[kayakangler]

I thoguht I would share a couple ways Ive been rigging to get my baits down while trolling for salmon. Both of these techniques would work from a boat as well.

The first is a torpeedo diver which I just started using this summer and so far it has been very effective.

I modified the diver to trip and slide down the line. I swapped out the church walleye board release for this Dubro downrigger release. Then I drilled a small hole in the fin and added another piece of braided line with a couple snap swivels.

The second set up is just a dipsy that I modified into a slide diver.

I once again added a dubro downrigger release and put a snap on the back swivel that would normally go to the bait. I like this more than a regular slide diver because I dont have to pull the line through the diver to let it out. I simply let out my desired amount of line and clip on the diver just like I would with a planer board.

[wsj_outdoorsman]

Good idea, thanks for sharing it with us. What kinda drag comes from the torpedo one? Looks heavy.

[kayakangler]

The torpeedo diver is heavy. Ive been using the biggest one made. It has very little drag and goes almost straight down while im trolling so I have very good depth control which is why I like it so much.

[twade]

For those that don't have a foot propelled kayak I was thinking about the jet divers. My thought is that if you have to stop your not dragging your bait/spoon on the bottom. I would imagine you can set up lines let it drift behind you and paddle them down.

Especially nice if trolling for other fish in unknown submerged cribs etc when stopping.

thoughts?

[kayakangler]

Twade I used to use jet divers quite a bit when I still had a "paddle" kayak for the reasons you mentioned. If you are using 2 right handed reels youll find that the handle of one reel will face you while the other will face away. I always put the jet diver on the rod with the handle that faced away and put a dipsy or slide diver on the rod with the handle facing me. This allowed me to crank in my dipsy with one hand if I got a fish on the jet diver. After a while I got a left handed reel so that both handles face me and then i just used 2 dipsys because I could reel either one in with one hand. I think that the torpeedo diver can work on a paddle kayak as well. it has such little blow back that you can set it so that there isnt enough line to snag on the bottom if you need to stop. for example. if you are fishing forty feet of water you can put 10 feet of line behind it to your bait and let out another 23 feet of line to reach a depth of 20 feet down. If you stop your bait will only be 33 feet down in 40 feet of water.

[jackpine]

Thanks Robbie, nice set-up.

Where did you get the torpedo?

Fran

[kayakangler]

Fran,

I got it from Frank J at lakemichiganangler