Mono for divers/flashers

[HoundsNTrout]

So I am pretty new to trolling on the big lake ( 4 seasons consistently now ) and I have a question on using mono for my divers and with flashers off the diver.   I want to try using straight mono rather than wire.  And, yes, I know it will troll a little different and stretch in the mono.    However, for those that do prefer mono, I keep seeing 20# on all the charts.  I would think 30# mono might work better? or even 40?  With flouro leads of course.    Also, can mono be used on my old rods with twili tips? or should I carefully cut them off and re install new eye ends?  Don't ask why I want to ditch my wire.  LOL     
Thanks for any insight you all might have, love this site.  

 

[kempie]

don't totally think about ditching the wire.. yes it can be a pain in the ass but its advantages outweigh it disadvantages. your divers will get deeper with less line out and when the fleas show up they don't stick to the wire like they do to mono or braid. one tip I can give you is let the wire out with the  clicker on. if you do stick with the mono the 40# would probably be the best. good luck. try running one rod with wire until you get use to it. just let it out slow.

[mr 580]

Don’t believe you’ll find many people using mono for divers.  Before braid and multi strand wire were available, we used to use mono and even 30lb was a PIA due to stretch.  If you want an alternative to wire go with 30lb braid- it is more forgiving than wire with the downside that braid and fleas are not good partners.  You can leader from the diver with your flasher with mono or preferably fluorocarbon.  For depth wire is the clear winner with divers.  Braid divers work well higher in the water column.

[HoundsNTrout]

3 hours ago, kempie said:

 

I have been using wire and like it, but when it gets kinks and tangles I'm like WTF.  I also never set it out to say 250 and reel it back in for a nice tight spool. Will do that this spring.  I have 3 rods set up with wire and twili's.    Thanks for the reply. 

 

[whaler1]

As long as braid is 80 to 100 lb (similar in diameter to 30lb mono) fleas are an absolute non issue. 

[guffins fisherman]

I use 65# braid for my divers, so I can get the larger diameter. It accumulates fleas, but not any more or less than wire on the days when fleas are bad.

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[Sk8man]

Hounds you have been given some good advice from very competent fishermen here. The use of wire has a definite learning curve to it along with some important precautions and practices. First of all tension on the wire has to be maintained at all times whether in use or when stored.  To start with you may need to let out a lot of wire with either a weight attached or a dipsy without anything following it to allow the wire to play out behind the boat while under tension and then carefully reel it back in so that it is evenly nested on the reel spool. This can help get you off to a better start. Usually the curly ques develop on the first few feet of the line toward the end and can result from either too little tension on the wire or result from a dipsy spinning in the water with an inferior swivel among other things. When you see the curly cues appear just cut off that few feet of wire and re-terminate with a good quality ball bearing swivel. Usually wire comes in 1,000 ft  spools so if you have a kink that isn't too far up cut that section out and re-terminate. If too much wire is cut your line counter will be less accurate though but even up to 100 ft could be lost without it affecting the functionality of things (still 300 yards of wire which is the length of a football field). Always keep your wire tight on the rod and the reel and when you are letting out a dipsy. Let it out slowly by using the clicker with the drag loosened NOT by the free spool lever. Try to keep the boat straight while letting out wire so it doesn't get into other setups. If you follow this process you should have fewer mishaps or problems. Wire (or the braid specifications already mentioned) is the way to go with dipsys. The key to it is patience

Edited December 19, 2021 by Sk8man

[sherman brown]

on rough days the divers are set not to trip on waves. at these times it's almost impossible to get the divers to trip with mono. but this is where braid shines. I fish walleye on Erie and know a lot of fishermen and all of them use braid as their main line. I wouldn't dream of using mono for divers. if you want to get away from wire, go with non-stretch braid.

[HoundsNTrout]

22 hours ago, Sk8man said:

Thanks .  Yeah, all the things you mention are the things I'm having some trouble with at times, and thanks for all the tips.  

 

 

[sherman brown]

if you want to get your diver deep and get away from wire switch to braid line and slide divers with the 7 oz weight kit. I may be wrong but i believe the 7 oz of weight will get the diver as deep if not deeper than wire.

