mr 580

More weight and farther back.  In line boards to get lines away from boat.  Longer leads and wider spreads on Lake Erie.  5 color lead pretty versatile and your 2 oz weights on that would probably get you down to the fish that a 10 is taking.  Dipseys deadly on deep eyes too.

Lots of ways to handle leader to dipsy and it is more about personal preference rather than right or wrong.  Using two snaps or a snap swivel with a snap both work.  Direct tie OK too.Use fluorocarbon leader.  Most of the time you can run same length for plugs and spoons.  Crawler harness on a long lead might require short leader.  I keep my leaders on a Amish Outfitters leader roll.  If you  are spinning up leaders might be from deploying dipsy too fast or a unnoticed trash fish spinning it up.

Go to Trollmaster website and you can download the TM208 manual which should be for Evinrude, Johnson,Suzuki installation.  I have a Trollmaster 2 on a Yamaha was a pretty simply installation and it has worked well for years only had to replace one part.

Slide Diver standard weight is 4 oz.  They offer a heavy weight kit which is a 7 oz weight and a big ring.  I’ve never fished deeper diver but likely the deeper diver would compare closer to a SD with heavy weight kit.  IMO the slide diver dive curve is slightly less than a LJ dipsey which I’ve fished a lot.  I just run more line with SD and compensate that way.  To me printed dive curves are a starting point and I let the fish and my rods tell me the numbers I need to run.

This is how I setup a Slide Diver Lite Bite- 1. Diver comes with a piece of clear tubing. Feed a short piece of tubing over the end of the rear trigger loop to close gap.  This keeps your line in the trigger loop and makes deploying easier.  See picture for detail.

2. Put a piece of supplied surgical tubing over front trigger then slide on spring tube section.   3. For braid diver I tie in 40ft. of Maxima Ultragreen 40lb test Mono Leader material ( 30 or 35 ft works too).  Can also substitute 30 or 40lb test Big Game mono.  I like the 40lb leader as it holds up longer before it needs to be swapped out.  I use a back to back uni knot to tie mono to the braid.   For a wire diver use an Albright knot to attach 65lb braid to wire then use back to back uni knot to attach mono for slide material.   4. Feed the mono through diver add a piece of surgical tube under front trigger to lock mono before trigger is set.    5. Put a bead on the end of mono to help cushion knot when diver slides back.  Tie on a quality snap swivel.  6.  Adjust triggers- front trigger should be fairly tight and rear trigger fairly loose.  Back trigger adjustment is pretty sensitive.  Once you do a few it gets easier.  7.  Tie a 3 or 4 ft fluorocarbon leader -I use 20lb test- with a barrel swivel on one end and a plain snap on the other end for your lure to attach to.  This leader keeps diver from sliding down to the fish.  Make it long enough but short enough for comfortable netting.   You can rig a standard slide diver in same manner-just no rear trigger.  With the mono slide leader no snubber required.  This setup works on Lake Erie or Lake Ontario (use 30lb leader section for flasher fly or meat rig).  I also use rings as I like my diver rods to load up so I get a solid release.  Pictures attached.  Hope this is helpful.  The regular Luhr Jensen dipsey works great, I just think the slide diver with adjustable leader length is better.  

Let me get some pics and I will post in “tackle and technique” section - hopefully later today.

J Sparrow if you decide to try slide divers PM me and I’ll pass along some setup tips that can shorten the learning curve on SD’s.  

If you want to run a longer leader on a diver, it is hard to beat a slide diver.  The lite bite version with rear trigger also helps with problem of dragging junk fish around.  There is a learning curve in setting them, but once you get it down no problems.  I can run 40’ leader usually with a spoon and typically run 2 to a side.

I use 15lb fluorocarbon leader and for length 20 feet along with a good quality swivel.  Twisted line might be a bad swivel or spun up from dragging a trash fish around spinning.

No problem getting slide diver to release with mono for the diver to slide on.  Your main line is braid or wire so you only have a section of mono for the diver to slide down.

As far as using the release attachment to slide a regular dipsey - I don’t see any advantage.  To me just use a slide diver which is made for the purpose.  I’m prejudiced perhaps after playing with dipsey’s and big Jon jettison releases back when we ran mono on dipseys probably 30 years ago.  They worked about 20 percent of the time and failed more often than not with a big king on.  Quickly scrapped that experiment.

To me use dipsey or slide diver as designed- both have excellent track records catching fish. 

Yes, you run slide divers on wire.  Splice in a section of 30 to 40lb mono or 65lb braid for the diver to slide on.  I tend to like mono over braid.  Pretty limited dive curves on slide divers.  I like to run divers with rings.

