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Hello all,
I am pretty new the the trolling game, and was wondering how much is figured into the counter reel, while deploying Dipsy divers? Is the rod lengths and line leading down to the water takin into account, or are we over thinking things?
Thanks, and good luck to all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Walleye Hunt'in
Rod length,not so much, but most definitely the distant from where the rod is being held to the water surface should be taken into account........some boats sit much higher up than others. S coue if feet matters some days
Example from just yesterday..........where were trolling 50 jets on the corner, 60 back nothing, 65 hitting fish. Drop both the 65 both pulling fish. That 5 ft there in a 50 jet is about 1 ft of water depth......go figure.......but some days it's that picky
Rod length not important.But when using dipseys you want your rod positioned horizontal in the rod holder,so rod tip is just a couple feet from water.Its also important to be consistant when letting the dipsey out,so have dipsey about 6" from rod tip when zero out the counter.Great tip I read about using dipseys is if not catching add 5ft and subtract 5ft from poles on each side till find depth catching.
Thanks for the info.
Everytime we go out, we learn a little bit more.
Yeah walleye huntin,the more weapons in your arsenal the better hunter you become.I used to think the guys who used dipsey were poor trollers because weren't using boards.But have learned the art of using them more effectively.They are faster than any other way to set out,check or bring in fish.And they can go really deep.Last year we finally tried 4 dipsies.Took our lumps and got some tangles.The main problem we had last year was putting out the 3setting rod with the 1setting running in the water.The guys onOGF helped me correct the problem.To set out that 3 setting rod need to put in water on opposite side of boat to get the dipsey far enough behind the 1 setting rod.Then the #3 rod moves into proper position.I would also put a snubber on them and when you put them out,use clicker.If you put out too fast the dipsey could rotate and the line wrapped around it will prevent the mechanism from releasing.
Bob, why do you want those dipsey rods horizontal and only a few feet from the water?
LuckyDuck, it's because you want to minimize the amount of line above the water. The dive curves for dipsys and TTs are for the amount of line that's actually in the water. For example, let's say you're running a size #1 dipsy on zero base plate setting and let out 31 feet of line because we want to reach a target level of 20 feet. Well if your line counter is reading 31 feet but you're rod is in the vertical position and there's 12 feet of "wasted" line before its even touching the water, then you really only have 19 feet of line in the water and are therefore running your bait a lot shallower than you intended. Veteran trollers out there, please correct me if I'm wrong...
Line leading down is important. My rod holders set higher, and rod tips are higher than my neighbors so If I get a "hot" feet back reading from them, I usually add 4' to start, then adjust. We usually run a 3.5 setting rather than a 3 to get max distance from the boat, this is listed not on the charts or trolling bible so a little extrapolation is needed. A 1.5 setting is pretty easy to set, somewhere between 1 and 2 on the chart. If 3 people fishing, I run a 3.5/1.5/0 setting.
A neat test over a mud bottom is to be in say 20' of water and release line slowly until it starts bumping bottom, then you now know where 20 feet is in relation to your line out. (use that old chrome and yellow dispsy just in case)
Lucky duck,what both proceeding post is correct but can add that the rods are easier to read in horizontal position.The rod tips don't bounce as much and if got more than one rod out on that side can see the difference between the rod tips better also.If the dipsey mechanism releases and you don't see that rod tip move,the line on that rod will be angled back more and is easier to see on horizontal rod.With that being said we have fish on all the time that we didn't know were there.So if a rod is doing nothing for like 10min I will check it.I can pop dipsey bring up and down again in less than a minute.
I usually set my rod in the holder and let the diver just touch the water before setting the counter to zero. Then let the reel feed out the line with the clicker on. Can run 2 rods at a time on one side. Generally let the forward rod set to 3.5 out first to get it away from the boat.
You all are a wealth of knowledge!
Keep up the post's gentlemen.
Good luck, and stay safe.
Are you running braid on your dipsy reels and if so, what weight? THanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by gill
Most people use braid powered 30lb test.Most guys saying you should use hi vis yellow,to better see the line.Does not effect the bite any.Thanks walleye huntin.Most of what we do trolling has been passed on from other experienced fishermen.Then tried on the water and getting better every year with different techniques.These websites really help the learning curve for new trollers.When I started trolling more 15yrs ago had to learn these lessons from another experiencd trolled.I called him each time out and he told me what we were doing wrong and what to buy/try different the next time.I still am learning stuff here and the Ohio Game and Fish website.But best way to learn faster is go with a charter or other experienced troller.
That's power pro braid 30lb test
thanks for the infoQuote:
Originally Posted by itsbob
Ditto on the 30 lb. braid. Small diameter and plenty of strength. No worries popping the diver with the rod.
Good luck.
don't be mislead by reels with line counters or depth counters. They count the revolutions of the spool, not the actual amount of line. 75 back on my reel may be 85 back on a different reel. It depends on the size of the spool and the amount of line on the spool. To check your reels , set your counter to 0 and have someone actually measure out 10 feet of line and then read the counter. If the counter is not 10, you will have to calculate actual line out. The more line you have out the more accurate the adjustment to your counter when actually fishing. For example, if you have measured 20 feet of line out and your counter reads 18 you will use counter number of 9 for every 10 feet of line out. 27 on the counter would be 30 feet of actual line out. hope this helps.
^^^great advice^^^.... that's why i always take the "line back" number given in fishing reports with a grain of salt. I'm always wondering if the poster of the report properly calibrated their line counters. You'd think being off a couple feet in depth is no big deal, but sometimes it can be the difference in getting your bait in the strike zone vs not.
What coolyfarm is talking about is calibrating your reels.If calibrated properly,the number of feet on counter will be exactly how much line is actually out.I started calibrating my rods and a few of the guys I fish with several years ago.If you want to calibrate your rods,look at a utube video on how to do it.Can get confusing trying to explain how to do it in this post.There are plenty of good fishermen and charters that don't calibrate and they catch just fine without doing it.As long as all the reels and line are the same,you can eyeball the line on the spool and get your rods pretty close.Others recalibrate their gear 2 to 3 times in a season.I When I read other posts about leads guys run,I'm not looking for exact leads.Every day is different with fish changing depths they feed at not just daily,but hourly.If starting out a new day and don't know what depths are catching,cover the depth of water column with all your lines till find depth fish feeding at.
I started running wire on my dipsys a couple years ago. Big difference from braid. Takes a flick of the wrist to trip the dipsy...
I switched all my dipsy rods to metered 40# braid. takes all the guessing out of how much line I have out,plus you can compare line out to the line counter. works for me
Anyone use sunbbers with dipsys?
Yes, behind them
Started runner 8" snubbers a couple seasons ago and they have virtually eliminated the tangles I was getting when I was setting out the dipsey and it would spin.