Planer board question

[Fishorhunt]

I didn't find the answer to my question when I did the search so I'll ask it now.


I am thinking about getting some planer boards but, I'm worried that they won't "track" away from the boat at the speeds that I troll at in the winter which is sometimes less than .5 mph. Would this slow of a speed be an issue?

[sailfish1]

around 0.5 would not be an issue , but with the boards you can up your speed if you would like

[RCC]

I never have been able to get planer boards to track unless I was running close to 1. They did not work well at all at .5. I'm not a pro at this technique so maybe someone will step up and give a definite yes or no.

[tenncrappie]

If you got a good quality board it will track. We've got the best one in the USA made only for crappie. Only problem is the guy who makes them has deciced to retire. If some smart company were to call him they would hit a homerun and a goldmine.

[M R Dux]

Having fished with tenncrappie and sailfish1, I will agree that the boards they use will track away from the boat at very low speeds. The factory boards like Offshore and Church's don't track away from the boat as well. They work much better at 0,8-1.0. I think your hookset will be a huge factor at those low speeds.

[Tommy Skarlis]

I have used the Off Shore OR-12 (the bigger Off Shore) at .5 mph and they track just fine. With the tattle flags, we even stall the board sometimes. It takes a lot longer to deploy boards at slow speeds - so when setting them, just speed up a little and then once they are set - you can slow down again. The faster you can troll, the more fish you will put your lures in front of. Varying speeds will also trigger more strikes.

[M R Dux]

My experience with the boards is just using the ones tenncrappie uses and the minis like the Church's and Offshore OR34. I have a pair of the small Yellow Birds but haven't got them wet yet. I can see where the larger boards should be better at slow speeds.

[sailfish1]

tommy skarlis, now where have i heard that name before,hmmmmm..congratulations man on the great year you had last year and the big win

[bfish]

Change the angle of the line clip vs board or increase the amount of drag (ie board size) to increase spread at low speeds.

[tenncrappie]

The boards we use will sit straight up from the time you put them in the water till up to 2.0mph . You can start from a absolute standing start. And I've had great success with them in the winter months when running them .5mph.