New to Planer boarding need help!

So a really good friend of mine made me some planner boards. I’m trying to troll with them behind my kayak (nucanoe frontier 12) powered with a 55lb thrust Newport vessels trolling motor. Problem is the boards sink when i put the trolling motor on the lowest speed setting which is about .8 mph. Is this normal for the board to sink? Seems fast to be trolling artificial baits for largemouth to me.

Should I try pulling an anchor to slow me down or putting out my drift sock?

The highest speed is 4 mph on the motor which I didn’t even try using planner boards on.

They shouldn’t sink. We trolling with offshore planet boards at 3mph with no problems

Do they sink when not moving at all? If they do, they are not good. If it is just at a slow troll, it might me the tether location/angle. My friend that made some homemade boards had to weight the rear of the boards to get the nose to ride higher.

The homemade boards I have seen are for stripers and they are a piece of foam on some plexi glass. They are designed to be trolled very slow like a trolling bobber .1 -.2mph. If you want to troll with boards I’m guessing you will troll from 1-3 mph so I would look at just buying a board like offshore or church tackle. GoodLuck

Supercat’s comment raised the question, are your homemade boards being trolled off a mast?

SuperDave1959 wrote:

Do they sink when not moving at all?

No, just when I put the trolling motor in gear.

SuperDave1959 wrote:

Supercat’s comment raised the question, are your homemade boards being trolled off a mast?

The rod was straight up in the air tilted some but not much.

supercat wrote:

The homemade boards I have seen are for stripers and they are a piece of foam on some plexi glass. They are designed to be trolled very slow like a trolling bobber .1 -.2mph. If you want to troll with boards I’m guessing you will troll from 1-3 mph so I would look at just buying a board like offshore or church tackle. GoodLuck

Not sure how fast I need to be going just fast enough for spinnerbaits, crankbaits, topwaters to perform at a normal speed.

From what you said you will be going at least 1 mph not sure about top water baits I have never done that with a planner board. I am a walleye fisherman so trolling planner boards for bass is not something I can offer a lot of help with.

A picture of the board might be helpful. I have never pulled boards in a kayak. And never for bass but the concept should be the same. I think it is probably the angle of the clip to the line. Needs more weight in back or lift up front. Or pulling it on the wrong side of the boat which in essence would make the board upside down.

Your line to the board shouldn’t be in the water. It should be straight line to where it’s clipped to the board. If the clip is too low it might be enough to sink it. I use my offshore boards with leadcore and have a set I’ve altered by pulling the weight, taking a hacksaw to it, and then placing all the way forward to partially compensate for the added weight to the back from the leadcore.

Point being no, the board should not sink. Is it being pulled down while still upright or is the board tipping causing the front to dive and the board to be pulled under and essentially work like a dipsy diver?

×2 on pics of the board for starters being helpful in diagnosing the problem. A series of pic of what it’s doing while in use would be even better.

Save yourself the headache and just buy some

Ripjiggen wrote:

A picture of the board might be helpful. I have never pulled boards in a kayak. And never for <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass but the concept should be the same. I think it is probably the angle of the clip to the line. Needs more weight in back or lift up front. Or pulling it on the wrong side of the boat which in essence would make the board upside down.

Im going to try them again soon if so I’ll get photos and video of what’s going on.

joneser wrote:

Your line to the board shouldn’t be in the water. It should be straight line to where it’s clipped to the board. If the clip is too low it might be enough to sink it. I use my offshore boards with leadcore and have a set I’ve altered by pulling the weight, taking a hacksaw to it, and then placing all the way forward to partially compensate for the added weight to the back from the leadcore.

Point being no, the board should not sink. Is it being pulled down while still upright or is the board tipping causing the front to dive and the board to be pulled under and essentially work like a dipsy diver?

×2 on pics of the board for starters being helpful in diagnosing the problem. A series of pic of what it’s doing while in use would be even better.

I’ll post a photo of my boards shortly

Sounds good. The other thing is that going faster could make them run OK.

The slower you go the more drag you have and the more they’ll dig. Think about someone water skiing or wake boarding; do they fight more drag when going slow or going fast? Any crankbait you’re trolling—it dives deeper going slow. A crankbait will run significantly deeper going 1.9mph versus 3mph. There’s more drag, the lip can bite more, and it dives deeper than when it’s going fast.

I agree that you’re better off just buying a set of off-shore boards and saving yourself the hassle. Your boards shouldn’t sink at any speed. At a standstill they should float, maybe fall over, but not sink. If you’re dead set on trying to get these to work go faster. 90% of the time I’m going from 1.9mph to 2.5mph. 0.8 is lindy rigging or crawler harness speed….not trolling artificials. Turn up the thrust and see if that’ll make that biatch ski!

