Diver down

[talverson]

Reposted. First attempt was posted in the wrong forum....sorry!

First off, thanks to all that post on this site. Your invaluable input on questions from us "rookies" is extremely helpful. Much gracias! I've also given my fair share of hard-earned income to the great charter captains we have on the big pond, however, this year I've joined my buddy on his new boat to learn for ourselves how things are done only to realize how hard it can be. The boys out of Port Rochester sure made it look easy. Cudos to them (esp. Capt. Jeff)! Which leads me to my question. I've became comfortable with running the boards and riggers and began building my programs from scratch but I am not knowlegable with divers at all. Just never used them before I guess. Once again I turn to this forum for help. So, I ask for some assistance on how to add divers as a weapon. Can someone please tell me how divers work? I'm sure there is a mathamatical equation in there somewhere that will tell me how deep a diver will run with "x" amount of line out and a "y" setting on the diver. Thanks-in-advance for any and all responses.

[stoutner]

Very simple...

Use a rod with a strong backbone, braided 30 lb line or preferably steel line. Reel must have line counter and should be able to hold 1000 feet of line for the screaming Kings on Lake O. Hook diver to main line then run 40 or 50 lb mono or leader about 6 - 8 feet long from diver to flasher and or spoon. I prefer Walker divers by far over other brands but they all work well. Walker #107 is the size most guys run....or Luhr Jensen 001. When seting the weight 0 is for straight back of course and if you want to run in on your port side turn the weight to 2 or 3 making sure the weight is "leaning" toward your boat with diver as it is being pulled through the water. Basically if you set the weight to 1, 2, or 3 setting, the weight must be "leaning" toward your boat when in use.

Distance back varies but most guys use a 3 to 1 rule of thumb. If you want your diver down 100 feet then send it back 300 feet. Truth is if you only want it down 35 feet then it is more like a 2:1 ratio or maybe a 2.25:1 ratio. But, the deeper you go the more accurate that 3:1 ratio seems to be. i,e, 80 down is usually pretty close to240 back.

Good luck. Divers can be more deadly than downriggers most of the time.

[talverson]

Yup - very simple. Thanks Wayne.

[ray koziatek]

Hey 3 to 1 with dyp set at 2.5 setting and doing 2.2 to 2.5 mph kinda a little important.,darn rookies............