Dipsy Divers

[chickeywing]

Has anyone out there used Dipsy Divers, or Jet-Divers for pulling spinner rigs? True or false: is this a poor man's version of a down rigger for trolling at controlled depths?

TC

[sparcebag]

They work and True.

[PerchJerker]

I've used Dipsys for pulling cranks and spoons. They work good for running baits at controlled depths. I've caught a lot of lake trout and salmon on them, and some walleyes. I think other methods work better for walleyes.

[chickeywing]

Look out Deitz, I'm coming shopping.

[Valv]

They are definitely not a poor man's downrigger, they are a fishing tool just like any. They are used in situations where the depth needed is deeper than a regular deep diving lure but not as deep as a downrigger, and they are a lot easier to handle (no cables, balls, etc).

[Northlander]

Dypsies strengths are that you can get down and away from the boat. Downriggers wont let ya do this. You can set a dypsie to go straight back but you would be better off doing that with a snap weight or rigger.

I pull spoons and small flashers and flies or spin n glows behind a dypsie but not sticks. Ill put them on boards with snap weights instead.

Downside is at times they can be a bugger to get set right so they release when a fish hits but dont pop with a speed increase or waves. Oh and make sure you set them up right so the right end goes to the rod and the right one to the bait.

[bmc]

I bought the smallest Dipsy Divers for some inland lake trout situations, but they didn't come with a dive chart like the bigger one's do. Has anyone seen a dive chart for the smallest dipsey divers??? Or any idea on the line out/depth ratio? I've only used mine a couple times, so I've got some more experimenting to do with them.

Brian

[Surface Tension]

We use them on Superior as a tool to get down and away. They don't replace the downriggers but they are a good compliment to the spread. I guess if you don't have DRs and need to get deep the dipsy's will help in some situations.

If I needed to get deep while trolling spinners I'd use weight instead of a dipsy. One reason you can do that is your speed. Trolling stick baits and spoons on Superior requires speeds of around 2-3.25 mph. You can't get deep by adding weight because of the speed so you'd use a dipsy.

However trolling spinners I'm almost always below 1 mph. I can get down to 40' of water with 1/2-3/4 oz sinker. I'd perfer that over dragging a dipsy around. I can also fine tune my depth so I know I'm on or just above bottom. You can't do that with a dipsy. So to answer your question yes dipsys will get you deep.

bmc, I don't know of a dive chart for the #0 but it has considerable less diving capabilities the the #1. I wouldn't use the the #0 for any thing over 25'.

[Joel Taylor]

Like Northlander says, they get the bait off to the side away from the boat and in todays super clear great lake zebra filtered water that means alot!

Last week I fished all week on Lake Michigan and slammed the salmon every day, we ran one dipsy on each side along with two downriggers on each side and the dipsys took 75% of the fish! We were getting them one after another on the dipsy off to the side and the riggers were dead.

The new clear dipsys work great!

The small ones are better for harnesses in fairly deep water by inland standards 15-35 ft!

Power Pro is the way to go! It rewrites that depth chart by 30% because of the small diameter!

[Try Too Fish]

Surface Tension

Do you run flasher/dodgers behind your dipsy's? If so have you used the 11 in behind? How far behind the dipsy?

What does your typical dipsy setup look like?

Thanks

[Surface Tension]

I have 4 downriggers on the boat so my applications for the dipsys might vary from what you want them for. Also fishing Superior is more targeting suspended fish in the water column.

Heres two scenarios when I use them, everyone of them is to get the lines down and away from the boat or the outside downriggers with wingers which are a plaining device to spread the downrigger balls out, and yes I'll use a dodger at times.

When fishing on top or the upper layer I'll use dipsys set at around 2. I may or may not have the downriggers down in that upper layer. I'll have the planner boards out with lines on the surface-10' down, just depends on the temps. Why I use a dipsy here when the majority of the fish are on the surface is because the boat will spook those fish. They'll go away from the boat and down, right to my dipsy setup is.

In this case I'd have a shallow or non-dive stick bait on like a Bomber Long A. Leader lengths between the dipsy and lure need to be long enough so that lure gets action but not too long as to become a hindrance when netting fish. I have 10' dipsy rods and used 8' DR rods, 6' leaders work for both, in fact the 6' leaders work on all my rigs including 1# balls and mainline to lures and they're all interchangeable. If you like you can add a snubber to that but I don't.

My next set would be targeting deeper into the water column. All 4 downriggers would be down, outside Drs with wingers. I can stack those riggers and add even more lines to the mix or/and I can use a dipsys. In this case I want more dive then plain from the dipsy, so I'm probably set at 1, just enough to be free of the wingers. A note here, normally your let the dipsy out off its side of the boat but not in this case, if you do you'll snag the downrigger cable. Let it out the back of the boat enough to clear your spread then let it move to its side then let out the rest of the line you desire.

If I were to use an attractor this is the time to do that.

Again a 6' leader from dipsy to attractor. Next a leader between the attractor and lure. Could be a spoon, fly, or fly with meat. That length in general is 1.5 times the length of the attractor. That leader should be 40# test mono to extent the attractors action to the lure.

About Dodgers and Flashers. A dodgers will have the side to side movement. A flasher or also known as a rotator will do that, rotate, adjust your trolling speeds to that and also you select lures to run correct at those speeds.

[Try Too Fish]

Thanks For the info!

Does it work too run the big flashers (11 in.) behind the Dipsy's? I'm wondering if you would still get as far out and as deap, when you have a Big flasher behind as the dive charts expect?

[Surface Tension]

The extra drag of a flasher + changes in the attitude of the dipsy caused by an attractor will effect the dive plain. Throw in the variable of boat speed, currents, # test line, and so on and you can see the dive chart doesn't matter much anymore. You start out experimenting with the amount of line out. Once you get something going you duplicate that. A line counter reel will let you do that. Or count the passes on your reel.