# Planer Board Crappie!



## c. j. stone

New InFisherman mag has an interesting article about trolling in-line planer boards and smaller cranks for BIGGER crappie! As usual, very informative(and thought provoking!) This should be a great " search" method for finding schooled up crappie in medium deep water like just before, and shortly after the spawn when they are transitioning to shallower/then deeper water. Find them, Mark the school, anchor down and tear them up with jigs! Also, a great way to get re-acclimated to walleye trolling after a long winter!


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## Skippy

Got into it a little last year but was using yellow bird mini planers and spinning gear. Caught some nice crappies. One thin I did do was put bigger back hooks on some of the little cranks.


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## Steelhauler

Ying6 has been doing that for a few years now. It can be very productive at times.


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## Motorhead

I started doing that a lot in the middle of the summer last season just to cover more water when the bite was slow. Caught more crappie than anything else using crank baits for bass/saugeye etc. Caught more keeper size crappie doing that than any other method. The big one in my avatar was caught on a Rapala X-Rap at 15 ft or deeper


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## c. j. stone

I mis-spoke, said "small cranks" but the article was focused mostly on PB&J-the J being JIGS! behind the planer boards. They did frequently refer back to a "previous" article on trolling small cranks for crappie but in speed-reading the article, I kinda missed it was mainly abt trolling the jigs behind planers.(I have trolled 1/4oz grub bodied jigs successfully for crappie before but not with boards.) In any case, both have merit for bigger crappie and I plan to give this a try at Skeeter and Berlin, both of which have some big crappie!


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## chaunc

I've a buddy down on Ky lake that uses small boards and jigs, regularly. He longline trolls for all his crappies but added the boards a couple seasons ago.


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## Lundy

Steelhauler said:


> Ying6 has been doing that for a few years now. It can be very productive at times.


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## sharp33

I started doing this last year and caught some nice crappie and you never know sometimes what you have on . Small counter reels sure do make a difference .


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## Shortdrift

Have used this method for several years. Regular Off Shore boards with the rubber band conversion that allows a variable tension on the flag.


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