# Good inline planer boards for $3.50



## texasrig (Apr 11, 2013)

I have been using big boards for a few years now, but I wanted to fish the spring trolling bite this year. So I started looking at in line boards to use. I researched what was out there to use and quite frankly the sticker shock about killed me. $25 to $30 bucks for a piece of plastic and foam that are less than what's in most cheap kids toys. I figured there had to be a better, cheaper way. A friend let me borrow a couple of inline boards to try, so I could see how they worked and what I liked or didn't like about them. 

So here is what I came up with:

1. They had user friendly. Simple
2. They had to right themselves when the line went slack without tangling.
3. They had to be able to be worked with one hand.
4. They had to be easily made with tools around the house.
5. The cost to make them had to be much cheaper than retail.
6. last but not least, they had to work.

The board I picked to copy was the Off Shore board, because of it's simple design. I also wanted to capture the simplistics of the church boards hardware. I will start with the making of the board.

I bought a 1"X 4"X 8' pine board for $2.30. I can make 8 boards out of it.
I then bought a 2' X 1/2" X 8" sheet of styrafoam for $1.98. Enough to make 30 boards. 
I cut out the board on my table saw, matching the angle of the front of the board with that of the front of the off shore board. 
I liked the idea of the foam in the middle of the board to help with buoyance. so I matched the size for the foam with the off shore board. I cut out the center with my band saw, but you could drill and cut it out with something else. I then cut out the foam to fit. I glued the foam into place. I then put a layer of epoxy and thin fiberglass cloth on each sie to seal it. Where hardware was going to attach, I added 2 extra layers of cloth for support. I made sure all sides were covered with a layer of epoxy to seal out the water. 

Here is a picture of the board ready to be sanded down. 









This is the board ready to be painted.









This is after the boards were painted.









I wanted to come up with a simple, but functional way to attach the line to the boards. After a lot of consideration this is what I settled on. It works quite well. 

In the front of the board I designed it so the line just pinched between 2 rubber pieces. The more the line pulls the more it pinched between them. There is no way that the line can come un-attached by it's self. Yet you can gab the board with one hand and release the line from the board easily. The line just slides in and out. As with any clip, as long as you don't pull braid thru the rubber it won't damage it. The hardware for this, was made out of blocks of nylon I had laying around. You can use any material that won't crack during use. Weight was my consideration, but anything light will work.

Pictured as fished.









The front hard ware:









Now on to the back of the board. Here I opted for the line to ride in a slot, something like the church board. I used a slightly different simple but effective method to keep the line in the slot. I used some of the same nylon and made it so a small finger ran up the back of the board covering the slot. I just pull the line over the finger and down into the slot. The finger holds the line in the slot while trolling. It can also be worked with one hand. I coated the slot with epoxy to seal the wood, and just incase the wood might chaff the line. I used these all spring and had zero problems with ware on the line.


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## texasrig (Apr 11, 2013)

Here is the back of the board:










About the weight on the bottom. I used some strap weights I had for duck decoys. I weighed the weight on the off shore board and the church board, they weighed 68 grams. My boards by their design are more buoyant that the others. So I opted to go with more weight. I settled on 98 grams of lead. I cut the strap weights so they weighed what I wanted. I floated the boards in a tank of water and moved the weight around until it was where I think they worked best. I then perminantly attached then to the boards. 


In action, they rode the water very nicely.










Another picture of the board:









Some results:










Please post up any question you may have.


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## EYEFISHER2 (May 11, 2008)

Very creative and look great. Get you a tattle flag rigged and you will be set for inline weight trolling! And detecting those pesky white bass n perch


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## Carpman (May 18, 2005)

Very very nice!

Im stopping at Lowe's on the way home.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

Very cool. I had thought many times about making some and this gives me something to go on. Great job and thank you for posting the pics and info.


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## HookSet Harvey (Aug 12, 2010)

Nice job.
I'll give ya $10 for a set of em.


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## fishingguy (Jan 5, 2006)

Cool, good imagination there. I made my first set in 2007, been tweaking ever since. At first I liked the church idea for the back. But I have long scrapped that idea. The pull from the lure or weight pulling on the mid point of the back of the board, coupled with a timely wave, can and will cause the board to flip. It's a problem church boards have. I moved the rear connection point down low on the board, no more flips. Since I only pull mono, the church flex clip is my choice of tow clip. I have even mounted the tow arms a little different on them to control the pull. Normal position would be the middle board, about an 1/8 of an inch back of normal would be the inside board, and about 1/8 of an inch forward of normal would be the outside board (I am controlling how hard the board pulls). Makes for a nice v pattern, and makes clearing outside lines very easy. Keep tweaking!


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