Quote Originally Posted by motownhound View Post
I recently moved and will be fishing out of Erie, PA instead of Monroe, MI. I’m used to running big planners on each side with bandits and/or Jet 40’s with harness when I fished the western basin. After reading several articles and forums, fishing out of Erie will be a much deeper fishing strategy. Downriggers and dipsey divers seem to be the norm to get the depth required. I used to fish Lake Michigan years ago for salmon with riggers and dipseys but I’m way out of practice and have never tried those devices with walleye. How long of a leader does everyone run behind their riggers and dipsey divers? On riggers, I used to implement the 100 total feet rule (rigger ball down 50 then 50 from ball to lure, always a combination of 100). l also remember running about rod length leader behind dipsey (mostly for ease of netting the fish). I recently ran across a thread for Lake Michigan salmon fishing and folks were running much longer leads behind their dipseys, 10-12’ (some even 30-50’ with elaborate ways to clip off the dipsey when getting it to the boat). I wonder if there is a difference for walleye in Lake Erie. Thanks for any help.
if you want longer leads us the lite bite slide diver. but i run them like a dipsy with a 6 to 7 ft leader. its all i've ever needed. i've tried longer leads but didnt catch any more fish.

on the dr i just use about 25' to catch fish. anything over 25' never improved my catch rate.