ff,
The job of the planer board is to get the line further out to the side so you can cover more water quicker. They don't make the lure dive any deeper. people will add weights to the line past the boards to get their cranks deeper though. you will have to use deep diving cranks to fish for walleye. I've not done any of that yet, but plan on doing so. I will also say that i'm no expert on planer boards either. I'm still sort of feeling my way around.
The peculiar thing is how to tell if a fish is on (particularly small ones). When trolling the other day, I noticed my boards would surge out of the water, & then sometimes run steady. Then I noticed that it started running a little deeper, so I reeled in, & there was a 9" yellow bass on the end of it. I set my drag real light, so if a bigger fish got on the drag would strip (sort of a strike indicator). The goo that I caught stripped drag immediately, (+ i saw the planer board go backwards) I need to go with someone a lot more knowledgable about using the boards, so I can pick up some tips. I'm still unsure about equipment set up either. the medium action rods made me a little nervous. the boards had the pole bent over, & with the goo on, I was worried about breaking off line. there is a weight on the bottom of them, so you can adjust it forward or aft as the type of bait you are using. So far I've told you all I know about the boards. I'm just trying to learn as much about them as possible. I think the technique will work good on a big lake like greers or ouachita, especially if you don't have a lot of pesky little ones??? Anyway, I'll try to put up a photo of the boards that I use to show a little more detail.