Dive Bombs Depths Achieved

[GLF]

I went out of Muskegon on 4/19 and tested the dive bombs. In the shallower water, the bottom is very inconsistant. It can vary by as much as 5' in a short distance when running parallel to shore. The slowest I could get my boat down to was 1.7mph with 2 bags in the water.

I did my tests with 20lb mono and had a spoon 30' from the dive bomb.

At 1.7mph:
10FOW
1oz dive bomb was too hard to determine when it was bounching on the bottom.
2oz dive bomb hit bottom with 20' of line out.
3oz dive bomb hit bottom with 17' of line out.
4oz dive bomb hit bottom with 15' of line out.
20FOW
It was too hard for me to determine when the 2oz dive bomb was hitting the bottom, so I ended the test.

At 2.5mph:
20FOW
3oz dive bomb hit bottom with 150' of line out.
4oz dive bomb hit bottom with 100' of line out.
30FOW
3oz dive bomb hit bottom with 450' of line out.
4oz dive bomb hit bottom with 250' of line out.

I did not test at 25FOW, but this is how much line I calculate the dive bomb needs to hit the bottom in 25FOW.
3oz dive bomb hit bottom with 300' of line out.
4oz dive bomb hit bottom with 175' of line out.

The only way to come up with an accurate dive curve, is with a diver in the water.

The 3 & 4oz dive bomb at 2.5mph get approximately 8' of depth per ounce of weight. This also depends on how much line you have out. In order to hit max depths with the dive bombs, you need to have lots of line out.

If you are fishing a full core and a 4oz dive bomb on the first color(closest to the spoon) your bait will be down approximately 80'.

Please give me credit for my work and a plug for my website (http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com) if you post this information on another website.

Mike

[Priority1]

Mike, TYVM for this valuable information. I think I can guess what a 1oz DB will do, knowing what you found out on the 2-4 oz ones.

Running 10# for walleye will make a difference also.

[Rayman96]

This is something I may try in the future. When fish are shallow, or when I fish Lake St. Clair, I use bottom bouncers a lot. In these cases I'm prone to using braided line to reach maximum depth quickly.

Currently what works for me is riggers, divers and leadcore. Sometimes in combination. Example...riggers and leadcore...divers and leadcore.

The one constant is linecounter reels that allow me to repeat a set-up. I'll keep this for future reference.

Thanks for doing the research. :cool: