Planer Boards

What planer boards do y'all use for drifting?

I have 2 sets but prefer these over the others. These aren’t cheap but they ride good and pull big baits smooth.

I have a set of extreme boards and 3 sets zakks big cat boards. I agree with Kyle, Zakks pull much better especially in big waves and wind.

Awesome

Good website btw.

My Zakk's just came in last week. I'm wondering if I can fly El Gato here to Huntsville to show me how to use them. When I was in Texas July 4th week, he used knee surgery as some lame excuse to not take me out.

Just packed my gear and I’m on my way to the airport now. See you in a few hours Nut!

Park's Planers here.

I fished with those Parks’s planers on Daniel Armstrong’s boat and loved em. I would have a set or 2 if they had an online store.

I ran my Zakks boards and my Extremes side by side last weekend and it wasn’t even close. Zakks pull MUCH MUCH BETTER than the Extreme boards! I ordered a set of the large Park’s planers and will let y’all know how they perform against my Zakk’s as soon as I get my hands on them. I’m also upsizing all my hooks a few weeks early this year and will start dragging some bigger baits on my boards come Sunday.

I run the extreme planer boards and agree that they are not the best. Especially with larger baits. I plan on getting the Zakk's at some point.

I ordered both the regular and large size Parks Planers. First impressions is they look like superior boards. Better foam and deeper aluminum sheet metal. I prefer the corkscrew swivels that are on my zakks boards because they are much easier to clip and unclip in the winter when fingers are cold or I’m wearing gloves. I switched my Parks snap swivels out with pigtail swivels. The large Parks boards are 2 inches taller and 2 inches wider than my zakks boards. They pull very similar but the zakks pull slightly better but it’s not that noticeable with my fist trip using them. The large parks boards are much more visible than with such a big piece of foam. Will need to test them in a variety of conditions to be able to give my honest opinion. Seems like such a large piece of foam will get blown around by the wind. For this reason I went ahead and ordered the regular sized Parks boards and will be testing all 3 sets side by side over the coming months. Will let y’all know what I find after I put em to the test. Will be fishing stronger wind in the morning so I should know a lot more after tomorrow’s session...


Parks boards came with snap swivels which I replaced with pigtails.

Dang the large ones are huge. It will be interesting to see how they pull. Definitely more visible but may get blown around as you said. Keep us updated. I’m looking to try a new set of boards this year.

Pulled all 3 boards this morning in big wind and rollers. We started out in party cove which was protected and very light wind and waves. We caught 26 eaters and 1 25lbr so I got a good feel for all 3 boards and here’s how I rate em. I took some pics of there spread but my son got my phone wet and now the screen won’t work.

Light wind conditions using trolling motor
All 3 pulled very similar with both the Parks being more visible

10-12mph wind
#1 large Parks pulled the best
#2 regular Parks pulled a close 2nd
#3 Zakks pulled almost identical to the regular Parks

15-20 mph wind and rollers
#1 large Parks boards pulled the best and were easily most visible
#2 Zakks pulled similar to the large Parks but weren’t as visible
#3 regular Parks got blown around and didn’t pull nearly as good as the large Parks or the Zakks

After running all 3 boards in a variety of conditions here are my rankings:
#1 Large Parks pull best and are least effected by big wind and big waves. Also most visible of the 3.
#2 Zakks. Pulled very similar to the large Parks but weren’t as visible.
#3 regular Parks didn’t pull very good in high wind and waves

Thank you for your evaluation of the planer boards on a windy day . I was getting ready to order the zakks but it looks like the large Parks will be a better investment .

Good write up bud.

Now being that you have had time to do some testing, if you had to choose just 1 set to use in all conditions which would it be?

Chris, how heavy sinkers/drift weights did you use with those big boards? Does weight affect how they track?

You can’t go wrong with the large Parks or Zakks...they both pull great. I need to fish with them for a month or so before I can say which one I like the absolute best. Will let y’all know...I run both 2 and 3 oz depending on what size bait I’m running Nut. Bigger baits get bigger weights. If your fishing them in the river then you want to suspend your baits about 3-5 ft off the bottom instead of dragging them on the bottom.

