you can use a lure that only dive a few feet. But I really like using the bandit. The chart I found for bandit showed the depth of the lure say for 10ft 15ft and so on but its hard to be sure because of line used. The chart i found was for 10lb line and I use 17lb so I split the difference. Having said all that one day I was trolling out 50ft with my bandit and was trying to run just off the bottom. I believe I was about 8 to 10ft off bottom with my downrigger ball and it popped so I caught the bottom with lure. I raised it up a few feet and never had that issue again. Even if I'm not down the extra 12ft that I think I am but catching the fish that is on the fish finder I'm in the zone I need to be in. I hope this makes sense.