Outriggers vs boards

Has anyone ever used them? Why are they not popular on the lake. Go to the east coast and every fishing boat has them and you don't see any boats with boards. What the advantage/ disadvantage to them over boards?

Outrigger poles are very expensive to get set up to run just a few line. To get a basic set up for smaller boats (under 40') which most Erie charters are... you would spend a couple grand pretty easy. Like this set

Outriggers will do better in rough water... sometimes... Outriggers will have significant movement in the water column due to the height and action of the poles. For some species this is good... Planer boards (also actually a form of outrigger) are low to the water and about the only action that you get is the actual wave action, but even that is reduced by the line absorbing much of that... So the lures run more true in a specific water column. So that totally depends on what species you are targeting.

Many times with walleye you want to troll shallow (10' deep) and only have 30' of line out. Outriggers can be problematic with this. However, many times you might be trolling deep with lead core line and 300' of leads... the outriggers would be better for that.

The main reasons that I run big planer boards instead of outriggers:
1- I run up to 8 lines per side, 16 lines total. This is not possible with outriggers unless you spend upwards of $18,000 for a setup and then my boat would be too small to handle them. lol
2- Planer boards can easily run 200' off each side and you can spread 16 rods out over 400' wide very easily... Not possible with outriggers
3- The cost to set up good planer boards is less than $500, and probably less than $300 for most. The cost to set up outriggers, even a cheap pair is 5-10 times that and far more limited FOR THE KIND OF FISHING I DO IN THE WESTERN BASIN.

Planer boards are not practical for trolling hundred of feet of lead core line in deep water. If that is your primary method then you would want downriggers or outriggers..

If you just want to get a cheap set of outrigger poles and fish 4 lines then you'd be fine too.

-Matt

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Originally Posted by Madd Matt

Outrigger poles are very expensive to get set up to run just a few line. To get a basic set up for smaller boats (under 40') which most Erie charters are... you would spend a couple grand pretty easy. Like this set

Outriggers will do better in rough water... sometimes... Outriggers will have significant movement in the water column due to the height and action of the poles. For some species this is good... Planer boards (also actually a form of outrigger) are low to the water and about the only action that you get is the actual wave action, but even that is reduced by the line absorbing much of that... So the lures run more true in a specific water column. So that totally depends on what species you are targeting.

Many times with walleye you want to troll shallow (10' deep) and only have 30' of line out. Outriggers can be problematic with this. However, many times you might be trolling deep with lead core line and 300' of leads... the outriggers would be better for that.

The main reasons that I run big planer boards instead of outriggers:
1- I run up to 8 lines per side, 16 lines total. This is not possible with outriggers unless you spend upwards of $18,000 for a setup and then my boat would be too small to handle them. lol
2- Planer boards can easily run 200' off each side and you can spread 16 rods out over 400' wide very easily... Not possible with outriggers
3- The cost to set up good planer boards is less than $500, and probably less than $300 for most. The cost to set up outriggers, even a cheap pair is 5-10 times that and far more limited FOR THE KIND OF FISHING I DO IN THE WESTERN BASIN.

Planer boards are not practical for trolling hundred of feet of lead core line in deep water. If that is your primary method then you would want downriggers or outriggers..

If you just want to get a cheap set of outrigger poles and fish 4 lines then you'd be fine too.

-Matt

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Thanks the reply. I bought a repo boat out of Maryland and it is set up with outriggers. Not all the hardware is there but most of it is. I got them so I'm going to see what I can do as far as setting them up.

You will be fine. If you have them then use them. I would!

you can run more lines with boards. but if you only need a couple more lines outriggers works. i have used them for yrs and some days they were hot and other days not so hot. the ideal set up would be 2 dipsy style divers, 3 inline boards 1 downrigger per side. that way you could run 12 rods per side. i personally dont like boards so i run 3 lite bite divers and 1 downrigger per side. only gives me 8 rods. i should be using the outriggers but i stopped fooling with them during this hot bite on erie.