Planer boards/ what do you use???

I’m looking at planer boards and was wondering what you guys have used and prefer. I was looking at side-planer brand with the tattle flag set up. As always thank you for the any input

bigpike,

As you know, there are several brands out there and choosing one can be a bit confusing. I will give you my input that I have seen over the 10 years of pulling various planer boards. First off, most of my time pulling boards is on BIG water or waters that can see a 3-6 foot rollers commonly when trolling. I do prefer the Mr. Walleye (Church Tackle) orange planer boards for all of these conditions. They track very well in big waves and pull out sideways away from the boat with much less line than the Off Shore brand needs to obtain the same side distance. From my experience, I have seen the Off Shores get air born in most choppy waters and not stay on straight track as well due to the inconsistant action with the waves and seem to lack the biting power in the water. The Mr. Walleye boards offer a quick, fool proof, single clip system that has been improved dramatically to take the abuse from super braid lines that are offered today that have eaten just about every kind of grip pad out there in a short matter of time.
Both of these models now offer a flag (tattle tail) system that helps the angler detect the lighter fish or debris that has the lure fouled up. I do know several anglers that prefer both brands for different conditions and different reasons, but these are my thoughts. Hope this helps.

Good Luck to you.
I do have some off shore and mr. walleye boards that you are welcome to try out if you are interested and may sell them to you if you like them.

As DeeZee said, both of these boards are a good choice. I have been using the Off Shore brand for several years. (The Yellow board with the Red Flag and not to be confused with the YellowBird brand)

If you do plan to run them in rough water, plan on upgrading the forward release on the Offshore Boards. I use the OR-18 Snapper releases. These work well with braided lines and prevent the board from slipping on the line or completely popping off! The rear release does not need to be upgraded and in some presentations not used. I do not use the Tattle Tail flags on my boards. I know some guys run the releases that come on the Church Tackle boards. They are happy with that set up as well.

I have never had a board pop off after switching to the OR-18 release. Even on fish that have completely buried my board.

A set of 2 or 4 boards is not cheap. It’s a purchase that will last a lifetime! You may want to take DeeZee up on that offer!!

Jon J.

I’m from the ”older school” of planer boards. Back in the late 1980’s two young guys named Keith K. and Gary P. made the Willie planer boards real popular and Keith did a good sales job on me and I’ve used them since. What I like about them over the others is you can use the same board to run on either side of the boat. No left side model and no right side model. Even though I have several its still a nice feature. One of these days, I keep saying this every year, I probably will up grade to the Offshore brand. After all, Keith and Gary did years ago but I’m a little slow I guess. lol. Either brand, they work, are fun to use, and do help you catch fish. By the way, the Church planer boards are designed by Gary Roach so you know they have to be good too. They are in Garys favorite color [Red]. Thanks, Bill

The only ones I’ve used are the yellow birds. They seem to work for me but I can’t compare them to any other. They were a friends that went to fishing with a full ski and mast System and he gave them to me. I upgraded the clasps on both and they both work for me. I wouldn’t mind going to the mast setup as all you fight after hooking a fish is the fish. There now all most all of them have been discusssed. Hey Bigpike you can try mine if you would like once we have open water since your close we could hit Wissota and check out the fishing. Steve

Anyone else use a ski and mast system? I built a set of homemade side planers a couple years ago and tried them out once. I didn’t have a mast, so I just tied them off on a front cleat with 50lb braid. It seemed to work pretty well, but I was only fishing a couple of rods (one on each side).

If there were any ‘big water’ lakes near me, I would probably go to the trouble of building a mast that plugged into the seat socket in the bow, but about the biggest lake within convenient driving distance is Coralville, and there’s just not enough open water to really use the planers.

I have a mast that plugs into the seat cocket, 2 big reels on it that hold 80# line and a couple of skis (L/R), these are “Wille” brand and have fairly long flags and tunable hulls to float properly (multiple chambers in them with plugs to add water as ballast). I have a couple of the small stand alones but have not tried them yet.

I have yellow birds and have had very good luck with them. I agree on the change of the snap release, where do you get the OR-18 snap release Jon J. Thanks for the help guys.

I get them at Gander Mountain in the downrigger section. If they don’t have them, they will order them in.

J.

Anyone,

Has anyone been around the Big Jon Otter boat? It’s a spendy little devil, but like Jon said, once you buy them they don’t wear out. I’ve never been around this board or even seen one. I’ve run the off-shore product for years and have had good luck with them. I’ll second Jon’s comment on the front release also, it’s a must. I see Gander has a free mag/flyer put out by the gentleman who owns Off Shore. I haven’t read the whole flyer yet, but looks to have some good info for anyone just getting into the planer board world.