Traditional Planer Boards vs Otter Boat?

I had the otter boats...don't buy them for Erie fishing, they can't handle waves over 2 ft.  If you are fishing in calm water, they work well.

Man I have heard both sides of Otter Boats....
 
Friend of mine runs a Charter out of Oak Harbor, Ohio and loves his claims you can pull them in 6ft seas...
 
I really like the look of the Amish Outfitters traditional board...Claims of how hard they pull kinda make me a little leary of running them off my hardtop, but I may give it a try...Its also nice to accompy your boards with a shock cord to prevent the surges from getting the best of them and your tow line.
 
If you are having them dive you might have out too much line and have a weird angle of your tow line going down to your board....If your only fishing a couple guys I never saw much use for them and have been very successful without the use of planer boards...However, if your fishing the shallow water or trolling waters in the western basin I have found they are almost a necessity on certain days. 
 
I myself am going to get back into using planer boards simply because Im going have enough deck space to effectively run them.  Not saying its going to be my go to tactic, but its nice to have it in reserve..

Maybe I did something wrong but the Otter boards would never give me a tight line, especially in waves over 2 ft.  The "normal pull" Cypress Amish Outfitter boards run hard!  Nice tight line, but man did they put stress on my planer mast mount.  Frank from Amish Outfitters said his hardest pulling boards would pull my Big John mast right off.

I am not sure, better to ask Frank, but the cypress boards do pull hard.  I would think a hardtop such as CB's would work great.  My boat is only 19.5 ft, with the mast, just too much pull for my comfort.  I was using the standard seat mount on my bow.  I could have probably figured something out, but with my size of boat I just went to inline boards.  The AO hardest pulling board is some type of plastic, but I never gave them a try.

Made mine out of cedar then painted them flo orange run great but like CB said really don't need them dipsys will load the cooler

ive caught plenty of walleyes in 20ft-30ft of water off dipsys back 60-90ft...walleyes are far from boat shy...If you want to run 8-12 rods, flatlined plugs, or jets you need boards...

Tried these last week on a friends boat and bought my pair a few days later!  They are SWEEEEET!!! NO MAST, just a half of a rod and a small reel. ALWAYS stays upright, and if flips will come right back up, only 14", stow away easy and helped me land 18 walleyes in a few hours over weekend!!!
 
http://www.fortunecharters.com/PAUL'S%20PLANERS.htm

Huh....Never seen them before...I am sure you can run them off of a mast or hardtop....Says in the description to run them off of a rod so????  I wonder how they work in rough water??? And if they drag when your pulling 4-6 deep divers on 1 side?

They can be seen at a tackle store in Erie.

Which store???? Also, do you get both sides for $90?

Could you load them up with dipsys though??
 
Id like to see them with my own eyes and use them prior to any purchase...

You run Bands off boards with dipsys and you cant use big dipsys either 0 or 3/0...Clips and super lines do not mix very well...

Usually just a shower curtain clip rubber band doubled over the line and away it goes...

Lots of guys I have ran charters with in the past used to love running 30 jets with spoons and wire line off the boards or plugs and wire off the boards back 300ft+...The wire weight pulls em down so they can get 40-55ft of depth out of their board rods to get em down to the fish...I always hated those rods.....I dont know what alot of these guys use on their planer boards in this area, but im not into running boards with wire lines...

Early in the season they are great for plugs and 20-30 jets, but once those fish go as deep as they did last season (sitting on the bottom in 60-70ft+ of water) I dont really have a good plan on getting planer board lines down to em.  Couple fish off the boards at that point just shortens your day and hour or so...But they can be a pain in the butt to run in rougher waters...I havent found a board that runs great...Im wanting to try the Amish Outfitter ones...

In western basin we run boards with 20 jets back 80-150ft with little spoons...Crush walleyes on em...

We ran 2  med. dipsy's off one side  nevr ran more than 2. And yes we use rubber bands off the board lines. Its alot easier than trying to snap the line out of the release when you hook into something small. if you are dragging something small a quick snap of the rod and the little weight that is on the end of the line snaps the rubber band.