I picked up some planar boards (Yellow Birds) at Boaters World. How far back should the lures/bait be from the boards?
Depends on how you use them.
First set up – slow troll live herring usingthe electric trolling motor. I will normally set out two types of bait, a free line and a weighted bait (carolina rig with 2 oz weight, 20 - 24 in floro leader to a 2/0 Kahle hook).
The free line will normally be 15 - 25 ft behind the planner board, and the fish just free swims. These will be the outside boards.
The weighted will be the depth I want to fish at. Most often this is a close to shore set up and the depth will be around 10 ft.- 15 -20 ft. But you will want to vary to see where the hits are. This line pretty much goes straight down.
Speed is the big issue. To fast and you drown the bait very quickly. I use two indicators to judge the speed. The wake of the planner board itself (should just be a little wake) or if you drop an extra carolina rig of the boat (I will do two, one on each side) as down lines, the angle of the line into the water should be around 70 degrees (90 being straight down, …between 90 and 45).
If I run a lure off the planner board, I will go about 50 ft.
I have also added a swivel with a clip to act as a guide for the line, the small clip prevents the board from sliding past the swivel attached to the leader.
Hope this helps (and makes some sense to you) would be happy to show
chris scout 202 john150