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.

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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 have tried the Sam's pro releases on braid. I could not get a constant release from them to continue using them. Never figured out why.

when using the sams you must leave some slack in line between back clip and the front release so the sams releases like you do when using tattle tag flags so they go down

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Originally Posted by slimshady

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.

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Exactly right....and the Fishing 411 video Juls suggested is excellent. Easy and effective.

There are many good boards and techniques. Here are a few little things we do to address some of the problems mentioned.

First we use the Church boards, not because they are better but because we can rig them without a back release. Our different crews have varied experiences and the last thing I want to do is chase down a board because someone did not get the line behind the pin (happens allot). With the church all they have to do is run the line through the slot, kind off idiot proof.

We use a snap weight clip at 50 with out weights to stop board - attach weight when we need to go deep. The worst thing that can happen is the board slide to bait if someone messes up the snap weight clip.

For a release we use an OR39 or the red Amish outfitter or39 knock off. Both work good, especially with braid. But we rig them a little different. We use a ring to a large swivel then another ring to release. This prevents the looped line from occasionally getting tangled around release some one mentioned and helps the board track smoother. With this set up a short pop or snap of the line releases board and it slides down to snap weight clip at 50 ft. Note: we do not loop the line but wrap it around the or 39 pin (more wraps for braid, fewer for mono). As originally asked; this is a smooth way tp release the board and it slides smoothly behind the boat.

Also mentioned was a lost church board hard to see, Unfortunately Church doesn't finish the back side of the board like Offshore so there is white foam showing. If a line breaks and a board is lost, it will usually lay over with the white side up, not orange. This can be hard to see, especially if there are any white caps. Our solution is we give each back side of the board a quick spray of orange florescent paint.

Lastly we put red flags on port side boards and green flags on starboard boards. They match the night lights. One other little thing to help keep things simple and not get messed up.

Good luck

Hey Fishing Tiger, thanks for the post! Are you able to show some pictures of your setup? I use church boards as well but how do you get the tattle flags to work without a back release? My biggest problem is getting the standard front release to let go of my mono line even if I twist it like the Romanack's teach. So I'm thinking of switching my boards to a different front release if it will work better.

I run the smaller tx12 church boards. I run upgraded lock jaws so the board can not slip at all. I run 2 ounce wieghts and bandits quite often as a norm. The little boards handle it like a champ. The smaller boards are easy to read without flags and pull back out of line when a fish is on. Drop the rod tip and reel and they will clear without having to trip them. If the fish comes off, i just free spool back into position without having to reset everything.
As far as board diving, thats vause you have the rod tip to high deep seas fishing. Jjst put the rod tip at the water and reel easy. Keep the board coming in on its keel, keep the walleye off the surface.

Hey Lynn,

I haven't posted pics yet. I did see some nice instruction from my favorite captain (Juls), just haven't done it yet - shame on me. me,

As for tattle flags, we don't use them. They just weren't that effective for us. The wire will bend over time with hard dragging cranks and like you point out, you have to have a back clip. They are just one more thing to fail. I know good captains swear by them, but as you can see from my posts we march to our own drummer. When you get used to watching the boards marching in a row like ducklings - it is easy to see one move out of line. But we also check our boards regularly - even tattles won't always show small swim a longs or grass.

If you switch to OR39 type releases, I bet it will solve your release issues. Just loosen the tightening screw to the point were waves wont cause releases - when adjusted a little pop of the line will release the board. The mistake many make is to use a long sweeping jerk, like you are setting a hook on a jig. That won't work - it is more of a short snap that works best.

I will try to get you a pic of a board. No promises. lol.

Tattle flags are much more useful when pulling harnesses than they are when pulling cranks. When I am pulling cranks, I add a rubber band o increase the tension to keep the cranks from pulling the flag down.

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Originally Posted by slimshady

Tattle flags are much more useful when pulling harnesses than they are when pulling cranks. When I am pulling cranks, I add a rubber band o increase the tension to keep the cranks from pulling the flag down.

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Why not just move the spring ends further up or down the flag, and board, in the provided holes, to increase the tension?

We went with a charter in late November out of Huron like 10 yrs ago and he was using rubber bands on his offshore boards.We then started doing the same and have never looked back.They work really well for us.We will buy a bag from office Depot in size 33.I can change the amount of tension on the tattle flag easily by moving the rubber band to either side of leading edge of the board.When I'm initially setting out a spread I will put the lure and lead in the water and hold the board in my hand and pull the line to see how much of a pull it takes to pull the flag down and adjust that rubber band to desired tension.I often change out the rubber bands too,but it's easy to do.I can get one new rubber band to hold up the flag even in summer at 2.5mph,a 2oz sinker and a 150 lead on a bandit.But can place 2 rubber bands if I have to.We will often be running 4 dipsey and 2 boards so having the flag going down really helps tell me a fish is on since don't have another board next to it to compare.