Sk8man

It is hard to give a complete answer your question because there are so many variables involved. The currents run in various directions on the lake and are not just one single entity that is highly predictable. They vary from place to place and in intensity as well as up and down in the water column and over structure where it occurs and in relation to water temperature changes. If you carefully observe the angle of your lines and become familiar how they act with different types of setups often you can estimate whether you are running against, across or with the current and possibly whether your lures are running correctly. Is this method as accurate as something such as a Fishawk with down speed? NO but it has been used successfully by seasoned fishermen for a long time even prior to all the existing technology. Accurately assessing this is dependent on knowing some of the traits of the lines you are using (e.g. mono, braid, wire, leadcore, copper etc.) specific to their type and diameter for example as they all behave differently in the water and have a different profile in the water column. They each have a different profile in the water and also depending on what you are running with them (e.g. dipseys. spinneys, dodgers, harnesses or lone spoons or sticks). Knowing how each of your rods acts with these lines is also important and often should be a deciding factor in their selection again depending on what you wish to do with them. The rod tip action can also tell you a lot of information about your speed and whether your lures are doing what you wish them to be doing and this is evaluated taking into consideration the angle of the line in the water and the movement of the tip of the rod itself. The downrigger cable angle is likewise an important thing to continuously monitor. Normally I try to keep mine at about a 15-30 degree angle but when you are in strong current and don't have full control over your boat speed and it depends too on what you are using for weight on the riggers this has concerns or issues (e.g. pancake, ball, fish shape, torpedo style etc.) as well as their specific weight (heavier usually less "blowback" ) but each of them differs too because of their shape and this may be more pronounced in current situations too. It also depends on what you are targeting because their are times fishing for steelies, and salmon running fast capable spoons or sticks that I exceed this angle significantly. If you have a good reliable fish finder you need to continuously monitor how your downriggers appear on there and adjust accordingly but there are limits connected with boat speed such that just letting out more cable if your weights are too light and your speed is too high may not achieve what you desire. I wouldn't forget about GPS speed as it is better than nothing but it doesn't directly correlate with what is going on at the lure level especially in light of the currents you mentioned. It is sort of a relative measure so when you connect with fish using certain setups at a certain GPS speed it can be productive to return to that speed but you have to realize that things down below (e.g. currents can change and at different depth with the same setup things run differently). I know I am giving you a long winded incomplete answer to your question but it is important to understand these basic things and to apply them to the situation as you experiment and find the things that work for you in your boat in your situation at a particular time. The best answers to these questions come from experimenting for yourself over time. This stuff is just something to think about in the meantime. Good luck out there.

I just leave the 30 lb SeaFlee on all season and leader down with 12lb Seaguar for the Finger Lakes and 20 lb for lake O.. I think the brittle stiff nature of fluoro is fine for leaders but not so great for mainlines. and especially so for the riggers.

OR just make holes the right size for the toothpicks with a fine drill

You're kinda like a sidewinder brown trout missle ED

I can feel the browns shaking and getting nervous from here knowing you are on your way after them

My hunch is that there is a bug in the last update as mine loses bottom sometimes and the only way I can correct it is to go into the depth setting and change it from "auto" to say 200 ft or something let it acquire bottom and then change it back to "auto" and it then works OK. Never had the problem before the most recent update. Setting it back to the factory defaults helps for awhile but the problem returned on mine..

I think Rick hit it right on the head and its kind of the "American way" now everything is "instant" and phone related. The damned things are taking over our lives as is the social media phenomenon. In a way it is pretty sad...we are getting further and further away from directly communicating with others...just one more level removed from human contact. The younger folks growing up with this as their main way of communicating are going to be the ones most affected and then society wonders why kids feel disconnected from each other and from society itself on the personal level....not much of a puzzle really.

OR slow your speed down that may be what is twisting them together

You're very welcome. From what I'm hearing the fleas are starting to get bad and that is when I leave my braid stuff at home. For me at least braid seems to clog up the most of anything I use and wire is easier to clean them off. I'm assuming you have magnum size dipseys to get down where you wish to be and as far as the Deep 6 Divers that they are #5's which will get down to about 90 ft. I'm not real familiar with the dive curve for the Deep 6's but I'm thinking you'll have to let out more line than that (also depends on the diameter of the braid to an extent) to get to 90 ft. probably close to 280-300 maybe with flasher/fly (and depending on size and type of flasher ='s drag). I think you can figure about a 3 to 1 on the mag dipseys so the 225 seems reasonable for the 70 ft. I think what I would do (which is different than how I run my stuff because I am set up differently than you describe and you didn't mention boards etc.) is to think about running the flasher/ flies on the Deep 6's one on the side and one straight back on the opposite rear area of the boat at those deepest depths and with the dipseys one off the side running at 50 ft. set at 1 1/2 to 2 and the other straight back at 70 ft. set at 1 1/2 or 2.. If set at 2 you may have to have more line out than you think too. I'm assuming here that the two Deep 6's are running at something resembling a 0 setting on a dipsey (e/g/ straight down and back). I would hope that this type of setup would give you the necessary separation while covering the way you wish in the water column. You could also take your chances and run the two Deep 6's one off each side set to 1 to 1 1/2 and run the dipseys off the rear set each set to 1 1/2 to 2 but again you'll have quite a bit of line out and if taking any radical turns either setup could be a problem Other folks may have different thoughts on it. Good luck with it and with the fishing.

I think before the main question can be answered it is important to know things like whether you are using wire or mono on the dipseys and the specific size of each of the dipseys and what you intend to run behind them and what species you intend to target.