whats the ups and downs on planer boards and outriggers? seems like u can run the same stuff off both.

Many charter boats and tournament fishermen have both onboard. I personally run boards much more often. When you have the room, boards will get you out to the side further, and allow you to run more than one line off each side. Outriggers shine in heavy traffic as other boats can see them easily, and you can make tighter turns. although I don't use them much anymore, I have great memories of staging pierhead kings cracking the highly audible pompanette releases on the outriggers.

You probably can get or make a planner board setup a little cheaper than outriggers and easier to install. I've got both and some days when it is too rough to run the boards, the outriggers are a better choice for that day. A lot of times I fish alone and the riggers are easier to run. One line off each 15 footer and then longline or run dipsey depending on the type of fish and time of year. You can also impart a lot of speed changes to your offerings with riggers by weaving back and forth, thereby speeding up on one side and slowing down on the other. I like to do that when fishing early browns near shore with longline stickbait or goby fly offerings and see what speed is the ticket. One more advantage to riggers is the ability like Capt Vince mentioned is the tight turning ability and also less "things" in the water to manage when a fish is on or in heavy traffic. You can stop forward progress and not have to worry about the boards drifting free on slack line, a plus when you hook bottom fishing shallow browns. Fishing alone, you can immediately stop after bringing in your other rigger line and then turn around and retrieve the stuck lure without having to bring in the big boards.
In all respects they are both very effective and have their advantages in every case. The boards let you run multiple lines, and the riggers shine in simplicity of deployment. The boards are effected by choppy waves , the riggers are not, boards can get you shallower when the browns are in 3 feet of water near shore and keep the boat in deeper water with less disturbance.
Mark

i run both, depends on what kind of approach youre looking for too, stealthy is a board scenario, plus you can stack lines on the boards, i like my riggers just as equally.