Jet divers for muskies

[Cooter]

Anyone tried the jet divers for trolling muskies? Or the dipsys for that matter - I've never used either of them. Would they handle a heavier lure?

[JWB475]

I have never seen the need to get down that deep.

Many of the crankbaits out there will get down to 20-25 feet with the right set up. On Most of the lakes I fish, I don't have to get much further down then that anyway...

Even if a muskie is sitting in 35 feet, and my lure is in 20 feet, if she sees it - and is hungry, it will take about 2 swipes of her tail to cover that distance...

[Cooter]

Was thinking of using them to get spoons or lighter twitch style minnow baits down deeper, or bucktail or spinnerbait, etc.

[RK]

Heya,

If you're trying to get baits out and to the side, I'd probably be more inclined to try a combination of planer boards and drop weights, or just drop weights if you want to go straight back. I have some 'monkey ball' weights between 4 oz. and a pound I use once in a while shortline trolling to get baits down under the prop wash, and they work ok behind board as long as you don't use too heavy a weight. You could get a spoon down quite a ways with 4 oz.

With Dipseys or Jets I'd almost be worried about a fish hitting one too. I know they hit cowbells and downrigger balls...

Cheers,

RK

[Cooter]

Maybe I could put some trebles on the jet diver! Am not sure how drop weights work. Do you use a separate line for the weight similar to downrigging? Do they have a line clip on them or what? Maybe just a big egg sinker in front of a longer trolling leader like those from Mania would work.

[RK]

Hiya,

Weights can be attached one of two ways really.

One is as you suggested - just hang it from the front of a long leader. Take a cross-lock snap, snap it to the back ring on the swivel, and snap on whatever size weight you want. Nice thing about this setup - it also picks up floating weeds that slide down the line. When I'm shortline trolling this is what I do most often.

You can also use a true 'drop weight' setup. Run out some line (30-50 feet), then use a downrigger or planer board release to clip the weight to the line. With superlines, you'll need to probably wrap the line around the jaws of the release once or twice. When you're reeling in a fish, just pop the release off to remove the weight.

Clipping a sinker on in front of the leader is the simplest route. I'd probably only do the drop-weight thing over open water with long lines... Probably more futzing around than it's worth unless having the weight in front of the leader killed the action of the bait or something...

Cheers,

RK

[Cooter]

Thanks much fine sir.

[Mightymuskie]

I haven't been able to try it around here much yet, but when I fished on the Ottawa R. in Canada we would put a large 4inch clear dipsy diver on a rod placed in a holder directly out over the main motor and crank the release down pretty hard and attach a 4 foot 100lb florocarbon leader to the back of the dipsy and let about 15 to 30 feet of line out. This technique works great with spinner baits, bucktails, most cranks and jerkbaits, even bulldawgs and other rubber lures. Large spoons I didn't have good luck with they seemed to move the dipsy too much and make it spin up to the surface which it will due if not properly tuned with any lure. The dipsy at least the clear one never was hit by the muskies and never caused a problem when fighting a fish. This method allows the lure to get right under the prop wash and be easily visable for the fish. It has accounted for many muskies in the 40's including two 47's in the same day. Maybe this will give some of you trollers a new trick!