heavier tension. Another tip is that we no longer run braided line. Braided line is much thinner than traditional mono. It is also “silky” in nature. This results in negative holds or tension inside of the clips. The line has a tendency to slip within the rubber pads. Yes, there is a way to combat it. Make a loop in the line and put a couple of twists in it before putting it in the pads. This creates more surface area for the clip to hold. The downside however is that the line tends to “saw” off the pins in the OR16 clips and greatly reduces the overall life of the rubber pads! Yes, you can change those out if you need to (I just did about 30 clips last week for the upcoming season).
Any additional questions, please feel free to ask. The owners of Off Shore Tackle are members of Crappie Dot Com and I also consider them to be close friends of mine. They are also member sponsors on this site!
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