Newbie questions about planer boards...

Muskyman · **Joined:** Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:50 pm **Posts:** 21

First post ever on this board...Hi guys, I have a few questions about walleye fishing on bay of Quinte. Been fishing for many years, walleye & bass (gig'n & casting with 6' fast action, sensitive rods), musky, (troling with 7' much stiffer rods), river salmons & steelheads, (using 10' slow action rods).
Me & my buddy want to start fishing the Quinte & are about to rig ourselfs for planer board fishing. Problem is both of us are newbies to planer board fishing & are questionning ourselfes about the ideal action/power & lure weight rods we should get & the type of planner board we should go for. Am I wrong thinking using inline planer boards will force us to use stiffer/heavyer rods (7-8'or more mod.to slow action/ 1-3oz lures)or more ? Keeping in mind I prefer to fight a fish with the lightest, most sensitive rod possible, (using 4000 size spinning or mid size casting gear,I hate "winching" a catch in) would using larger, mast type planer boards, be the best option for us allowing us to use 7', fast or med./fast action action, 3/8 to 1 oz graphite rods ? :?:

ZOOMER2 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:02 am

The main purpose of a planer board is to take your line out and away from the boat. When getting one just make sure it is of good quality. The other items that are a must to have is, the Precision Trolling Guide Book. This will tell with the line and lure you are using just how much line you need to have out to get the lure to an exact depth to where the fish are. With that you also need a line counter reel to tell you how much line you need to have out. A good trolling rod helps too. hope that helps. good luck.

rtkman · **Joined:** Sun Jul 10, 2011 6:28 am **Posts:** 528

Hey welcome to the board. I would recommend offshore planers. I've used those with regular med action spinning setups. They bend pretty good but no breaks. (cheap ones at that) If you go to a bigger board you will have to get a heavier rod but for walleye the regular Offshore ones are fine. As for lures we haul deep diving cranks (like a Reef Runner 800 series) around with them no problem. Good luck!

Grizzly · **Posted:** Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:38 am

I have recently switched over to the Church walleye boards I just like how easy the clip on and they track well not that there is anything wrong with the off shore boards i just found the church boards to be very user friendly expessally in cold weather conditions with cold cold cold fingers lol ive used different rods but my main rods are TDR 7'6 in medium action, but have used 9 foot lite action and 6'6 spinning rods as well they all handle the boards but when its lumpy bumpy out there the heavier rods seem to work better with less whip action going into the waves . i run boards for walleye and also spring time browns on the big lake and do admit the church boards are much more user friendly my musky guru got me hooked on tem and he uses them to run big musky baits like the jakes, and believers so they are a well rounded board for multi species ...... good luck, and happy fishing. Grizz

DanElliot · **Joined:** Mon Apr 08, 2002 8:59 am **Posts:** 4332

you will be okay with the 7ft rods on inline planers.

Superdad · **Posted:** Sun Nov 25, 2012 10:07 am

Hey Grizzly

Some people claim that the Church boards freeze up when the fishing gets really cold, that button on the back is inoperable.

Just a comment about those boards, if you don;t fish when it's freezing, then it's not a problem.

David aka Superdad

Muskyman · **Joined:** Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:50 pm **Posts:** 21

Thanks for all sugessions & comments.I'm supprised that nobody seems to use larger mast type boards, Any reasons ?
ZOOMER2, I've been looking for the precision troling book everywhere for the past week, IMPOSSIBLE to find. Rare places that offered the book showed "out of stock" or "not available anymore" on check out...Seems there wont be any paper reedition of the book due to cost. Apparently they are about to come up with an application for smart phones etc, I'm keeping an eye open...

Tylercurt · **Posted:** Sun Nov 25, 2012 12:03 pm

Muskyman....PM sent

Fred Fisher · **Posted:** Sun Nov 25, 2012 2:32 pm

Hi Muskyman. The first thing i would ask is what is the length of your boat ?. As for planner boards i like both but if you have a big boat with the ability to move to the bow without having to hop over seats etc then you can go with a Mast and Big Boards using release clips that go onto your planner board cable. The nice thing about these types of board is the track very well in heavy chop and you can run lighter rods as you are not pulling the board in with the fish. With a Mast you use a shower curtain type ring that goes on the Mast line and it has a clip on it that you attach to your line. You can stack them up with 3 or 4 lines and when a rod fires you can fight the fish behind the boat without it getting into the rest of your lines if you keep your lines running the same distance back from the board Or stagger them with the longest being your out side line. Another nice thing with a Mast system is that you keep cycling your lines. Say line 2 fires on a 3 line spread and you bring in the fish you now run line 3 out to were 2 was and then reset the line you just pulled in as line 3. No need to clear lines providing you had no tangles. The next thing with a Mast system is they can really pull you around if your running a light boat as they pull from the bow and can make boat control an issue also they take much more space on your boat. In-line boards have become very popular due to the ease of use. Simply let out the amount of line you want back then send it out and you can see your spread very easy when running more that one board off each side. A Mast system it is hard to see how your lines are spaced on the cable and so I used to put a piece of ticker tape on each clip so i could see were they were. In-line boards will require you to run 7' to 8' foot rods with a Med to Med Heavy action and you will sometimes need a helping hand to unclip the board when you have a fish on as were a Mast system you can fish alone providing to can stay on course lol. It will be more of a personal preference thing and something you will have to try both to see what you like best. I would start with some in-line boards and go from there. Like i said I like both types and know lots of guys that like the big boards so if your out keep an eye open for guys running a Mast and watch them but for the most part everyone will probably be running in-line boards. This is just my opinion and i used to spend a great deal of time on the water but the other guys on this board fish allot and have given you some good advise. Hope this helps.... Fred.....

Muskyman · **Joined:** Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:50 pm **Posts:** 21

Thanks Fred & everybody else on the board, first hand informations, greatly appreciated...

Walleye 9 · **Joined:** Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:05 pm **Posts:** 1985

I was out on the weekend, and noticed that there quite a few boats that use the mast system. I don't know anything about them, but people are using them. Seems like the bigger boats use them. Also noticed that they will use the big boards off one side, and inline boards off the other side.

As far as the Precision Trolling Guide goes, if you're just fishing for Walleye in the fall on Quinte, typically people are only using 3 or 4 different lures. TDD 11, Reef Runner 800, TT 20's etc.. I have a copy (older version) and it seems most deep diving cranks will max out with 200 feet of 10 pound mono, or the equivelent in braid. If the fish are marking up higher, just let out less line. You should be close. If you're going with a heavier diameter line, you need to let out more line to get deeper. For Quinte Walleye, I don't think you need much more than 12-14 pound line.

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Newbie questions about planer boards...

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