By FAR, FAR, FAR our planer boards sets took most of the fish - probably 85%. We ran downriggers and also Dipsy Divers - just because we had 4 guys so we could do a 12 rod spead.
Lures: Our most productive lures were gold, but we mixed it up, for fun and really didn't find any which didn't produce. We mostly used crankbaits - Flicker shads were good in the 3 1/2 inch size, run with no weight. The smaller size worked but we'd run out 30 feet of line and then clamp on a snap weight - 3/4 oz or so - then 30/40 feet more.
Also good were long, skinny deep divers such as Smithwick Top 20. With these we used bright colors - the wilder looking the better with orange, purple, pink, chartreuse all mixed, striped, polka dotted together.
Besides these brands we used successfully, Reef Runners, Livingston, Challenger, Bay Rat, Rapala, Yakima and probably others. All of them worked.
We had success also with spoons run with Offshore Tadpoles, or Church Stingrays in the middle sizes. We'd run all of these between 60 and 90 feet behind the planer releases. Moonshine, Bay Rat, other brands caught fish. The best spoons were combo colors of purple/pink/white and were tiny 2 to 3 inches long. Most had copper backs on them. One exception was a Spoon called a Laker Taker from Bay De Noc (Swedish Pimple company) which was silver chartreuse. Only used it the last couple days. It has a weird bend and we put it on as a lark. Once in the water it caught as many fish as the crankbaits!
We use big board planers rather than inline to add sport and to better detect bites. In lines will work, but it's hard to detect bites and it's as fun as going to a fish market to buy fish. The most exciting thing about catching a walleye on an inline planer is filleting it.
We used 20 pound Fireline with 10 pound Fluorocarbon leaders. If you are using inlines, check your boards frequently - there's probably meat dragging along behind it.
Trolling speed was around 2.5 but we caught fish when we were going with the wind as high as 3.5 and were slowed down reeling in fish at 1.2.
We played with spinner harnessed worm rigs. - Caught a few, never ran them on the boards. Dipseys and riggers. Caught a few fish on downriggers using shallow diving stick baits - straight Rapala, Smithwick Rogues, Challenger Minnows - the Challenger was probably the best in "Four Bagger" color which is purple top, yellow sides, orange or pink belly.
Location - first day we went east and fished a mile or so SW of Middle Island on the Canadian border. Lots of boats there. Next day we went between Middle Bass and and South Bass Island to beat the wind. Wind was no issue the next few days but we went back to same area because there were zero other boats there and zillions of fish. West end of channel to Rattlesnake Island was great.
We were setting lines at sunrise and we'd have constant action for the first hour - slowed as it got brighter out. We released most fish under 20 inches. Once we limited out, mid-morning, we changed to a six planers lines - no divers or riggers (three per side) and trolled along the islands in 10 feet of water, so the inside lines were shallower and the outside were deeper. Baits were tiny Wiggle Warts, Shad Raps - 2" at most. We caught a couple dozen smallmouth each morning, a few white bass and several gaspergoos, (even a few walleyes) to keep us on the water another few hours.