Just realized Naut Now is Jimmy. Couple of things about using different weights Jimmy. The lighter the weight the wider the spread. if your in big wind and waves it can be to your advantage to a use a little heavier weight to help pin your bait to the bottom and help the board track properly . 2oz slinky is standard for me but if your using drift stix or the fire water rattling drift weight you’ll want a 3oz. Like I said in the previous post I will use 3oz when dragging big baits with stinger rigs but right now I’m using big and medium chunks and 8/0 hooks. Sometimes the boards don’t want to start pulling right on one particular side due to wind and waves messing them up. To overcome this i pull 1-1.2 mph with the trolling motor and get the boards to spread out and track good and then slow down to .5 to fish. I been pulling Zakks boards every week for the last 5 yrs and I’ve just scratched the surface as to what they can do. I use em so many different ways now it has completely changed the way I fish. If you can limp onto my rig I can show you Jimmy. I still got that bottle of whisky on my boat for ya amigo!

Thanks Chris. Like you, I’m constantly adjusting how I use my boards. I’m hooked on boards. That lake record contender fish that I lost boat-side was off a board pulled over targeted structure with suspended baits. If I’d only had the net ready, I’d probably landed that fish.

Looking for a reason to buy a set of Parks boards, so just need you to say that I really need them.

The pin in my foot is planned to be removed this Friday. First trip in 2 months is planned for Sunday, if foot feels ready. If still hobbling, I may need a ride this weekend.

There’s some good info here. I ran zaks boards before trying parks. For me there is no comparison between the 2. The smaller parks boards pull much better for me than the zakk boards. I have noticed on super windy days with the parks boards one side not pulling as well. May try the bigger parks boards for those days.

Will someone explain planer boards and the how and why ? I have heard of them, but never laid eyes on them nor have any idea how they are used. Thanks !

Drycreek they are used to pull baits out beside the boat so you can cover a wider area of water with your baits. So if you are drifting say out of the back of your boat without the boards what ever the width of your boat is is going to be the width of area that your baits are covering. Now if you have rods sticking out sideways that extends the width by the length of the rods. So if you have a 7' rod out each side of the boat you are covering about 14' + the width of the boat. Now if you are pulling boards they will spread out to the side covering 30-40'+ on each side.
Here is a horrible illustration I made real quick to show the difference in area coverage

I use Blue Collar Tight Line planner boards. They are 2 local guys out of Wichita Falls,Tx and I have been really pleased with the boards. I can get a great spread a slow speeds with them. This is a quick pic I snapped of my father in law watching the boards. I had 4 of them out pulling at .5mph.

Those look good Justin. I run 3 sets and my longest set is much further from the boat than yours. Probably double or triple the distance your boards are at. I prefer to spread mine out a lot more.

Im still tweaking as I go. My biggest thing is trying to get "my preferred" distance between the bait and board. If that makes sense.

. I got big and small boards I like the small ones dragging very very little weight

Drycreek they are used to pull baits out beside the boat so you can cover a wider area of water with your baits. So if you are drifting say out of the back of your boat without the boards what ever the width of your boat is is going to be the width of area that your baits are covering. Now if you have rods sticking out sideways that extends the width by the length of the rods. So if you have a 7' rod out each side of the boat you are covering about 14' + the width of the boat. Now if you are pulling boards they will spread out to the side covering 30-40'+ on each side.
Here is a horrible illustration I made real quick to show the difference in area coverage





Thanks for the explanation Justin. After I saw your reply the light went on and I figured there were YouTube vids about this. Sure enough, I found a pretty good one and I could see immediately the logic behind the planer boards.

Pulled all these boards enough now to give a more informed opinion. Was able to get my honey-do list completed Saturday so went pulled boards on 2 runs Sunday mid-day. Fish were slow to bite so spent some time running all the boards at the same distance from the boat Sunday so I could get a more accurate assessment.


Regular parks pull the best in zero to light wind. As soon as the wind starts blowing the regular parks get blown around considerably. The regular parks would be pulling great on one side and the opposite side would get blown into my other lines. They bob up and down in waves while the large Parks and Zakks don’t bob up and down much at all and are effected by waves and wind much much less. When the wind and waves picked up to 12-15 mph the large parks pulled the best with the Zakks pulling fairly similar but not quite as good. If I had to pick just 1 set for all around performance for all sized fish it would have to be Zakks. They pull really good in all situations. Since I have the luxury of having all 3 it’s a huge benefit to be able to have boards that all pull a little different. I can get an insane spread like never before. I’ve been able to easily run 3 sets once I got accustomed to how they each pulled. The final test will be when we start pulling huge baits and catching some toads on all of em. We marked some big fish in 8ft but couldn’t get em going. Man there a ton of 5-6” gizzard shad grouped up good in Lewisville right now in 15 ft but there weren’t a lot of fish with them. Bigger gizzards are still scattered everywhere I’ve seen em. We caught 11 eaters in 5-15 ft. Water temp was 74 Sunday at noon. We got a long ways to go before the water gets into the 50s my friends...