Ripjiggen wrote:

A picture of the board might be helpful. I have never pulled boards in a kayak. And never for <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass but the concept should be the same. I think it is probably the angle of the clip to the line. Needs more weight in back or lift up front. Or pulling it on the wrong side of the boat which in essence would make the board upside down.

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Well if I am seeing this right. It doesn’t seem as though the clip is high enough to keep your line that is attached to your rod tip is out of the water. It also looks to me that the nose would be heavier than the tail itself so when you you start to go it will want to dive. In your case and what you are using them for I would be more inclined to get off shore tackle mini boards.
Those boards look like they would be more work than they are worth especially fishing out of a yak. IMO

joneser wrote:

Your line to the board shouldn’t be in the water. It should be straight line to where it’s clipped to the board. If the clip is too low it might be enough to sink it. I use my offshore boards with leadcore and have a set I’ve altered by pulling the weight, taking a hacksaw to it, and then placing all the way forward to partially compensate for the added weight to the back from the leadcore.

Point being no, the board should not sink. Is it being pulled down while still upright or is the board tipping causing the front to dive and the board to be pulled under and essentially work like a dipsy diver?

×2 on pics of the board for starters being helpful in diagnosing the problem. A series of pic of what it’s doing while in use would be even better.

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Ripjiggen wrote:

Well if I am seeing this right. It doesn’t seem as though the clip is high enough to keep your line that is attached to your rod tip is out of the water. It also looks to me that the nose would be heavier than the tail itself so when you you start to go it will want to dive. In your case and what you are using them for I would be more inclined to get off shore tackle mini boards.
Those boards look like they would be more work than they are worth especially fishing out of a yak. IMO

Any ideas on where to get some from?

https://www.fishusa.com/Church-Tackle-TX-6-Magnum-Mini-Planer-Boards

Ripjiggen wrote:

Well if I am seeing this right. It doesn’t seem as though the clip is high enough to keep your line that is attached to your rod tip is out of the water. It also looks to me that the nose would be heavier than the tail itself so when you you start to go it will want to dive. In your case and what you are using them for I would be more inclined to get off shore tackle mini boards.
Those boards look like they would be more work than they are worth especially fishing out of a yak. IMO

I forgot to mention somehow the photos are upside down on this post. The foam is the top of the boards.

Yeah I figured. Never seen boards like that.

Quite frankly I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at in those pics. Usually when people say they’ve got a set of homemade boards they’re made out of actual boards…like stuff you buy from a lumber yard. It looks like he took a large salmon flasher, glued some foam to it so one side is the top, and rigged it with a set of clips. I don’t do much salmon trolling; are they angled at the fronts or is the whole thing flat like a table?

I agree with what others have said. Just go and buy a mini-board. The last one I got was under $20. Here’s what’s going to happen..you’re going to waste a bunch of your time trying to get these to work and you’ll eventually get frustrated and wind up buying them anyways, use them once, and immediately understand why we recommended buying some. Hell, just buy one for starters and get the hang of it and who knows? Then maybe you can figure out how go get those to work once seeing the right way.

Can you see how when looking from the top down a normal board is about an inch wide with the front end on the right board cut at about a 45 to 60 degree angle (guessing) so it narrows to a point, with the left side being a 135 to 150 degree angle for the left side. Does that make sense? They’re made of plastic, filled with Styrofoam to float, and on the churches the weight is adjustable. I actually like them as much as off-shor, couple things are better, couple things aren’t as good when comparing the two brands in my opinion. I was going to take pics of my off-shor ones but I put my phone number on top. I’ve lost boards before, they’re not real expensive but not cheap either. The churches won’t pull off unless you break a line, and I keep forgetting to put my number on them.

Boards aren’t supposed to be made out of flat metal. It honestly wouldn’t shock me if those worked OK if you were going 4mph or faster but just get yourself a mini-planer, they float, so you can get back to enjoying fishing.

Good Luck!

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blgreene89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>joneser wrote:</div>
Your line to the board shouldn’t be in the water. It should be straight line to where it’s clipped to the board. If the clip is too low it might be enough to sink it. I use my offshore boards with leadcore and have a set I’ve altered by pulling the weight, taking a hacksaw to it, and then placing all the way forward to partially compensate for the added weight to the back from the leadcore.

Point being no, the board should not sink. Is it being pulled down while still upright or is the board tipping causing the front to dive and the board to be pulled under and essentially work like a dipsy diver?

×2 on pics of the board for starters being helpful in diagnosing the problem. A series of pic of what it’s doing while in use would be even better.

Those are the exact boards I have seen for stripers. Don’t waste any money trying to make them work for what you want to do. As others have said buy new ones.

Hey bigreene89 welcome to site. Hope you get the problem solved. I was wondering where you are fishing and or where are you located. If your close heck I could loan you a board to check out. Are you fishing for Stripers? Have a good day.

leinieman wrote:

Hey bigreene89 welcome to site. Hope you get the problem solved. I was wondering where you are fishing and or where are you located. If your close heck I could loan you a board to check out. Are you fishing for Stripers? Have a good day.

