Mini divers

[Cas]

How do you run your mini divers? I've seen them used, but never really paid any attention. Before my parents moved south, my Dad gave me his old "bucket of lake fishing stuff", most of it for Ontario. Going through it, I came across a couple of the mini-divers, figured I should give them a go. Anyone care to share the basics as to how far back off the diver you run the lures, etc.? Roughly how deep they go, how far off to the side they get, etc.

Currently my only rods with line counters are rigged with the slide divers, but I can certainly get an estimated length if I were to use these.

[Digitroll Fishing]

Mike,

There is quite a variation of mini-discs out there. I like the Big Jon so-called "quarter divers" or mini disc in the catalog. They have no trip mechanism and can be set by the small lead to run left or right. We typically run them so the go out to the side with the weight facing down out each side of the boat. We run them out 100 feet on 12 lb test line on the counter. They run anywhere from 8-10 feet down to the left for right extreme weight setting or at the deepest setting to 15 feet if you run them straight behind the boat with the setting at noon for the weight digging at there deepest.

Great delivery system and simple and they will fire up till the LCI with the weight setting at noon for a 15 foot depth.

[4cs]

Hey Mike

Ron gave you some good advice just want to add a few things, we run the Big Jon mini divers on our salmon rods, in our case the Daiwa Kokanees, they can handle them so you do not have to have a special setup for them. The Big Jons will run between 10' to 15' down and usually run them with 90' out on the line counter and I can tell you that because they have hit bottom with that much line out. The way the Big Jons are designed they will straightened/flatten out after a fish hits so you are basically reeling in a flat disc. We also use the Walker deep divers which have a trip mechanism like a regular dipsy diver in that the arm releases when a fish hits and the diver straightens/flattens out. On the packaging for the Walkers they say they will get to a max depth of 25' with 125' of line out and they also come with a dive chart on the back of the packaging. Both have a weight so you can adjust them to run away from the boat. We usually run the Walkers at 115' of line out on the counter but you can run them where ever the fish wants them. Our favorite colors are black/purple in both the Big Jon and Walkers and wonderbread in the Walkers. The lead off the mini divers to the spoon is about 4' to 6', remember that it shouldn't be any longer then the rod so you will be able to reel the diver up enough to net fish.

Pat

[Surprise]

I'll say a indispensable tool in any setup. I have been a lifelong user of beadchains and clip weights.

Leadcore in my realm was for bait fishing on bottom. Old time plowing with baited spoon and line in hand.

Ron Digitroll introduced one to me when we got together and when he pulled the 8th salmon in the boat and I had one with the same lure and distance back ......sign me up!

The part that I like most is you can use your regular rod and don't need a dipsy rod or heavier. The fish still has fight. Run e'm off side planers for a spread. The digging action gives your presentation a little more Hula, because you are running the lure close the diver. I'll bet it would jiggle a fly especially if you put a splitshot between the disc and fly.

Here is the sheet and depth chart from Big Jon

http://www.bigjonsports.com/tips/diver-disks.html

See the Side planer spread

http://www.bigjonsports.com/tips/basic- ... gging.html

Good fishing !

[raz]

Thanks for the chart Randy.

[No Pressure]

I've also run the mini divers off of the planer boards on the inside set up and have had good results. This helps when you have a full house and want to get down to the fish and away from the boat.

[fishhuntadventure]

Speed does factor in here as well: to expand on above notes, you can get 25' depth or a little more out of them.

With 30# Power Pro (6# mono diameter) and a spoon (for salmon/trout) or crawler harness (for walleye) I have found the depth chart from BigJon to be a pretty good indicator. I wouldn't do it off cliffs or other rocky places, but a sand delta like the west coast of Whalon's will show you what it does. I do know that 100' of line out at Oneida collects zebra mussels over 24- 28' of depth with one pretty often. At salmon speeds the further off the side you run the weight dial the more the chart is "off." If you run the weight too far to the side it rolls up and surfaces. Squeeze the weight back forward a smidge and it will run OK- unless you speed up again! My line is marked at 5' increments so I know exactly how far out I am - the sonar and the disc hitting bottom tells the rest.

I have also used it for a staggered delivery system for walleye as it is excellent in planing off to the side as well as diving. I run several things from it.