Put about 40 yards of mono on your reel then attach your wire.  Put it on under tension and for a knot the “fish doctor” from Oswego has a simple overhand knot for wire on his website.  The wire being thinner will run your dipsey deeper than braid dipseys.  Forget trying to run a lure ahead of a dipsey.  Wire has benefits but you have to be careful handling as kinks lead to wire breaking.

First with a 4 rod spread off Church boards, I would suggest you keep each side the same.  Example - 2 deep diving cranks on one side and 2 jets with spoons on the other side.  By doing this if your outside board takes a fish you just slide the inside board out then reset the inside.  With different stuff on each board you have to reset whole side.   Jets likely don’t run as deep as advertised and they run best with spoons, harness’s or easy pulling plugs.  Dive charts to me are just a guide as so many variables with speed, lure and line.  I don’t use jets anymore but I found 10, 20, and 30 jets easier to run than 40’s or 50’s.  Braid will run deeper than mono but mono is easier to use with releases.  Each has their place. Hope this helps.

Found a group of active eyes on Saturday 5/30 with my worm harnesses in the South basin.  So I setup with trolling motor to cast Keitech swim baits on a 1/4 once jig head- first three cast caught one fish and lost another.  Ended up catching about a dozen on the Keitech averaging a fish probably every other cast.  Some pictures attached of some of the fish caught and released.  Fun way to catch fish on light tackle.  Water is finally warm enough for fish to get active.

The Keitech swimbaits work well in the daytime too.  Check my post and pictures in Chautauqua section.  I was using 4"  swim bait with 1/4 once jig 3/0 hook averaging an eye every other cast yesterday.  I figured they would just as well in day as night and they do.

Seems each rod manufacturer rates rods by their own standards- like Ron says feel is best way to judge.  Daiwa Great Lakes are a good choice and Okuma has some as well.  Key is to go to a shop with a selection and have someone help you.

Traxstech Angled Rod holders are sold.  Pair of Bert’s Rod Holders currently still available.

Tiny Tuna- the Bert’s Rod Holders are still available.

Sherman- I’ll send you a PM on the Traxstech regarding a freight quote.

thanks!

Welcome to the forum and big water trolling.  I’m not a fan of rod/reel combo packages.  IMO you get a better bang for your bucks by building your own package and going to a mid price reel over the lower priced reels on the starter rigs.  I tell guys put the money in the reel - for trolling you can use a lower priced rod.  You’ll need specific rods for board rods, leadcore, divers and riggers.  A good tackle store should be able to help you.

Some Bay Rat colors that work for me are emerald shiner, purple secret, purple flash and in close to structure goby color.  I use mostly long shallow and some short shallow rats.

Tony, here are some brands and sizes I’ve used.  For colors I don’t know what you might already have in your box so pick colors you have confidence in or have worked for you before.  Silver Streaks in 3 1/4 Mini or 2 1/4 Jr. , Warrior in 3 3/8 Flutter or 2 1/4 Little Warrior and Dream Weaver 3 5/8 Super Slim or 2 3/8 WD.  For sticks I run Bomber Long A, Bandits, Bay Rats and Smithwicks.  The Bomber Long A’s are “old school” - the black, silver, orange belly has caught eyes for years.  This is a good time to support the local shops.  When I buy lures I never buy just one of a color!  With all the fish around many colors are working.

A week ago as a business owner I took part in a North American webinar for relief options available for fishing interests.  The person presenting for British Columbia stated they had a big problem as commercial fishing was considered “essential” so they could operate their boats-however the fish processors have no market for the fresh catch and were not buying catch so they had no income.  It was also noted that West Coast guides were also effected as no clients or visitors were traveling or flying.  The discussion was these groups could possibly be better positioned for relief if they were deemed non-essential.  Roughly 140 business took part so one can see the wide ranging and critical effect to many interests with this virus beyond what is going on locally.

As of 4/6/2020 Ohio DNR has suspended sale of non-resident fishing and hunting licenses until further notice.   Current existing license holders can continue to use privileges.  
Ohio is also asking non-residents entering the state to self quarantine for two weeks.

Think it is worth noting that the live bait business changed drastically in NY with laws designed to prevent spread of VHS and requirement of sale of certified bait.  Pretty specific regulations regarding bait use, receipt keeping, and transport corridors.  Not easy or cheap to be a bait dealer today-plus having to deal with current business restrictions.

Agree walleyes adapt to available forage-pretty efficient predator.  Hoping we don’t have so many walleyes that they crash the bait populations. Hard to believe they could dent the goby population.