Trolling Spread Question

[eastcoasttransplant]

Hello all,

Last year was my first year fishing Lake Michigan, as I purchased my boat late in June. We messed around with a lot of presentations, but most often ran 6 rods (2 leadcores off planers, 2 diver rods and two downrigger rods).

Now a few times during the day, I noticed the leads weren't firing and I opted to work two braid divers and two wire divers. Now I would fish the braid divers on a 3 setting off a 10 ft dipsy rod to the outside and the wire divers off of 7 foot rods at a 1 setting on the inside. I didn't make any drastic turns but sometimes had the rigs tangle. Perhaps my critical mistake was trying to get them to fish close to the same depths but can anyone else help me avoid this next season?

BTW...all dipsy rods were fishing clean spoons.

Thank all.

[Nailer]

Welcome to the site Phil.

Where are you fishing out of?

Use mag divers on you inside divers set to 1 or 1.5.

I like mags for the out divers also.

Where you running both sets way back? The further a dive set at 3 goes back the less it will go out.

We ran our divers last year both in the same zone quite often. The inside one's where 124 walkers set at 1.5, and the out's where LJ dipseys with mag rings set at 2.5. The only time they tangled was when we had high seas and currents trying to turn.

If you want to get more mid summer fish, run flasher/fly on your inside divers.

[KJ pluggin]

My guess is your divers are getting tangled when you put them out. If you let your divers out to fast your high diver will drop down into your low diver When you let them out just drop the diver in the water and let the diver slowly pull itself out using the drag. After the diver reaches the depth your looking for tighten the drag to your liking.

I also agree with Ken, I like running FF combos on my low divers, but if the spoons are working for you keep putting them down.

[eastcoasttransplant]

Hey Nailer,

I'm running out of Winthrop Harbor, IL, right on the border of IL and WI. I did lots of my fishing around Kenosha.

I have a bunch of posts on GLA and other regional sites about why I think we had more success trolling clean spoons over flashers and flies but I'm making a real push to become a better flasher/fly fisherman this coming year.

As for the tangles, I was running the #1 Dipsys and 107 Walker divers and trying to run them both at 40-60ft deep. Therefore, I had my braid divers out at a three setting with more line out and my wire divers at 1 to 1.5 out trying to fish the same depths. I thought of running mag divers on the outside to get more distance in between the high divers and low divers but haven't tried it yet.

Therefore, I thought of picking up a few extra large walker or Luhr Jensen mag divers and giving that a shot. Just hope that will solve the tangle issues.

Thanks again.

[KJ pluggin]

Phil, if you are looking to target the 40' to 60' water column I would stick with the regular divers over the mags. If you want to get a little more separation you could try adding the mag rings.

[eastcoasttransplant]

I have lots to learn. Can't wait for my second season on the big lake.

[hornets nest]

I have not ran two divers on one side yet, I can but have not tried it yet, the way I can deploy them or what I would do is run a Mag as the low diver set on 1 or 1.5 and a Regular size (size #1 I believe) set on 3 as the high diver, or put a mag ring on the regular size I guess you could do also, by doing this your low diver goes on a sharper angle down and needs less line out to get to your desired depth as compared to the regular size diver, then the regular size diver needs more line out to get to the same depth but the angle is not as sharp as your low, should clear up your tangles. Personally I would set up more for 2 or three birds per side with lead core, Copper or torpedos before going with 4 divers, unless your getting a huge differance consistantly between birds and divers. Just my 2 cents worth.

[hornets nest]

Also let them out slowly as KJ pluggin said, just get them started in the water and put the rod in the holder and let them creap out against the drag, or they will spin around themselves and they won't trip and are real fun to get back in when that time comes, especially when they are set on 3. Sometimes they will get hammered on the way out and that tells you your going to fast or the fish are higher than you think when there out away from the boat. I guess this was my third cent:D.

[Nailer]

A big reason I like my set up is; My low divers go out at a 1/2 ratio (2' out=1' down) and the high divers have a 1/3 ratio (very easy to know where there running)

You had a bunch of cold water last year, so maybe the spoons where a better choice? On our side of the pond they where crushing the spinnies last year. A lot of guys will run spinnies on the low divers to bring fish into the spread. Good luck next year, there's a bunch of good guys here that are willing to share.

[eastcoasttransplant]

The reason I thought to run the Mag divers out to the side was the increased surface area would get the diver out even farther away from the boat and away from the other devices. The regular size, running on wire, would just dive straight down and keep away from the high presentation out away from the boat.

I believe my problem may have come from the fact that I was trying to run everything say at 40 ft or 60 ft, etc. therefore I might have had say 150ft of wire out and 220 ft of braid and eventually they tangled up. Maybe I made a sharper turn along the way or something but I know I don't want to duplicate that again, hence my question.

As for not running flashers.....much of the time my wife and I got out after prime low light conditions. She's not really into waking up at the crack of dawn. I would say that 95% of our summer on the water was in high, mid-day sun and little chop on the water. I tried flashers and flies briefly but just had the hunch that a less aggressive presentation, such as all spoons would out produce flashers and flies. Each trip I'd run the flashers and flies for roughly an hour and after no hits on them, and getting hits on my leads with clean spoons, I would change over to a 100% spoon spread. We never got skunked and out worse day was 6 fish.

This year I want to become a better flasher and fly fisherman and have been doing my research on how to become more accomplished at that. I also want to learn how to run my gear even more efficiently than last season. I've got a good basis but want to reduce the little issues that can be bothersome while out on the water.

[Nailer]

Mid day fish do tend to like the core/copper lines better. You may be better suited to add 2 more of them to the spread. Although we did very well on the flasher/fly combos mid day.

Here are a few combos that really worked well for us this year

All came from Siggs Riggs.

8" White Green Holo, and Super lime glow pulse fly

8" Mountain dew with Mountain Dew pulse fly.

8" wonder bread glow with Blue Dolphin pulse fly

[eastcoasttransplant]

Thanks Nailer.

I have the white, green and chartreuse flashers and am in the process of tying up my trolling flies for next season. just can't wait to get back out there.