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Has anyone fished much with Dipsy Divers, Jet Divers, or the Pink Lady? I have used leaded line, 50/50 sinker setups, bottom bouncers, and downriggers to get my line down for deep fish. I also use the Precision Trolling data for deep diving cranks using mono or fireline.
However, I don't have much experience with Dipsy Divers, Jet Divers, or the Pink Lady diver. Does anyone know the pros and cons regarding these divers? It seems to me that the Jet Diver that dives only 10 ft. deep might work at Deer Creek or Willard for walleye or wipers at certain times of the year. It gives little resistance in the water and when retreiving fish.
Dipsy Divers also seem to have the ability to take your line away from the boat like a planer board. Any comments from those using these divers would be appreciated.
Lloyd
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I have a Dipsy Diver that I have never tied on my line. I used to use the Pink Lady (poor man's downrigger). I really liked that you knew within a few feet how deep the lady runs from the chart that is included that matches line to speed to depth reached. If anyone tries to tell you that you can't get very deep with them, have them go retrieve mine from the bottom of Fish Lake at 110' and then tell me they don't go deep.
The only place I really enjoyed much success with them was at Strawberry. Using a Penn levelwind reel, we got used to counting the number of passes the line made across the face of the reel to the amount of line that went out. Yes, line counter reel would have been better, but we used poor man's gear because we were, and still are, poor. Mark the fish, match the level or just above the fish, make large figure 8's in the boat and away you go. Speaking of figure 8's; With any of these divers, you can maneuver better than with flat line trolling for obvious reasons. The line is closer to the boat, so you can turn tighter.
This was before my "warm water" days, so I have really only tried them for trout.
Most of the Walleye fishing I do is in very rocky structure, so I wouldn't try using anyhting like that. I'll stick to bottom bouncers or no-snagg's for that terrain. If you found Walleye suspended however, it would be a great option as not to scare the fish too much as with a larger downrigger ball.
All in all, I must say they are like most other fishing gear, they have a time and a place, it's just finding that time and/or place and knowing the presentation to use from there. Suspended fish at 20-40 feet is where they are going to perform at their best.
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I've got five jet divers one for every ten feet. They come in 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 feet. They come in all colors, some wild and wacky which acts as a attractor, and you can troll using 10 foot line of crankbait behind jet divers to get down to the desired depths.
They do work pretty good job however while trolling, it does give your pole a pretty stiff resistance so use a real trolling pole for its success. Regular 10-12 pound mono will do just fine.
When there's a fish on, the diver goes backwards and offers very little resistance as you reel it in.
You can get 'em at Cabelas. Hope this helps. Good luck and prolly see you this saturday on deer creek.
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A couple of years ago Petty4life showed me a Dipsy, and I have been using them quite extensively since. I mostly use the largest dipsy, and I know how deep it goes at what dive plane setting, and what speed we are travelling. I usually set mine to plane away from the boat/toon just a little. I really like the way I have got mine setup. It took some serious fine tuning, however while fishing up at East Canyon, and at other places, I can usually outfish those using a down rigger. A defenite must for using a Dipsy is some type of line counter. You have to know how much line you have out to make them effective. You can set up the "trip" on them to pop loose at different tensions, thus releasing the dive pressure on the Dipsy when you get hit. I use them for Kokes up at Causey and have done very well. I've never tried them up at the Gorge, but I imagine they would work OK just so long as you don't have to dive beyond about 50 feet. I set up my diver with a double rig that I like to call the "donkey". This way I can work different lures to try to find the one the fish want.
I've used the mini dipsy a time or two to get my lure down another 10 feet, but by far I use the deep diver much more often.
Like was said earlier, there is a time and place for them. While up at Jordanelle with a couple of old timers, they laughed when they saw what I was rigging up. They said there wasn't any way I could oufish their worm and pop gear...they got skunked, so I had to fill their stringers! They are not the be all end all for fishing. I think they are a better option than leaded line, but I've never fished with it, so I am biased in my opinion. There are times, especially up at the Berry, that the diver is pretty useless, and long lining lures is the best thing. I'm still learning every time I go out, but I think I've refined the use of the Dipsy quite nicely.
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Thanks to all of you for your responses. The information you shared helps me tremendously! Thanks much!
Lloyd
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Please quit helping Lloyd out. He is already able to outfish everyone trolling -- he doesn't need hints on how to get ever better at it! Ask him to explain his poor man's downrigger, he doesn't need any of that fancy stuff to catch fish after fish.
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