 

you don't have to use the slide feature of a slide diver. you can rig a leader on the back and tie your main line to the front arm. that's what i do on my lite bite slide divers.

Edited December 20, 2021 by sherman brown

[AnglingAddict]

Hop on someone's boat who uses it - it's really not that hard and I guarantee you will catch 5x the kings on wire as you will on mono.....you just need to be consistent with it and purposeful in your handling of it.  

[mr 580]

It is worth the time to learn how to use wire.  Keep it under tension and cut out kinks.  Keep drag loose when setting- just at “line creep”.  If you are breaking off on release loosen drag or add a clear snubber.  Use a reel with a good smooth drag.  Stick with a regular dipsey while you learn how to use wire.  Get comfortable with a basic wire setup before trying options like slide divers-another learning curve. Kings find the weakest link so focus on where the problems are coming from.  With some work and time on the water, you should see the value of wire.

[HoundsNTrout]

I was wondering about cutting the kinks and re 'tying'.  Use shrink wrap?    You think the kinks are usually from line twisting or not enough tension when originally spooled?  So far, I've used wire maybe 6 trips. Not TOO much problems, but more to learn for sure.  

Thanks all. Appreciated.    Merry Xmas. 

[sherman brown]

1 hour ago, Hounds said:

I was wondering about cutting the kinks and re 'tying'.  Use shrink wrap?    You think the kinks are usually from line twisting or not enough tension when originally spooled?  So far, I've used wire maybe 6 trips. Not TOO much problems, but more to learn for sure.  

Thanks all. Appreciated.    Merry Xmas. 

I've only used wire twice for walleye on Erie for walleye and the only time I came close to getting a kink was from not enough tension when letting line out. if I didn't keep my thumb in contact with the wire when letting the line out the spool would get slack and when the slack got tight the wire would overlap and cause a kink. it doesn't matter so much if the wire is spooled a little loose as long as you keep tension on the wire when letting it out.

 

i use 15# wire for walleye and i have made a couple of splices in the wire using a micro swivel and shrink tubing. but you really need to slow your reel down when the splice goes through the rod eyes when letting it out.

 

[Sk8man]

Cut the kinks out if not too much wire lost or replace wire:

There are a number of ways to terminate the wire but the two most common are: a) tying the wire using a wire knot, and b) using a wire crimp. many folks use the first option while I use the second alternative. Although some people use shrink wrap I don't like it because you can't see what is going on beneath it (e.g. possible strand separations etc.). If using the simple wire knot everything is visible. Using the crimp method which a lot of people don't like because it is more tedious and has to be done correctly requires care but in more than 50 years of wire use (both dipsy and Seth Green rigs) I have never had a failure at the  termination point. The key to it is making the termination into a unit rather than discrete parts where wiggling movement and bending can degrade the connection. This is done by CAREFULLY crimping the entire crimp sleeve so that it holds the wire without actually pinching it with too much force so that the ends of the crimp sleeve are closed as well as the mid portion (preventing wiggling of the wire against the edges of the sleeve) and attaching a high quality solid ring ball bearing swivel and then encasing  the entire crimp and wire within it with CLEAR hot glue right up to the loop in the wire. This prevents any movement of the wire in the crimp sleeve and makes the connection a single unit and with the clear glue you can still see and monitor the wire condition and connection. A little more work than tying but pretty much "foolproof"

Edited December 21, 2021 by Sk8man

[TyeeTanic]

What reel are you going to put a minimum of 700 ft of mono on? Not your old wire ones ... that's for sure.

 

I'd much rather use braid then mono.  

 

You won't get good sink rate and you will have a heck of a time popping a dipsey when you have 200 ft or more of that mono line out.

 

Anyhow, I think people use 20 lb mono, because there isn't a real around that could hold enough 30 or 40 lb mono ... at least not one that doesn't cost a fortune.

[HoundsNTrout]

21 minutes ago, TyeeTanic said:

What reel are you going to put a minimum of 700 ft of mono on? Not your old wire ones ... that's for sure.

 

I'd much rather use braid then mono.  

