Andrew Martinsen's Walleye Fishing Update Planer Board Mania Why Keeping Your Boards in Top Shape Can Bag More Walleyes More Often Planer boards are simply great when you’re in shallow or clear and you want to get your bait as far away from your boat as possible. They’re also great if you’re fishing for walleye when they’re suspended or congregating extremely close to shore. Obviously you can still be wildly successful without utilizing boards, but if you do you’ll have put yourself in a position to net a TON of walleye because you’ll be a lot more versatile. When running boards, a very important thing to consider is the stability of your boards: A planer board should be able to plane smoothly in rough spots, and should be able to perform well at the slower speeds that are often used while trolling for walleye. A great bait to use when running boards at any depth is any type of crankbait. Try going slow with these. Therefore it is a must that your boards be able to function flawlessly at slow speeds. Keeping your boards in top shape will help them to be able to plane smoothly and perform very well at these slow speeds. It is important to consider however that not one single speed or depth will always work. Experiment with different ones until you hit that magical sweet spot where you can simply do no wrong. Snap weights are an absolute must here. They make it easy to tie weight just one time, and they're crucial to your success. When it comes time to change weights, because of snap weights it becomes only a matter of pressing a release.