How to attach planer boards?

I have a couple of general questions related to attaching planer boards when using leadcore.
I understand the basic set-up 5 colors of leadcore on the real and 30 ft of 20lb mono/flouro for the leader.
1. The front line attachment is this just placed flat between the sping plate holder? or is is wrapped around. I saw a couple of youtube videos that talk about wrapping the line around the front pin. With leadcore that would kink the line right? do you adjust the spring plate by tightening down?
2. how do you prevent the planer board from coming loose and floating adrift?
what’s the best way to attach the board?
thanks
Dave

If its under a foot of chop on the water I just put it in the clip but over a foot of wave action and it’s getting wrapped.

I would use the church style planer board that has the ability to put the line thru the board on the back end of the planer board. This will prevent the board from difting away if the front clip comes off the leadcore. Lift the spring and slide the line thru.

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I have a couple of general questions related to attaching planer boards when using leadcore.

I understand the basic set-up 5 colors of leadcore on the real and 30 ft of 20lb mono/flouro for the leader.

1. The front line attachment is this just placed flat between the sping plate holder? or is is wrapped around. I saw a couple of youtube videos that talk about wrapping the line around the front pin. With leadcore that would kink the line right? do you adjust the spring plate by tightening down?

2. how do you prevent the planer board from coming loose and floating adrift?

what’s the best way to attach the board?

thanks

Dave

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I don’t attach the board to leadcore itself. The clips break the internal lead filament and the leadcore in front of the board running back to the rod drags in the water causing all kinds of issues with the way the boards run. It gets even worse in with any kind of waves.

If you want to run boards and leadcore, segmented sections of leadcore is the way to go. I run 3 colors on Mille Lacs with a 30′ leader on the lure end and backing of 17′ mono. I attach the board to the mono after the leadcore.

Hope this helps.

If there is any doubt, wrap. I never used the planer boards that were given to me becuase the spring plate just seemed so loose. After being in two different boats using planer boards, the common upgrade done to the boards is to change out the spring plate with the OR 18 clamp. I would always suggest wrapping because it is probably worse to have the board slip down the line rather than having it come off. If it comes off of the line the you know you have to fix the issue. If the board slips down the line, you will not know that the distance behind the board went from 150 feet to 130 feet rendering your lures out of the srike zone. You may troll like this for some time before it is realized.

As for lead core in the clamp itself, most of the time you would not want to do this because the weight of the leadcore can cause the line sag too much from the board to the boat. Any waves will catch the lead core and cause you more grief. this is one of the main reasons why segmented lead core is used with boards.

James is right on here, run segmented LC you dont want another 20+yds. of lead in front of the board dragging in the water. I run 3 to 5 colors here on mille lacs.

Many of the suggestions really help. The segmented leadcore sounds interesting. Please help me understand. a 100 yd spool of Suffix 832 18# LC has 10 colors each 10 yds per color. Starting at an empty reel, little mono backing to prevent slippage then filling the reel with 7 colors/70 yds of leadcore, then 20-30 yds of 20# flurocarbon, then the 3 colors of leadcore followed by 30ft of flouro tied to the lure. did I get that right? or are you just filling the reel with 20# mono then the 3 segments of LC? Also are you running the leader through a post or ring at the rear of the board and then tie to a swivel so the board can run down to the swivel without coming off. or so you like to take the board off for the last 30 ft of fight?

Backing = mono.

Then 3 colors of leadcore, unless you intend to fish deeper (4 colors, 5 colors, whatever). I always put out all of the leadcore, I never attach leadcore line to the board.. Which means you need to know ahead of time the depths you want to target and setup your reels accordingly.

Then leader material – usually mono, can be superline, whatever.

Often guys running for walleye have 3 or 4 color setups ’cause you are often targeting that 20 foot range. When I run for salmon, I have 8 or 10 leadcore setups with anywhere from 2 colors only to 10 colors on each reel.

BTW, some guys run the Church boards, which are nice, but that back line holder can wear/break, especially with superline. Some guys run a second release on the back of the board, some guys run a snap swivel… A few years back I changed all of mine over to pigtail swivels. The pigtail holds the line and makes it very easy to remove the line from the swivel – just grab the line and pigtail it out. Takes about a second. Beats having to open up a swivel or untangle a release with a fish on the other end.

my 3 cents (inflation)

As posted above the OR-18’s are a bit expensive, but worth every penny IMO. Specifically to your question about leadcore on boards as others have stated attaching a board directly to leadcore is possible with OR-18’s but not reccomended.

Adding to the discussion of board attachment in general, it sounds like I take a slightly different approach than most. Personally I try to avoid wrapping as I actually want the front of the board to come off in the event I catch a true trophy fish. I will explain in a second. I also try to avoid having a set-up that allows the board to slide freely on the line as again in the event of a true trophy fish this can be an issue.

The reason I like boards to come off but do not allow them to slide is that when you are lucky enough to get a trophy fish big enough to pull your entire board underwater (typically around a 29″ or bigger walleye can do so) it greatly affects your ability to fight the fish as you may be keeping tension on the line back to your board but the fish can easily get slack behind the board. Additionally if you are usinga Church brand board and it releases allowing it to slide back to you lure the board itelf now acts like a anchoring point for the fish to create leverage and dislodge the hooks.

The approach that I have found works best is to use the OR-18 clips at the front of the board and replace the back clips with snap weight clips which include a pin in the center of the pad to keep the line from releasign. You can also do this with the church boards by attaching the rear clip to the pin with a large swivel/snap. When you attach the front clip flipping it rearward instead of forward allows the line to detach if the board sinks. With this set-up if you get a large fish and the board is pulled under your front clip will release, but the pin will ensure that your back clip does not come off which allows you to keep tension on the fish properly. I learned this trick fishing Salmon where 20# fish are common and having a board release can help frequently

Additionally the type of line you use will play a role in how tight you should set your front clips. I prefer powerpro as it holds in the clip much better than fireline but releases better and doesn’t have the stretch that mono has which also helps you to read your boards.

Good tips…

You can also add a 8′ (+/-) mono or fluoro leader in front of your lure, and put a snap/swivel/bead large enough to “catch” your board so it doesn’t travel all the way down to the fish…

Lots of ways to go, depends on preference, type of fishing, etc…