Hey guys I am needing to run 6 lines but don’t have planner boards. I have one rod holder on each side in the bow and then one rode holder on each side at the console and then one on each side half way back. I will have two 9 foot rods, three 7 foot rods and one 5 foot rod. Any ideas on how to do this? Is it even possible?
Fish 2 topwaters, two shallow divers and two deep divers, deepest and least amount of line in the middle and don’t turn…ever. 
Either buy planers, or put your longest rods up front, medium in the middle, short rods in the back over the transom. And don’t turn…ever
Well guys the more I think about this the less I think it can work. I think we are only gonna be able to run 4 rods. The reason is because the area we will be fishing is extremely snaggy and its shallow so if we let out more then like 50 or 60 yards of line I’m afraid the cranks are going to get down to deep and be nothing but snags.
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Hey guys I am needing to run 6 lines but don’t have planner boards. I have one rod holder on each side in the bow and then one rode holder on each side at the console and then one on each side half way back. I will have two 9 foot rods, three 7 foot rods and one 5 foot rod. Any ideas on how to do this? Is it even possible?
With your setup I would run as previously mentioned with longer rods up front & shorter as you move back.Yes it is very possible.I have run up to 10 lines without boards & I run six flat lines regularly & can turn inside a 100′ circle doing so!There are a few key things to know on pulling multiple rod setups.First thing is getting to know how to read your rods.If you pick up a small piece of debris on a lure running flatlines or multi-line setups you want to know it immediately or it can be a recipe for disaster. 
Lures will rise & can run off to the side with just a small piece of debris.Thats where knowing how your rod bends naturally with a selected lure on should run & when its not bending or vibrating as it should be you have a piece of something unwanted on.Running hardline (braid-fused line)works much better for most flatline applications.Having matching sets of rods also make it easier knowing if something is wrong on the other end as you have the same rod across from it to compare with.With your rodtip down dropping back to 7 o’clock ripping your lure ahead 3′-5’to a 9 o’clock position a couple times will generally break most unwanted debris free.You can accomplish this with mono but you need to use a stiffer action rod for similar results to make up for the flex or stretch you get from running mono. Secondly running shallower lures on your longer rods farther back & deepest running baits on short rods or in your case would be back rods.(Example)Front- 9’rods #5 shad rap 100’back,Mid ship-7′ rods #7 shad rap 75’back & rear- 5’rod with remaining 7′ rod angled back at 45 deg. #9 shad rap 50′ back.This was just an example & might give you a start running what you have.You might consider getting another 5′ rod to match the other for better performance without adding possible tangling issues.As for turning circles thats a chapter in another book as I could go on for a long while on this whole subject.My last tip would be to consider getting the trollers bible which will shorten up your learning curve on running depths for some of the most popular lure models.Hope this all helps & best of luck fishing. 
WHITE TIP
In my opinion, it is far better to run four rods well than to run six rods in an ‘iffy’ situation where you run the risk of a tangle and ending up with ‘down time’.
Save yourself a pile of trouble and stick to four lines.
Especially on windy days and when plenty of other fishermen are also trolling in the vicinity.
In the end, your day will be much, much less stressful and a lot more enjoyable.
Its not always about whether you can do it or not. Sometimes, its just not even worth doing!
Boog
I like to run 5 when I’m after big toothies. I run two boards, two long lines, and one in the prop wash but eyes are different thing and to be precise, I would follow Joel’s advice. The only place I’d even think of running that many boards would be the great lakes for walleyes or salmon.
I ran 6 lines without boards once on Winnebago because I forgot to put my boards back in the boat and they were sitting in my garage. All my rod holders were in the back of the boat. I was running four 8 foot rods and 2 6 foot rods. The 8 footers were the front four, and the 6 footers were the back two. I had spinner rigs on the outside rods with keel weights. Mid-running cranks on the middle rods, and deeper cranks on the inside rods. I hooked a pike on a mid-depth crank and by the time I got it to the boat, it had tangled up the other 3 crank baits. The only thing it didn’t tangle up were the crawler rods. I haven’t run 6 rods since without boards and will probably not do it again. 4 rods is enough work.
I agree with White tip. Not sure on the depth that you will be running but when we troll deep water tree tops, we’ll run our long rods short and put 4-8 once snap weights on.to get the front lines down quick, these rods will rarely get tangled because we run them short and with large weights. The difficult part of this set up is when you get grass or something on your plug it is difficult to notice with a 6 ounce snap weight, after time you figure it out the rod dips back just a little more than normal. The other tricky part is you have to maintain speeds if you get a larger fish on a back line you need to reel the snap weight rods up before you slow down or the weight will drag your plugs down into the tree tops and get snagged. After reading your post again your not fishing deep water but this is a tip to remember for those that fish deep water
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