Light bite dipsey set up?

[Gotta Bite]

I have the big 10' 6" rods for my wire line and dipseys for salmon, but want to go with a lighter set up for spring browns. What rods and line type and weight are you guys using in the spring and early summer with good success.

[ray koziatek]

spring browns are in 6 to 12 ft water ,,, med rods 10 or 12 lb leader line..off the boards will be all you need save the wire for salmon

[chowder]

I sense a "Browns thread" coming on! I'm no pro but here's how I set myself up for spring fishing; Eagle claw starfire series rods ($20 apiece), 8'6" M or ML. Daiwa Accudepth reels, model 27 or 47 & spool them w/ high quality 10-12# test. Use small black swivels & snaps.Probably gonna want to run 2/ side = 4 combos. Run stix & spoons on these w/ long leads (100'+) off big board planer lines. You can use you're regular downrigger reels on a another pair of these rods to use as shallow rigger presentations just use an albright knot to spool 100' of 10 or 12# mono over your heavy summer line. That gives you 6 lines, if you want to run more you can run another pair of board rods or go w/ a pair of slide diver rods (rigged w/ braid) to cover the space between the rigger baits and the board lines. I set these divers on 3 and use long leads. Another possibility is to use "snap weights" on some of the boards lines or if you have any short lead core rigs use these on the boards but either way they need to be the last lines off the boards b/c they will run deeper. These setups will need light leaders if they don't have them all ready. Basically what you are shooting for when you first hit the water is a spread that lets you find where the fish are feeding. Sonar will not help you like it does when the fish are deep b/c they are too shallow to "show" on the screen. Once you find the bait type/color etc and depth that "works" you can change some of lines to mimic the one that's working. That's the theory anyway. Spring Browns are wary and will change their bait preference and feeding depths day to day so working with them is a fun challenge. Keep asking questions!

[Trolling82]

Chowder,

Like your set up. Pretty much what I use on the fingerlakes. That wouldn't be too light on Ontario for those big browns I hear about? One thing I use on my planers that I don't hear a lot of people using are jet divers. Think they're a lot better than weights. Can be quite the drag though when trying to haul in a fish.

Oh and I like the daiwa wilderness rods. Cheap and yet I've had good experiences.

[perch predator]

The browns on cayuga are just as big as on the big O so yeah same setup. But yet again I'm bias.

[chowder]

Like I said- I'm no pro at this. Most of the browns I've gotten on Ontario and Cayuga have been what they call "cookie cutters" and so I've sized my tackle accordingly. My best browns(9-10lbs) so far actually have come from Cayuga and though my line is light the 8'6" Eagle Claw (SF 400 A) ML rod has great forgiveness, I use it like I use a noodle rod on steelies- let the rod fight the fish not the line. You might need to clear some rods for the occasional "big " fish but that's all part of the fun! I use the Okuma 7'6" ML Blue Diamond rods for my riggers on the Fingers but for summertime on Ontario I put my reels on 7' MH Ugly Stik rods. I've lost a few good fish w/ my light spring tackle setups but I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of the bulk of the typical sized ones.

As I re-read the original post I think I hijacked a question that was actually about using divers in the spring so I'll say what I've got to say about that too.

Again-not a pro (hopefully one of the guy's who really knows what he's talking about will chime in) For Spring time and for summer steel I've used a number of different diver setups including 1. The Walker mini discs (like them better than the LJs b/c they trip, the LJs are fixed) 2. Size 00 slide diver on braid setup w/ an inexpensive 8'6" M dipsy type rod. 3. Regular size Slide diver on the same dipsy rod/braid setup.

I can't say that any of these "high diver" rigs are the first thing I'd reach for for Spring Browns -or summer Steel but they have each had they're "day". In the interest of economy I think I would rig up a pair of braid reg size slide diver combos (get the rings for these too) and this should cover most of the situations where a high diver setup is needed. Having said this I will add that I've had much better success w/ different board setups for both spring Browns and summer steel.In my limited experience the super braid Slide diver rig is more effective on the browns when they start to scatter and move deeper as both the day and the season progresses.

[K Gonefishin]

For a line suggestion, Maxima Ultragreen (I use 10lb test) I have found to be the best. I have been using it on my 27LCA's for going on 5 seasons now for fishing Erie I use it to pull inline planer boards, I catch erie walleye and steelhead on it and have never had a fish bust me off, it's un real strong. walleye and steelies to 12 pounds. I pull 6 oz bouncers to 40 jets with it, and run everything under the sun off inline boards with it. It's like XT on Steriods but much strong and more abrasion resistant and it's the perfect color for Erie and Ontario. I use it in 30 pound for my rigger rods, no fleas for king fishing.

