Never used them on Mille Lacs, but have used them to catch eyes on Erie, Winnebago and Green Bay. They work well, but they pull hard. You’d better have some full sized gear for pulling them around.
Catching eyes on spoons and dipsys on Erie was an experience I’ll never forget.
I’ve always wondered this too. I use them a lot for Salmon on Lake Michigan and I know guys use them for walleye’s some on Lake Erie. The downside of diver’s is that you can only run a 6-9 foot lead behind them to the bait since you can only reel in to the dipsy, then need to be able to reach the fish with the net behind that. I figured on clearer waters and with less aggressive fish, this might be a bit much to have running just in front of your bait. I have run downriggers on Mille Lac’s and Pepin though for walleye’s with good results, but I run a long (100 ft or more) lead from the ball to the bait.
There is also a diver product out called slide divers where you can slide the diver up and down your line for running longer leads. I’ve got a few, but haven’t tried them yet for Walleye’s or Salmon. I’m intersted in hearing other’s input on this topic.
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Never used them on Mille Lacs, but have used them to catch eyes on Erie, Winnebago and Green Bay. They work well, but they pull hard. You’d better have some full sized gear for pulling them around.
Catching eyes on spoons and dipsys on Erie was an experience I’ll never forget.
Good point! I forgot to mention that in my response……they do pull hard. These work best with Diawa Saltist or Shimano Tekota reels with good drags.
Here’s the link to the slide diver’s. I’m sure the “light bite” would work best to allow a smaller walleye to trip the dipsy.
I’ve used dypys divers, slide divers, jet divers and snap weights. They all have pros and cons.
Dypsys are directional allowing you to spread out your lines. If you stop, dypsys will sink. They pull hard as others have said above so you need a stiff trolling rod. Depending on the model and how you set the tension, not all will disengage on a small walleye. I guess they now make a superline dypsy but I have not tried it.
Jet divers are inexpensive but they are not directional (they don’t spread out). When you stop – they float to the surface. They don’t pull as hard as dypsys. You have to buy them at 20, 30 and 40 feet.
The slide diver is directional and you can very your lead length without retying. It can detect smaller fish better than dypsys. The thin braids have a tendency to slip so some guys splice in heavier mono line to attach it or use mono or they put on a stop bead and a swivel on their braid. I also heard surgical tubing works with braid too. You also have to cut the line to remove it.
Snap weights are another cheap way to go. You attach it right on your line – 50 feet up from your crankbait. It’s not directional. It’s very speed sensitive. At a 60 degree angle (trolling speed + snap weight) you multiply by 2 to achieve desired depth (50 feet from snap weight to rod tip will get you 25 feet of depth) plus you need to add your 50′ depth curve of your crank bait. At a 40 degree angle – multiply by 1.4. You can not do S turns with snap weights and need to troll straight lines otherwise they will bottom out.
You can catch fish with all the diving tools above. However, leadcore is the most versatile, consistent and easiest way to control your depth of your lure. It’s not directional though. However, with the use of planer boards you can get it away from your boat. Some guys attach it right to the board but you need to be careful because you can damage the lead core line. This is where segmented lead core comes in. You have a leader then splice in your lead core (3-5 colors) then tie that onto braid or mono which goes back to your reel. You then attach the planerboard right after the lead core on the braid or mono line. Only drawback is that you are pretty much locked into that lead core depth (3, 4 or 5 colors). You can gain some depth by attaching the planer board further away from the lead core line but it’s hard to be consistent.
Brad,
Great info as always!
Would happen to have a diagram showing what you mean by this statement?
“This is where segmented lead core comes in. You have a leader then splice in your lead core (3-5 colors) then tie that onto braid or mono which goes back to your reel. You then attach the planerboard right after the lead core on the braid or mono line. Only drawback is that you are pretty much locked into that lead core depth (3, 4 or 5 colors). You can gain some depth by attaching the planer board further away from the lead core line but it’s hard to be consistent.”
Thanks
Here’s a very rough drawing that I just did. 
The purple line is braid or mono back to your reel.
Orange rectangle is your planerboard that attaches to the mono or braid. Your planer board would float on top of the water (unlike what it shows in the diagram).
The yellow line is your lead core line (3, 4 or 5 colors)
The blue line is your leader – 50 foot mono or braid
would all 10 colors put you below 55′?
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However, with the use of planer boards you can get it away from your boat. Some guys attach it right to the board but you need to be careful because you can damage the lead core line. This is where segmented lead core comes in. You have a leader then splice in your lead core (3-5 colors) then tie that onto braid or mono which goes back to your reel. You then attach the planerboard right after the lead core on the braid or mono line. Only drawback is that you are pretty much locked into that lead core depth (3, 4 or 5 colors).
Since I starting playing around with lead last year, this was one of my biggest questions. I figured attaching directly to the lead core was a bad idea. However, I couldn’t see any way to react to required depth changes with planer boards without switching baits. Sometimes a hot bait is a hot bait, and switching doesn’t pan out. Do you generally run planer boards with deep diving baits against hard line, and lead core right out the back? Or do you run lead lead core on all your setups with varying number of colors on multiple out rods? In a four rod setup, are all lines on planer boards? Or do you run a couple directly behind your boat.
-Drew
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Do you generally run planer boards with deep diving baits against hard line, and lead core right out the back? Or do you run lead lead core on all your setups with varying number of colors on multiple out rods? In a four rod setup, are all lines on planer boards? Or do you run a couple directly behind your boat.
When fishing with four lines, here’s how I usually start out:
– 2 planer board lines on braid with crankbaits that can dive up to 28 feet on their own
– One regular lead core and one 832 leadcore line line out the back of the boat using crankbaits that don’t dive as deep
If the braid on planerboards start producing and leadcore does not – I will move to 4 planer boards on braid
If the lead core lines start producing and the braid on boards do not – I will put out two more segmented leadcore lines on boards.
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