While most folks stress about putting on a little weight, guide Brad Taylor said that when pulling planer boards for crappie, adding a little weight can go a long way.
“You have to put something on them,” Taylor said. “Water Bugz are the best that they’ve designed yet for crappie, but you don’t have enough resistance with that little jig you pull behind them. If you add little weight to the back of the board, you’ll get enough resistance to make it run hard.”
Most of the time anglers in the south use planer boards, they’re pulling bigger baits or lures for bigger fish; a healthy shad or a bigger pulls enough to causes the board to angle up and out and reach the optimal distance from the boat. A 1/32-ounce jig is doing next to nothing for this cause, but with a little modification, Taylor can increase the board’s performance.
“The Water Bugz boards come with a spiral-type line holder on the opposite side of the line clip,” said Taylor. “I take those off and put a snap swivel on it to hold the line. On that same swivel I snap on a drop-shot weight. It’s something you have to tinker with, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of weight. A ¼-ounce will make it dig.”
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