 

You won't get good sink rate and you will have a heck of a time popping a dipsey when you have 200 ft or more of that mono line out.

 

Anyhow, I think people use 20 lb mono, because there isn't a real around that could hold enough 30 or 40 lb mono ... at least not one that doesn't cost a fortune.

700 ft?   lol.    I think I'm sticking with wire after all this.   LOL   

Thanks guys.  

 

[Sk8man]

   An additional consideration regarding the dipsy leader and leader to spoon or fly;

 

i know it may be considered blasphemy by many hard core fishermen but I use 40 lb Big game MONO rather than fluorocarbon for the dipsy leader and 50 lb test for my hand tied flies. The reason is this - mono has a bit of stretch which when using wire offers some desirable shock absorption while fluorocarbon does not and in my view may be more susceptible to failure especially at the knot. Thus with mono  a snubber not necessary. I use flurocarbon leaders on all my toplines, downriggers etc. and shallow water applications where the increased stiffness of the line and reduced visibility can be of value but in the deep dipsy application where visual stealth isn't a factor and the lack of stretch isn't a plus and the lure is running deep most of the time I think mono is superior for that particular thing. I know others will have a very different view but something to think about anyway.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Sk8man

[greenboatluke]

Kinda mentioned before, but… A tip I got for after respooling with wire was the next trip out, put a diver in the water tripped, so it doesn’t dig. Let out the entire spool under control, then reel it back in. This will put all the wire on under tension. It’s a pain, and takes some time (I have 1000’ on mine), but trip to trip performance has been better!


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[HoundsNTrout]

9 hours ago, greenboatluke said:

Kinda mentioned before, but… A tip I got for after respooling with wire was the next trip out, put a diver in the water tripped, so it doesn’t dig. Let out the entire spool under control, then reel it back in. This will put all the wire on under tension. It’s a pain, and takes some time (I have 1000’ on mine), but trip to trip performance has been better!


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Was mentioned, but thanks for posting.  I will do this next time out.  All I did was, well, we have a 300 ft driveway so I hooked it on the garage and went out and down the road then reeled in about 400 ft of it at tension.   LOL   

 

[greenboatluke]

Nothing like hooking a garage! They pull hard! [emoji38]


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[TyeeTanic]

23 hours ago, Hounds said:

700 ft?   lol.    I think I'm sticking with wire after all this.   LOL   

Thanks guys.  

 

Yeah for sure. We often have 300 ft of wire out ... with mono, you'd never get to the same depth, even if you let out all 700 ft. You'd probably snap on a heavy torpedo weight to help with the depth, and have 400 ft of line out.  Then when a nice fish takes out another 200' to 250' of line ... you'll start messing your underpants knowing you can see the bottom of the spool.

 

Now, if you want to do shallow water fishing ... sure, you can put on a heavy torpedo and have say 150' to 200' out ... say target top 30' of water ... it might work ... still, I wouldn't want less than 400' to 500' of mono line on the reel.

 

Everyway you look at it ... much better to have braid than mono, and even better to have wire, given the sink rate and smaller diameter (which allows you to put that much line on the reel, often 1000' is the go to length of wire on a reel).

[mr 580]

Hounds, don’t try splicing diver wire.  Cut out pig tails or bad spots.  Wire comes in 1000 foot roll so you have plenty to remove before replacing.  Most wear usually at end of the wire anyway- keep an eye on it.  If you figure the cost of a roll of wire vs the loss of a diver, flasher, fly and terminal tackle then the wire cost is peanuts.  With just 5 trips with wire, use the advice you’ve got from this thread and continue the learning curve.  The benefits are worth it.

[sherman brown]

i'll still never understand if you want to get deep why you guys don't try the 7 oz slide diver with braid. i can get to 65' with 65# braid and a standard ring and weight, and thats as deep as i want to fish or i would try the heavier weight. in don't use the slide feature of the diver. i just add my leader to the back of the diver.

 

[Sk8man]

Slide divers are a whole different matter as they are usually run in the upper part of the water column and excel at that in terms of stealth etc. but for running deeper Deep Divers are the way to go. Slide divers don't offer much if any advantage in that regard.