Walleye: Beyond the Basics Trolling With Planer Boards
Category: article
Nov 16th, 2015 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Nov 16th, 2015 at 12:00 AM
Walleye: Beyond the Basics – Trolling With Planer Boards
By Noah Humfeld
Well, I’ll just go ahead and say it: if you are serious about walleye fishing, you should be serious about trolling. However, common amongst many anglers is a sense of apprehension about trolling. There are so many factors that play into piecing together the perfect presentation, and it can seem overwhelming at times. One of the most important parts of any modern walleye trolling setup is inline planer boards. At first glance they may seem intimidating, but in time you will learn to love them!
Offshore Tackle Pro Noah Humfeld with a nice Green Bay walleye
So, what exactly IS a planer board? If there was a Webster’s definition it would probably be something along the lines of: “A floating device which through use of an angled leading edge pulls a fishing line away from a moving boat”. Most boards are made of plastic, foam, have some type of keel weight, and a series of clips to attach to the line. For this piece, we will be using the Offshore Tackle OR12 side planer as our example board. In the opinion of hundreds of walleye pros these are by far the best planer boards in existence. Ever. They are super durable, easy to use, and very consistent. They may cost a little bit more than other boards on the market, but for the money they just can’t be beat.
The OR12 Side Planer
Why are planer boards so useful and essential to successful trolling? There are several reasons, and for the sake of keeping this within the average person’s attention span, we will focus on the top 3.
1. They spread your lines out away from the boat.
Here in Wisconsin, anglers are allowed to fish 3 lines per person which means 3 trolling lines. So, with 2 people, we would have 6 lines in the water. As you can imagine, 6 lines piled up behind a boat is a disaster waiting to happen. Planer boards eliminate this twisted, knotted, snagged nightmare by spreading the lines out to each side of the boat.