Leader length

[Falcon]

I run 5-7 foot leader from my divers to my spin docs. I use the 8 inch dreamweaver spin doc. I was wondering what leader length from divers to spin docs was popular amongst the fisherman here.

[Jax]

I think most peoples replies on here will be the same, as long a leaas you can! By this I mean if you are fishing 8 ft diver rods dont run 8 foot leads because you wont be able to net the fish when it comes to the boat! :lol

The longer the rod the longer the lead length, Typically on outside diver rods, 10 fters, I will run about an 8 ft lead between my diver and SD/attractor. On my inside diver rods, 9fters, I will run it a little shorter just to make netting a littler easier, around 7ft. It will make it that much easier when the fish comes boatside and you still got the leverage you need to get your fish in the net!!

[Gray Fox]

I agree with Jax, we usually run our leaders just a touch shorter than the rod. If you want to try long leaders you may want to look into setting up wire slide divers. this will allow you to adjust leader length.

[Yankee Troller]

Rod length matters, but its the boat that really can tell you how long the leader can be. We run 10' leaders most of the time on our boat. On your spinnies the longer the leader the more whip your going to achieve. For spoons the leader doesn't affect the action. In that case its just a case of how stealthy do you wanna be.

[Legacy]

i run 8-10' leaders. i would try to run your leaders as long as you can.

[Falcon]

My diver poles are 10 feet and my boat is a 24 footer- perhaps I'll stretch the length to 8 or 9 feet. Thank you for the input guys.

[Gill-T]

My boat is the same length as yours. With 10' dipsy rods stowed away, swivel at the tip, my set-ups run down around the handle and back up with the hook resting in an eyelet half way up the rod. I do have a swim platform that helps netting with the longer leaders.

[raider44]

Gray fox- I have heard of a wire slide diver, exactly how do they work, and how do you set one up?

Our leaders are 8 feet between the diver/spin doc.

[jekyll]

Gray fox- I have heard of a wire slide diver, exactly how do they work, and how do you set one up?

Our leaders are 8 feet between the diver/spin doc.

Raider:

Buy a slide diver, open it up, follow the directions, catch fish. Buy the Slide Diver Lite Bite; it has a better release than the original. The slide diver is functionally the same as a regular dipsy except that the main line moves through the diver until you have the set back length you desire. Once the line is out, you lock the arm just as you would set the trip arm on a dipsy. This locks the diver to the line at that spot until a fish hits or you pop the release. When tripped, the slide diver slides down to your leader, flasher or a swivel stop you add to the line. If you use a 4 foot leader then the dive slides to within 4 feet of your fish. You can have the diver slide to your flasher if you like. They can be used with mono, braid or wire. I use clear slide divers on braid because I'm going for stealth when sliding. I add 30 yards of mono to the braid which povides the stealth aft of the slider and sufficient stretch so no snubber is needed.

I really like them and find them very effective for finicky brown trout. I started using them last spring after a charter captain told me he was cleaning up on the browns using 15 to 20 foot leads aft of his dipsies. He just pulled them in hand-over-hand once his dipsy hit the rod. Seems the slide diver is a less 'cave man' way of doing the same thing. Did I mention they work well on the browns? I pulled braid sliders and wire dispies at the same time and some days the sliders out fished the wire and somedays just the opposite. This on salmon.

Their only drawback is that they are a bit more tedious to deploy than a regular dipsy however; you will figure out how to do it well after a bit of pactice. As with regular dipsies, you can add rings to them but the rings are unique to the slide divers. Regular dipsy rings won't fit. Also, you can add heavier weigths to the slide divers. I find the slide divers dive significantly deeper than a number 1 dipsy (with ring) once you add a ring and a 4 ounce weight. If I recall correctly, the slide divers on setting 3.5 (set up as above) dove about 15 feet deeper than did the #1 dipsy with a ring set on 2.5 when 200 feet back. Also, they are more susceptable to being cut off if you bounce bottom so pay attention when getting close to the clams.

