I fish the central basin of erie in the summer months. I run 3 lite bite slide divers per side. were only allowed 2 rods per fisherman, if I have more than 3 people onboard I run 2 outriggers with 15# braid and a small dipsy and let them out anywhere from 250' to 300' then if I have a 5th person on board I run 2 downriggers.

early in the season before the thermocline sets up good I target the fish im marking on the bottom. once we have a good thermocline I target the fish im marking just above the thermocline. I put my divers down about 5' to 10' above the fish.

on my divers I run 65# power pro for my main line then use about a 9' fluro leader. I don't use the slide part of the diver but use them like a dipsy and use the lite bite trigger. I went out to 50' of water and run 1.8 to 2.0 and let out line on a 4.5 setting on my diver until I started bumping bottom. it took 185' of line out to hit bottom. that comes out to 2.7' dive for every 10' of line out. so with this set up I just go by the 2.7' for every 10' of line out as my dive curve. then I run this rod in front then set my middle diver on a 3 setting and let it out 20' less than the front rod, then I set my back diver on a 1.5 setting and let it out 20' less than my middle rod.

so if I want to fish 60' I set my 4.5 diver at 220' out which gives me 59.4 feet depth, then I set my 3 diver at 200' out and my 1.5 diver at 180'. this dive curve wont work with say 30# braid because you get a steeper dive curve with lighter line.

if your using dipsy,s then you would use a 1.5 and a 2.5 and a 3.5 setting. go out to 50' of water and let the 3.5 diver out until it starts bumping bottom. then just devide 50' by however many 10' of line you have let out. say it takes 160' of line out to hit bottom then you would devide 50' by 16 that would give you a 3.1 dive curve. so I would just use the 3 as my dive curve. if it takes a 145' of line out to hit bottom then you would devide 50' by 14.5 which would give you a 3.448 dive curve then I would round it off to a 3.5 dive curve. then just use the front rod to get to the depth you want and run the middle rod out 20' less than the front rod and the back rod out 20' less than your middle rod.

if your planning on running dipsy,s or the deeper diver or even the lite bite slide diver I hope this has helped and not just confused you.