[kingslamon22]

no downriggers or dipsies or wire. just 8.5 foot cherrywoods or blue diamonds 3 rods per board (side). sticks and spoons. 2 flatlines with deep divrs or short coppers with spoons. rock those browns world with this setup. everyone i know runs this setup and it accounts for kings, cohos, steel and browns in the month of april whene the water is colder than 49 degrees in 3-12 feet of water, in mexico bay. i use the same mono and rods that i use for fall kings, but i use 8 foot leaders of 17 lb test berkely vanish. 25-30 cookie cutters per hour plus bonus slobs and steel occasionally. love those lake ontario dirt trout. if i could do this all year i would only fish like this. to hell with musky and kings. cant catch 50 fish before lunch in the fall or whene musky fishing.

[kingslamon22]

im tryin that maxima stuff for lake fishing. sounds great. ive used it for leaders in the river and its good for that.

[Yankee Troller]

I have the big 10' 6" rods for my wire line and dipseys for salmon, but want to go with a lighter set up for spring browns. What rods and line type and weight are you guys using in the spring and early summer with good success.

In all honesty if you are running 4-6 rods off planer boards and a couple of riggers and think a couple of divers might help in the spring I think your asking for a headache. If you aren't kept busy with those other rods the fishing is tough, and you may be fishing small pockets of warmer water. A diver would fall right to the bottom on hard turns. If your fishing 20-40' of water then you can bring out the divers. Especially the light bites.

[lakebound88]

i use some of these practices, but i believe i just learned alot more! i wanna get out and try them now..im setting up my little boat as we speak to try these out. i have a bad itch to troll. winter really sucks!!

[Has Been]

I have use ultra green for steelhead leaders for 30 years. It is by far the best & I have tried everything. The 2 lb makes great ice fishing jig line. The color absorbs light & disapers in the water. It stretchs a little but I think that is good in lighter test so it won't snap w/ head shake.

[final flight]

here is my hot set-up from last year. may not work this year but it' will be my starting point. switched out the 2 oz. weight and replaced with the 4 oz. replaced small ring with x-tra large one. run these on power tip 9 ft. dipsy rods. reels are shimano 700 lc. filled with 50 lb. mono and a 6 ft. 15 lb. floro leader. testing proved they will dive 45% of line out, therefore when fishing the 10-12 ft. i let out 15-20 ft. of line. (tip of rod to diver) line out from diver is fine tuned to be in the "ZONE" in my oppinion the closer i keep the diver to the boat the more action is imparted to the lure from the boat re-acting to the waves. i also run these on the fingers, going deep for lakers.differance being i shorten up the dipsy to lure (30ft.) watch your turns cause they sink like a rock!!

[Gotta Bite]

Thanks for all your replies. Unfortunately I don't get up to Lake O until mid to late May so the browns are usually out 40' foot of water at least in my past experience and I wont get in on the april, early may bite that I always hear about. I have had good luck using the planers and lead core last year, but I know the light bite takes it's share as well just havn't put it into use yet and looking forward to it. I'm ready for spring. Thanks again guys.

[chowder]

here is my hot set-up from last year. may not work this year but it' will be my starting point. switched out the 2 oz. weight and replaced with the 4 oz. replaced small ring with x-tra large one. run these on power tip 9 ft. dipsy rods. reels are shimano 700 lc. filled with 50 lb. mono and a 6 ft. 15 lb. floro leader. testing proved they will dive 45% of line out, therefore when fishing the 10-12 ft. i let out 15-20 ft. of line. (tip of rod to diver) line out from diver is fine tuned to be in the "ZONE" in my oppinion the closer i keep the diver to the boat the more action is imparted to the lure from the boat re-acting to the waves. i also run these on the fingers, going deep for lakers.differance being i shorten up the dipsy to lure (30ft.) watch your turns cause they sink like a rock!!

Rollie, I run the SD lite bite w/ the heavier weight & Mag ring on wire. To get to 80' down on 1.5-2 setting you need to let out approx 240' wire. I'm pretty sure you will find that depth/ foot of line out is a curve not a linear relationship. Especially w/ mono I'm quite sure you are going to have to let out a whole lot more than 2:1 to get down to the lakers w/ that setup. Just my 2 cents. -Andy