[chowder]

Leader length behind Dipsy; Longer leaders catch more fish, for most of last year we used 10' leaders on the Blue Diamond 8'6" roller rod in a 16.5" boat because the rod with the 10' leader would catch fish after fish but the rod with the 7' leader would sit around too much of the time. Landing fish w/ 10' leader on 16.5" boat is a real circus! Even in the larger boat we got at the end of the season there were some anxious moments after the fish was sorta in the net but because we needed such a long handle it could be tough to lever the whole mess into the boat.

Because of all the issues noted above I did put together a wire slide diver combo at the end of the year. I found out a couple things;

1. The SD lite bite with the big ring on wire dives till hell won't have it! Does any body have any sense what you get for depth/ feet out on this setup? The depth chart that comes w/ the divers is all based on mono.

2. Because it dives hard it was kind of tricky to get the lite bite trip set right.

3. Like Tim said above, these things don't bump bottom but a couple times and they are there permanently.

4. They do catch fish!

[ray koziatek]

if you want to use a slide diver i recomend 50 or 65 lb power pro for line instead if wire terminate with a swivel to stop diver after release with about 6 ft good mono to stealth it up a bit and offer tiny bit of streach. then you can deploy 6 to 200 ft line or more before deploying dypsy,ive got a seperate rod reel setup for the slide and leave the dypsy on that pole all the time ,i also use twill tips on my rods (dypsys)which help saw through the fleas when they appear ... if you use the 65lb POWER PRO LINE you will get close to the same dive ratio of wire ,the slider will NOT slip and fleas WILL NOT be NOTICABLY worse with power pro than wire. if been useing this setup for 7 years same line,same dypsy,same results and i spend as much or more time on the pond as i do on this site.. and ive never had a cutoff on a powerpro dypsy line from a rigger fish cumming up and sawing off on the wire... but i still have 3 wire rods for reg dypsy setups as i belive the wire somehow attracts the fish ,be it elect field,sound and viberation, or some other mystical force ,not yet discoverd my man and know only by the fish and UFO'S...

[emtystringer]

say RAY when useing power pro on the slide diver will the power pro slip threw at all in the diver?

[chowder]

I put together the wire slide diver combo for the exact reason Ray states in his post - wire presentations catch fish. At the same time that I put the wire slide diver together I also put together a super braid slide diver setup (which I re spooled this winter using Jeykll's instructions). Both combos allow the SD to be "snapped" onto the line up to 60 yds ahead of the swivel going to the bait leader on a long piece of 30# mono.

Ray, couple questions; 1. Which Slide Diver/ ring combo are you using when you figure you are getting the same depth/foot of line out as wire? 2. Do you run flasher/fly or spoons behind the slide diver?

After I twisted off a couple flasher fly combos last summer I took Stinger's advice and started using a superbraid leader from the dipsy snubber to the terminal swivel.

[raider44]

thanks for the info on the slide divers- I went to http://www.slidediver.com and watched the video. I will for certian try one.

what size slide diver and what size weight is a common use? i believe the video said 2 and 4 were availiable. thanks

[chowder]

Get the light bite, one size only, in black or clear plus the rings to go w/ it.

[jekyll]

say RAY when useing power pro on the slide diver will the power pro slip threw at all in the diver?

Not the Ray but, Slide Diver shows how to rig up so braid doesn't slip. The kit comes with 2 different parts so you can rig up with mono or braid/wire. Simply chose your medicine and rig with the matching tube or spring. I opt to use the mono rig. As I previously said, I add a 30 yard lenght of mono to my braid. I always lock the slider on the mono, anywhere along the length I feel appropriate to the conditions. This gives me the ability to set my diver anywhere from about 6 to 90 feet in front of my spoon, plug or flasher though I usually go for the longer drop-backs.

[ray koziatek]

not till it trips then it goes all the way back to the swivel at the mono

[Falcon]

thanks for the leader tips boys, and good info on the slide divers. its great to hear other points of views