Skinny, small boards are great as long as the fish hit them like their supposed to , and the boards go out behind the boat and into the shoot ,it's when they just mouth them and swim with the bait, it's hard to tell if you have a bite or not ,the back end sometimes will sag or pull down just slightly,the flag system helps with that , and then you have to pull in the board along with the fish, the trick with that is to keep your rod tip close to the water and once it's up to the boat in one motion pick the board out of the water, the new clips avalable now for the boards are fantastic all you have to do is just hit the lever,and pop the line is out they even are great on braid, now for me I still like the big boards I can tell easier when I have a walleye hanging and see a rubber band stretch 2 or 3 times the length than there normally running, and when they pop you don't have to fight a board , just a fish , I have a small boat and depending on the number of people I'll run 6 -8 on the boards and 2 flat lines down the shoot , good luck