Thank you, I live in Greenville,N.C. I ended up with these boards because a friend of mine (ted) bought a set of redneck planer boards in VA at Smith Mountain Lake. Well, me and several other fisherman were all down there same time fishing and loved how they caught fish. So he duplicated the boards to the exact specs. Yes, they were striper fishing, but I’ve heard they caught small mouth and stripers on the boards.

Only time I really fish for stripers is when I’m at SML. I’m more of a largemouth guy , but I enjoy fishing for flatheads also.

We had the idea of running the boards on artificial baits in the rivers, and ponds here to cover more water quicker to locate the bass, crappie, or whatever we were targeting.

I also own a 15’ bass boat what boards do y’all recommend minis still?

joneser wrote:

Quite frankly I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at in those pics. Usually when people say they’ve got a set of homemade boards they’re made out of actual boards…like stuff you buy from a lumber yard. It looks like he took a large salmon flasher, glued some foam to it so one side is the top, and rigged it with a set of clips. I don’t do much salmon trolling; are they angled at the fronts or is the whole thing flat like a table?

I agree with what others have said. Just go and buy a mini-board. The last one I got was under $20. Here’s what’s going to happen..you’re going to waste a bunch of your time trying to get these to work and you’ll eventually get frustrated and wind up buying them anyways, use them once, and immediately understand why we recommended buying some. Hell, just buy one for starters and get the hang of it and who knows? Then maybe you can figure out how go get those to work once seeing the right way.

Can you see how when looking from the top down a normal board is about an inch wide with the front end on the right board cut at about a 45 to 60 degree angle (guessing) so it narrows to a point, with the left side being a 135 to 150 degree angle for the left side. Does that make sense? They’re made of plastic, filled with Styrofoam to float, and on the churches the weight is adjustable. I actually like them as much as off-shor, couple things are better, couple things aren’t as good when comparing the two brands in my opinion. I was going to take pics of my off-shor ones but I put my phone number on top. I’ve lost boards before, they’re not real expensive but not cheap either. The churches won’t pull off unless you break a line, and I keep forgetting to put my number on them.

Boards aren’t supposed to be made out of flat metal. It honestly wouldn’t shock me if those worked OK if you were going 4mph or faster but just get yourself a mini-planer, they float, so you can get back to enjoying fishing.

Good Luck!

So, my homemade boards are level they were made out of a blue fish measuring board and a pool noodle. Not really sure how these church boards work but I’m not against buying some. I have a 15’ bass hot also so my question is do I need minis or standard what’s the big difference?

The mini’s won’t get your line as far away from the boat, can’t handle big baits or a lot of weight, and don’t work as well if it’s windy and you’re trolling in some decent sized chop.

If it’s nice out I actually prefer the mini’s since I’m typically trolling for walleyes and using nothing bigger than a midsize crankbait with fluorocarbon line to get down into the upper teens and low twenties for depth. The mini’s have significantly less drag and don’t pull nearly as hard so you can set the drag lighter, detect when there’s a fish on easier, etc.

The downside to using boards is you lose pretty much all sensitivity and being able to feel fish like a small walleye. It’s more about sight than feel and watching the board. The back end pulls downward and they won’t run straight when there’s a fish on. I’m using trolling rods with line counters that have a clicker, and I’ll loosen my drag to where it’s just enough to hold the board and lure so when a fish hits it it’s pulling out some line and the clicker is going. Just something to keep in mind since depending on your set up it’s all sight if you’re using a spinning rod or a reel without a clicker.

I still think you’re probably going to want to go with the mini’s if you’re after bass and stuff like crappies. I’m sure most guys can tell you similar stories of switching lures only to have been dragging a fish for a while. In my case it’s usually a decent sized perch or a small walleye. If you’re trolling for crappies and panfish I’d have to imagine a lot of them you won’t be able to tell are on if you’re using the standard sized boards. I’ve never used them for that type of fishing so maybe others can give you some input with experience on it since I cant.

I suppose I should mention that when I’m fishing solo I rarely use a board. We’re only allowed one line in MN so unless I’ve got a couple people in the boat am I messing with boards. They’re kind of a necessary evil. Even though the argument can be made they outperform lines trolled behind or off the side of the boat, they can be a hassle.

If it’s nice out and I’m fishing solo I’m much more likely to use the mini to get my line out from the boat a little than I am the standard sized boards.

My solution for getting my lure away from the boat is usually by letting out a lot of line. A couple hundred feet to 250′ is pretty standard for me. Sometimes if I’m not catching much I’ll try changing it up by using a board but I can’t remember a time when I was trolling and fishing was really slow and then it was lights out once I started using a planer board. It’s generally pretty close to the same rate with the boards probably having a slight edge on most of the days I use them.