Inline Planer Boards, Trolling Cranks for Walleye

[SouthAltaHunter]

Hey guys, I am trying to dig up as much information as I can about trolling cranks for Walleye. My usual techniques have been bottom bouncing, lindy rigging & jigging. I wanna switch it up this year and start pulling cranks more sucsesfull. Have any of you used Planer Boards. What are the advantages, and how exactly do they work. I ordered Precision Trolling book yesterday hopefully it has a few tips. Any feedback would be great.

SouthAltaHunter

[pdfish]

Planer boards are pretty simple to use, just follow the instructions. I haven't used mine a lot, but that'll change this year. The biggest advantage is getting the crank out and away from the boat thereby lessening the chance of spooking fish, or if you have 3-4 people on board it helps spread the gear out and cover more water.

[merk1]

I really like using mine, like pdfish said they work really good when there is more rods out. The only thing I find is you have to troll at a lower speed (about 0.8 to 1.2 mph) or there seems to be alot of pull on the rods, with the type I am using anyways, I use light tackle though. Very easy to rig up and use and cover alot of area, but I did have a line cut because a seadoo came way to close to my boat and it was only about 25ft to 30ft out the side, way to close for somebody to be flying by you.

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

Planer boards are the cats meow definitely , especially when you have a larger spread of rods , but as your only allowed 1 rod per angler in Alberta , Yes even when trolling . Anyway whichever , I find them to be most effective to put a descent spread on your set ups . As when your trolling the fish are pushed to the sides of the boat like a > as that are pushed out from the boat and , your hook comes swimming by WHAM fish on . I also like to switch out the Clips on the Planer boards to quick release clips . Combine all these things and set your trolling speed to about 1 MPH to 2MPH depending on wind speed and all that good stuff , but All in all Great product .

[bobalong]

I have used the ski boards (old style) and the inline. The inline are much nicer to use. I bought the willie boards a few years ago because you could interchange them from one side to the other. The newer Church tackle boards (TX22) can be run off both sides, which is the way to go IMO. About the only time I use them now is when I am pulling cranks in less than 10 feet of water. Once you get in shallow water the boat can spook the fish to side, which is right in line with the boards.
I have not really found them that usefull when fishing structure, as your crank can not follow the contour if you are trolling up and down the drop, but they work well for trolling the flats or the shallow water mudlines that form in the southern reservoirs.