Thread: Fishing with planer boards

Originally Posted by smokercraft

How slow can you pull the mini boards thinking about trying mini and long line jig from .5 to 1 mph

You need to be faster than .5 to get them to run out the side. I am thinking closer to 1mph. Ran these and they did not work at the slower speeds.

we have used the crappie shark planer boards for 5 or 6 years, they are our main trolling technique now. they get the bait out to the sides of the boat and in the shallower water they dont seem to spook the fish at all. we only use grubs and such, no crankbaits, even though i think they would work fine.i like it because you can run at any depth you would like without having to change trolling motor speed, but have found 0.8 to 1.1 the best speed

Originally Posted by smokercraft

How slow can you pull the mini boards thinking about trying mini and long line jig from .5 to 1 mph

I dont have much experience much slower than 1mph...... Any planer board trolling I do is usually 1 to 1.8 mph or a little faster....they flare out well at 1mph...... much slower than .8mph i dont know

there are clips that won't let board come off. we troll big boards less than 1mph and in 10 feet of water depends on the lure. small boards do not have flags

Originally Posted by sailfish1

we have used the crappie shark planer boards for 5 or 6 years, they are our main trolling technique now. they get the bait out to the sides of the boat and in the shallower water they dont seem to spook the fish at all. we only use grubs and such, no crankbaits, even though i think they would work fine.i like it because you can run at any depth you would like without having to change trolling motor speed, but have found 0.8 to 1.1 the best speed

How are you controlling how deep your grubs are running? Is is still by how much line you let out?

Just found this post - Love using planer boards for crappies - In fact - my partner Kyle Steinfeldt and I were blessed enough to win the 2013 Crappie Masters Championship with Off Shore's. We were actually using the big Off Shores (OR-12's) with the tatlle flags. Somebody asked about slow speeds - that was one of the keys for us - .8 - 1mph. Over the years we have caught a lot of crappies on boards and slower seems to be better most times. As far as cranks are concerned - depth is determined by line diameter and amount of line used - best to reference precision trolling data - they have dive curves and phone apps that tell you how much line to let out.

When it comes to grubs and jigs - until the data comes out - it is best to let out numerous rods with varying lengths of line and let the fish tell you what they want.

Using the proper length and action of rod - even with planer boards affixed - is vitally important. When we won the "ship" we were using St. Croix's ECT80MM2 - 8 foot trolling rods specifically designed for use with planer boards. Your 16 foot rods will be excellent for long lining flat off of the boat in conjunction with planer boards (but I would not recommend affixing a planer board to them.)

One thing that has always helped me with trolling is to "harvest" like a combine instead of a two row picker!

Thanks For the info Tommy

Originally Posted by Tommy Skarlis

Just found this post - Love using planer boards for crappies - In fact - my partner Kyle Steinfeldt and I were blessed enough to win the 2013 Crappie Masters Championship with Off Shore's. We were actually using the big Off Shores (OR-12's) with the tatlle flags. Somebody asked about slow speeds - that was one of the keys for us - .8 - 1mph. Over the years we have caught a lot of crappies on boards and slower seems to be better most times. As far as cranks are concerned - depth is determined by line diameter and amount of line used - best to reference precision trolling data - they have dive curves and phone apps that tell you how much line to let out.

When it comes to grubs and jigs - until the data comes out - it is best to let out numerous rods with varying lengths of line and let the fish tell you what they want.

Using the proper length and action of rod - even with planer boards affixed - is vitally important. When we won the "ship" we were using St. Croix's ECT80MM2 - 8 foot trolling rods specifically designed for use with planer boards. Your 16 foot rods will be excellent for long lining flat off of the boat in conjunction with planer boards (but I would not recommend affixing a planer board to them.)

One thing that has always helped me with trolling is to "harvest" like a combine instead of a two row picker!

Thank you very much for the information and congratulaions on winnning the Crappie Masters Championship! This is where I first saw this technique and became very interested. My partner and I go to Grenada/Sardis/Enid often and we were wanting to give this a try. Our local lake is not well suited for this technique, as it is set up more like a river(very narrow) with a lot of boat traffic. But we would like to give it a try and experiment with it on the bigger lakes. Again, I appreciate the info!