DIPSY DIVERS  & JET DIVERS

The dipsy diver is a plaining diving device that will enable you to send lures down to a set depth and out to the side of your boat. Rods for trolling dipsys have to be strong and stout with specialist dipsy rods available from the USA. I use a “Ron Thomson  8 ft 6” Cruiser rod that costs £25.00 and this will pull a large dipsy. You don’t need expensive rods for trolling!

REELS

A must have is some way of measuring the amount of line you have out (this determines the depth that the dipsy will run at). You can either use a line counter reel (Okuma 30d) or a clip-on line counter that fits to your rod (Shakespeare) or by counting the amount of times the level wind mechanism travels from side to side on a  multiplier reel. On my ABU 6000 reel one bar side to side= 10ft of line out. 30ft of line out means that my dipsy is running at 10 to 12ft deep. Try to run a dipsy without a means of measuring the line out and you will lose them.

I lost my first 2 dipsy’s within 15 minutes of putting them in the water.

LINES

For dipsy’s  and most of my trolling I use a no stretch braided line (Power-pro 50lb test but 12lb thickness). For dipsy’s life is a hell of a lot easier if you use a no stretch line, it means that you can trip the diver and bring it in when you want to and you don’t have to fight it all the way to the boat!

The set up for running a dipsy is as follows. At the end of my braided line I tie a large snap swivel and attach the line to the boat end of the dipsy (see diag). At the line at the lure end of the dipsy I attach a snubber. This is an elasticated link between the dipsy and your lure to absorb the shock of fish hitting your lure, with thr no stretch line. A fish can just snap your leader line like cotton (voice of experience!!) from the snubber to the lure I have a 5 to 7ft length of 17lb nylon with a ballbearing snap at one end and a plain snap at the other, To the snap you can attach a lure, either a spoon or a shallow running plug. To start fishing you snap the wire arm at the front of the dipsy into the slot and adjust the tension holding it (tension screw #1). I adjust mine with a spring balance to release at a 2 to 4 lb pull.

Rod bend while pulling a dipsy                               Downeast rod holders

Dipsy diver in open position                                        Dipsy in closed or diving position

You should adjust your reel drag so it is just holding the dipsy and no more. If a small fish takes your lure it might not have the strength to “pop” the wire arm free on the dipsy, so you will see the rod tip jiggle and bounce. When this happens lift the rod out of the rest and lean back on the rod and if you have the tension set right on the release the dipsy will “pop” and you can reel the fish in.

If it is a big fish it will rip line out from the drag and the dipsy will “pop” itself.

Another tip for using dipsys ,especially with the way the bottom contours of our Scottish lochs go i.e.: 50 ft deep to 5 ft deep and then back to 50ft deep in a matter of seconds, is if you think the dipsy is going to snag then grab the rod from the holder and give it a sharp pull this will “pop” the dipsy and then it will rise to a shallower depth and hopefully clear the bottom

For anyone  considering  trolling with dipsy',  if you use a standard spinning rod it will probably break with the strain a dipsy will  put on it or the rod will be too weak to trip the dipsy when you want to bring it in. The first rods I used were 10ft Eagle claw dipsy rods bought from Cabelas, but they proved  a bit unwieldy in a 16 ft long boat. So for the past year I have been using the afore mentioned Ron Thomson rods. I have used the Cruiser  8 ft 6" 15 to 20lbs and the Ron Thomson Interpro 20lb 8ft 6"  interline downrigger rod. Both rods have stood up well to pulling large dipsy's.

Shops like Mikes tackle shop in Edinburgh sell a lot of the Ron Thomson tackle, they advertise in sea fishing magazines "outfits" like rod and reel for a set price, they will sell an Okuma line counter reel with rod for £60, the rod is usually a boat rod but they will change the rod if the one you pick is in the same price range to the rod of your choice, so you will be able to pick up a dipsy rod and line counter reel for £ 60 . The only problem is you will want at least 2 outfits (one for each side of the boat).

I don't get any sponsorship or "deals" on Ron Thomson gear  but if Mr Ron Thomson and co want to send me any wee notes of thanks write them on the back of a £20 note and send to me!!.

JET DIVERS

A jet diver looks a  bit like a large diving plug with no hooks on it. It is a diving planer that has  the added advantage in that it floats when not being pulled along by the boat. It is an ideal item of tackle  for fishing on the "poker" rod if you want to get a lure down to the 20 to 30 ft depth mark, you can only pull lures like spoons and shallow diving  crankbaits on them as the back pull from deepdiving lure will cause the jet diver to turn over and come "belly up".

I only use my jet divers occasionally as I tend to rely on my downriggers to get lures down deep, but you will find that jet divers will be good for someone who wants to run lures a bit deeper than normal, but does not want the hassle and expense of fitting downriggers, they would also be good for use on hire boats as you can use standard rod holders for them as they don't pull as hard as dipsy's.

Jet divers are available in 5 sizes jets 10 to jet 50, they will dive from 10 to 50 ft deep. I have used  sizes 10, 20 and 30 and the one that goes on most of the time is the jet 30 with this I have had it and lure banging the bottom of the loch in 25ft of water, I usually put it about 50 ft back from the boat and this will put the jet diver approx 15ft deep or sometimes I just let it out at the back of the boat, watching it as it floats on the surface till it gets anywhere from 20 to 100 ft back and then click the reel in to gear and then let it dive to whatever depth it will go to. Jet divers will float up to the surface pulling your lure behind it when the boat is stopped, so if you wanted to you you could vary your trolling by stopping and starting the boat and this will have your lure going up and down as you stop and start the boat.

When I use a jet diver I will put it on any rod that is available at the time as you can use "normal" rods and lines with them, I use anything from a 7ft ugly stik with 15lb mono to a 9 ft dipsy rod with 50lb braid.

When you get a jet diver it has a large duo-lock snap at the top this is where you tie your reel line to, and underneath it has a ring with a swivel this is for the line to the lure I use a 6ft length on nylon from the jet to the lure with a swivel on for a spoon or just a snap if I am pulling a rapala or a shallow crank bait.

Below is a chart showing the diving depths for different sizes of jet divers.

LUHR JENSEN JET DIVER          15LB TEST MONO LINE

One thing to note is that this chart is for 15lb test mono, if you use 20lb mono the jet will not dive as deep, due to the thicker line and if you use 50lb powerpro which has a 10lb line thickness the jet will dive deeper than the chart shows.