Planer Board Fishing Basics: How to Rig Planer Boards for Trolling

This article should give you a complete guide to planer board fishing. From an introduction to beginners, how to rig a planer board, when you’d want to use one, to using planer boards for walleye, stripers, kokanee, and other salmon. You’ll be ready to reach out to the side with your trolling game and fish more water at once.

Growing up in a small mountain town in Utah, fishing for Kokanee salmon was a central part of my childhood. My mother and father had a passion for fishing and passed it on to me at a young age. They taught me how to use a simple rod and reel, and we would spend countless hours on the nearby lakes and rivers, searching for the perfect spot to cast our lines, and even more hours untangling the knots I would make in my line.

As I grew older, my love for fishing only deepened, and I spent many summers exploring new fishing spots and experimenting with different lures and techniques to catch Kokanee salmon. From there, I decided to try to make a career of it. I’ve been writing and experimenting with fishing gear, primarily around kokanee salmon for years now. I am a huge fan of planer boards because of how they spread out your lines and rigs. This has allowed me to spread out my lines and test multiple trolling lures at the same time. Learning to master planer boards has been critical for me, and I wanted to pass along what I’ve learned.

What is a Planer Board for Fishing

Planer boards are a fishing device that pull your fishing lines out to the side of your boat. Think of a kite, but in the water. The planer board catches the water at a certain angle and then is pulled out at that angle. Without a device like this, you can only space your poles out only as wide as the width of your boat. Anyone who has run multiple poles without planer boards knows tangles. It just comes with the territory. Planer boards are a tool that help to spread out your lines to reduce the likelihood of tangles and increase the amount of water you’re fishing. If your lines are further apart, the less likely to get tangled, and more fish will see your lures. Plain and simple.

How to Use Planer Boards for Fishing

You need a left and a right planer board. They’re not interchangeable. the planer boards are designed to hit a certain angle, and not to twist in the water, so you’ll need ones specifically made for each side. If you’re buying the board singly, its something you’ll want to take note of. I personally recommend picking them up in either a 2 or 4 pack, so you don’t need to worry about that. Just look at the marking on the planer board and make sure you’re putting your right on the right. If you drop a left on the right side, you’ll end up crossing all of your other lines in the water.

When Should You Use Planer Boards While Fishing

When the fish are in the top water, roughly the top 10-15 feet of water. Usually you’ll want 100 feet or more of setback. Using planer board will allow you to still present your lures to fish that have been scared to either side by the passing of your boat. Fish out to the side are also much less likely to be scared by the passing of the boat.

If you’re trying to get deep, but still want to use planer boards, you’ve got 2 options- lead line, and clip weights. If you’re planning to use more weight, be sure to use larger planer boards, and adjust the ballast in the boards to accommodate for the added weight.

Best Selling Planer Boards

The planer boards from off shore tackle are the overwhelming favorite in the fishing forums, in the Facebook groups, and its also the highest rated option on amazon. If you want just some good all around planer boards that work well for fishing, and can work for just about any game fish, off shore tackle is the way to go. Amazon only sells them as singles at the time I’m writing this, so you’ll need to buy both a left and a right. Don’t get all lefts or all rights. Coming in second would definitely be the planer boards by Yellow Bird. Yellow Bird is the self proclaimed original inventor of the planer board. I don’t know if that’s true, but they produce an excellent planer board as well, good enough to earn them the silver medal.

No matter what planer boards you’re using, be sure to check your hardware. Most planer boards have nuts, bolts, or other connectors that hold the clips in place. These can come loose over time and fall off.

Best Budget Planer Boards

The Krazywolf planer boards are good, but not on the same level. They are much less expensive though. I am including them below in my list of best planer boards for walleye fishing, but that’s only because they’re the third most used. They’re not the same quality, but they’re still popular, well used, and get a 4 star average rating on Amazon as of the time I’m writing this. Really though, check out the Church Tackle ones first if you’re targeting walleye.

Using Planer Boards for Salmon Fishing

Salmon, especially kokanee, can often be deep in the water. In the early and late seasons, you can often find them higher in the water column. This is the perfect time to run planer boards. You can’t run downriggers and planer boards together, so the kokanee or other salmon can’t be deep. Finding schools of fish while they’re close to the surface though can be tough. They might be swimming out of the way as your boat goes by, and you’re not seeing them. Having a wider spread of lines increases your probing and your reach so you can find the schools of salmon quicker.

Best Planer Boards for Salmon

Most salmon fishermen want to be able to fish for lots of species of salmon. Big planer boards are needed for big salmon fishing. You can certainly use the Church Tackle sizes for kokanee salmon, but I’d size up if you want to do multiple species. For this we recommend either Off Shore Tackle, or Yellow Bird Planer Boards. If you’re mainly targeting kings or chinooks, you’ll probably want to go with the 10″ or 12″ size.

Using Planer Boards for Striper Fishing

The first time I saw a striper boil was out wake boarding at Lake Powell. Sure, I’d caught some stripers, bass, catfish, and carp from the shore, but that boil was magical. Stripers are found and prized around the world. They’re incredible fighters and they can grow to be massive. But just the fact that they can go into a surface feeding frenzy, or a boil, goes to show that these guys can hang out near the surface. Because of that, these fish are prime candidates for planer boards. You’ll want to make sure you’ve got some of the bigger planer boards for these fish though. The first striper I ever caught was over 24 inches long.

Best Planer Boards for Stripers

This list of our favorites for Stripers is going to look familiar. Once again, the winner is Off Shore Tackle and Yellow Bird. They’re just an extremely versatile planer board that holds up to these bigger fish.

Video Showing How to Use Planer Boards for Fishing

This video shows how to use planer boards, specifically targeting trout and kokanee at Strawberry Reservoir, but the things they say are universally applicable. It’s a simple, well put together video about planer boards, and its only about 6 minutes long.