Trolling advice, still new

[Madd Matt]

Mike,

Dipsy divers are still used... even by a lot of charters, they just use them a bit different than what you would as a primary trolling weight.
The reason that most of us do not use them exclusively is because you can only really run about 6 rods max. and that is if you are really good and know what you are doing. 2 out each side and 2 straight out the back.

With big boards you can run 8-10 rods out each side. A lot of charters will run a dipsy straight down off the side. Dipsy's dive straight down enough to run them along side the boat and still reel in the other rods. Many times I run a Dipsy or two right on the bottom and forget about it all day and see if it picks anything up.

Bandits to not require any additional diver or weight to be able to place it wherever you want in the water column.

-Matt

[ebijack]

Take 1 hour (shouldn't take that long) and find where your set up runs. Example, go out to 30fow, let out a bandit till you tag bottom. Check the line out to the PT guide. Stop in 40 fow, do the same. I believe you will be surprised to find how your set works compared to the PT book info. Try to do this going the same direction as the shore line as to maintain the same depth and also to not be against/with one of the many currents out in the lake as that difference alone is quite a few feet in actual diving depth.
I've gotten lazy over the years and do not want to let out 180ft of line just to an inline board multiple times. I use weights. Less line out, less affected by currents, less fish lost by those not as experienced in bringing in fish. And I can find bottom very quickly in order to cover the water column. I can speed up and raise the lures or stall the boat and the lures dive. Just another way to do it.
Before PT book, finding bottom first was the way to figure out where to put lures starting the day out until you had the experience to know/remember where to set lures.