Best In line planer boards that release easily, fall back, and don't dive.

We have used Church walleye boards and a few other brands. But have yet to find a great planer board that will release easily and will fall in behind the boat for retrieval without diving below the surface. Without purchasing and trying a multitude of other brands, just looking for suggestions on a board that routinely works good for this method while pulling cranks. Thank you.

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Originally Posted by Fishfever

We have used Church walleye boards and a few other brands. But have yet to find a great planer board that will release easily and will fall in behind the boat for retrieval without diving below the surface. Without purchasing and trying a multitude of other brands, just looking for suggestions on a board that routinely works good for this method while pulling cranks. Thank you.

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Here you go....watch this short video from Mark Romanack's "Fishing 411" YouTube series (he's also the creator of the Precision Trolling Data) to see how this works with the Off Shore Tackle planer board. It's so easy. :)

Off Shore Tackle Loop Trick - YouTube

We had trouble several years back with boards diving when running very long leads,sinkers and trolling fast...2.5mph.We switched out our releases on the front of our offshore boards to the orange OR19 release and started using a loop in the mono in that release.I watched that same video Juls mentioned to learn how to do it.Works great and stopped our diving problems.Bit of a learning curve initially and you better make sure you get the line behind the pin in the red OR 16 rear release or the board will come off.

I enjoy watching him and his son,

I have switched the release on the back of the board to the OR-18, I can say I have never lost a board. They are a little expensive, but worth it, especially with rookies on board.

I use Church boards as when I first bought them, everyone was out of the Offshore brand that nearly everyone uses. I must say that I have not had any problems with the orange Church boards and I am not sure why everyone uses the other brand? Have any of you had issues with
Church?

I use the offshore boards and made some adjustments last year with good results. First I took the tattle hardware off the board. I can see the bite just fine based on the board positions and the rod bends. Also to me, the boards just run better now at keeping in alignment. I then put the or-18 on the back and the orange release clips on the front and the boards did great just falling back and not diving at all. I twist the line 5 times and try to keep the clip right on the twist and not have a big loop in front. A big loop in front tends to get hooked on the clip when releasing. I did lose 2 boards all year but anyone using these will lose a board now and then. Interesting thing on one we were in questionable weather and couldn't find the board we lost right in front of cedar point. I lost it around 2 pm and I was fishing Vermilion the next day when a guy called me at 10 am he found my board in front of the vermilion river.

I have the Off shore’s too and I have the black pinch clips on the front and the red clips on the back. I have no issues getting them to release. Just a quick snap of the rod and they fall right back. No diving. I have heard the OR-18 lever clips work great on the back. If I were to change anything, that would be it.

I started using the Sams pro releases on my off shore boards last Fall and they work much better than the other clips I’ve tried. I bolt mine to the board arm never tried the split ring that some others use. I use braid so sams is the only thing I’ve found that works if you want to release the board.

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Originally Posted by Mrl123

I started using the Sams pro releases on my off shore boards last Fall and they work much better than the other clips I’ve tried. I bolt mine to the board arm never tried the split ring that some others use. I use braid so sams is the only thing I’ve found that works if you want to release the board.

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I bought a version of those from Amish Outfitters two weeks ago at the Novi show. I am going to give them a shot this year and see how I like them. I hear that for braid, they are by-far the best way to go.