*NEW* Fish Eat Live - How to catch Crappie using Planer Boards (VIDEO)

[DockShootinJack]

I will look into that. I believe I will try pulling some small cranks this summer as well

[Bricks]

After watching the video he does do things different then what I am used too. Me personally run my first rod and board the farthest from the boat as this way when a fish gets on the board slides behind the boat clearing all the other lines ( less tangles ), and the fish gets reeled up right behind the boat. I spread my lines first board maybe 40 feet from the boat second 30 feet third 20 feet or any distance I choose. This way I cover a much larger area versus lining them up, just anther way to do the same thing.

It was a very good video.

[DockShootinJack]

I am predominantly a dock shooter. I have pushed a few cranks and some jig out the front of the boat. Didn't do much of those. This is all new territory for me. Thanks for all the discussions keep them coming

[Dutch552]

Congrats on falling down the rabbit hole that is planer board fishing. The walleye guys invented the technique and I learned from that group and applied the principles to the fish we target. Its really a technique within a technique. I suggest getting comfortable with longlining or pulling cranks before adding the complexity of the boards. There is a fair amount of info on using boards for crappie out there, though there is infinitely more info on using them for walleye so I recommend watching some videos of these guys and scaling some of the tackle down for crappie.

MRDUX is a mentor for all things crappie trolling related and is spot-on with his comments. I use the OR-12 large boards when I am pulling aggressive deep diving crankbaits. Their taller profile and higher buoyancy ride better in big water or with larger lures. I've used a couple versions of the boards shown in the YouTube video but I prefer the small OR-38 crappie boards. They are my go-to for pulling jigs, minnows, or smaller crankbaits like size 5-7 Flicker Shads or PICO square bills. You can swap their orientation from right to left in about 5 seconds by adjusting the removable arm small boards. For crankbaits and OR-12 boards I use 7' medium action Ugly Stik GX2 trigger rods that play double duty for my walleye rods. For pulling jigs with boards I switch over to 8' Pinnacle Limit spinning rods (just because I happened to have a lot of them laying around) with 6lb high-viz mono. If I were buying dedicated spinning rods for using board/jigs I would opt for 7' medium/light action composite rods with a faster action.

If you get serious with planer boards then using planer board trees are a game changer. The Millennium trees are awesome because they are completely adjustable compared to the walleye-centric trees that are usually made with fixed angles. I use the same SpykerLok trees in my Cisco tracks off the side that I use for all my other trolling methods. My front rod it the farthest back/outboard and I work my way towards the stern using shorter lengths-opposite of what is shown in the video. I trip all my boards when a fish is hooked and steer them toward the open water zone immediately behind the boat so I'm not tangling with the lines inboard of the fish. The YouTube walleye videos will illustrate how to readjust your spread back into position after landing a fish or tripping a board. We prefer OR-10 yellow releases that come with the small boards on the arm for the 6lb mono (sometimes with small diameter line you have to use the loop method to twist the line into the front release so it has a larger surface area to hold) and the OR-16 snap weight releases on the back of the boards. The larger boards wear the same snap weight clip on the back and an OR-19 orange release on the arm. The extra tattle flag kit is optional for crappie-sized fish because they often do not trip the flag, you'll just see the board pause or fall out of formation.

Planer boards are another way to mix things up from time to time. It becomes a challenge on busy or smaller bodies of water just because of how much real estate you can take up. You'll also draw some attention in places where seeing planer boards is uncommon-I got accused of "seining" last week by a jerk in a pontoon passing my way too close to my board spread. Start off slow, even using boards on one side of the boat and flat lines on the other so you can get accustomed to setting, monitoring, and resetting your spread. Don't tackle 6-8 boards right out of the gate.