Check lines every 10 minutes or so. Thats about all you can do.

 

This is about all you can do to be sure . You can do things to reduce towing dinks , but at the end of the day ya just need to constantly check your lines

 

I use lite bite slide divers and set the lite bite tension as light as it will go. most but not all small fish will trip the diver. but you will still need to check your lines ever so often.
sherman

 

I run three line boards on each side. As long as you have the same rig (baits/weights/divers/etc...)on all the inline boards, typically one of my boards will track just a tad off, even with only a 10" walleye. If something looks even just slightly off, I usually have a fish.
Now if you have different weights or type of baits on the same side of the boat, this does not work.

 

Here is something that helps me read my inline boards. When I set my boards out to the distance I want I then fine tune the middle and inside boards so they are in a perfectly straight line going away from the boat at a 45 degree angle. If I get a small fish on one of the lines that board might only fall back 6-8" but it is enough that you can detect when sighting down that line. It is not foolproof, a little tougher in big waves and really small fish like a perch don't move the board much, but it definitely helps.
GF

 

I got tired of dragging 14" walleye with planer boards which I did notice any fish so I switched to dipsey divers with the rod tip action sufficient to detect a shortie. Of course, dipseys aren't always the best method of attack.

 

We checked dipseys every 10 minutes and every time we checked them we had doubles ,triples, or quads maybe every 5 minutes is better

 

I'm using 7' (CAL1000 MH" not 100% positive) Ugly Stick rods with my dipseys and I can see the tip twitch with a shortie on the end. These rods are softer than most people use for the heavy pull of a big dipsey. I also admit to frequent checking since you can blink and miss a strike and no worm.

 

I have a friend who is constantly tangling his dipsy rod line. Dipsy 1 is set at 3.0 and Dipsy 2 is set at 1.5. Any help appreciated.
Ron

 

let the front rod set on 3 out as far as your going to let it out, then set the back rod set on 1.5 out about 20' shorter than the front rod. I always run 3 rods per side with about 20' between each diver. and make sure the diver is set to run out the side of the boat you are running them on. when your letting the front rod out over the inside rod start letting it out as far over to the other side of the boat as you can without getting into the lines on the other side. about 15' before you let out the line as far as you are going to let it out take the rod up and over the back rod and put it in the holder and put the reel in gear. the diver goes up and over the back diver. hope this helps.
sherman

 

Let your dipseys out slow or they will get tangled and twisted .
We can run 3 dipseys per side with out tangling, the key is slowly letting it out with constant tension i actually use the drag and clicker to let it back slower

 

I check my dipsey rods for shorts by removing it from the holder and pulling the rod forward about 6 ft. Then let it go a little slack to see if I feel a fish pulling or not or rod tip moving. This has worked many times for me and prevented reeling in and redeploying. Still, if it's been more than 15-20 minutes...reel all the way in. I Have yet to hear one of these shorts set off my reel clicker, even with very minimal drag.

 

Driving straight with slow open turns is important to keep dipsys untangled. Turning across the wind, and the instant 30 degree reaction when the bow breaks to the other side of the wind, will tangle them every time.

 

A friend showed me a trick with big boards.Use a rubber band,half hitch to your line,rubber band in planner board clip.If its a small fish that doesn't pull the rubber band out of clip,you can see that line or rubber band is strectched out farther than the other rubber bands.You can tell which one is dragging a small fish.It use to really tick me off,I would be quitting and pulling in lines and I would be dragging 4 or 5 fish.Cant catch fish if you are dragging fish.

 

First all our Dipsy rods are identical (make length and action). Next our rod holders are only 11"s or so apart and all 4 are within a few degrees of horizontal with the lowest one for the 0 or 1 Dipsy, each higher number just slightly higher (like 3 degrees). This puts the rod tips just high enough to clear the rod behind it when a fish hits, but close enough to see very slight changes.

We read both the rod tips and the line from the tip to the water. We tweek the Dipsy settings to where the lines from the rod tips to the water make even pie sliver like splits between each other. Like spokes in a wheel. When you have 2 to v4 lines evenly spaced and any one of them moves even slightly it's quite obvious. Because we read the lines we use high vis super braids.

I'll attempt to add a photo to save trying to explain exactly what they look like.

Let me add that this is sensitive enough that we can read weeds and in fact we've read the top of a cigarette package on the line above the Dipsy.

Hope this helps.

 

Eureka

 

Ok now I can explain what happens when we get a small fish.

Whatever line has the fish, the added drag of even the smallest fish, causes that line to come closer to the line inside of it. Often that line will nearly be immediately above the line behind it.

If you're busy netting, watching other rods or just not paying attention and miss that initial rod bounce of a walleye take, having the rods close saves dragging a fish around.

 

Here's a tip on rubber bands in releases for big boards; if the band and the clip get horizontal that line is dragging a fish. This abviously won't work if you've added 2 ozs or more wt to the crank.

 

Exactly! The small fish are causing the lines to "plane up" in the water column. This also causes less drag than the truetrip or the lure itself, so the rod tip will have LESS bend than the others. Kind of reverse of what you look for in a big fish.

 

I have fished with Jim and this works! Needs a little practice to get it right but it works!

One thing on reading boards is that a small fish may actually make that board run ahead of the other boards. Especially if you are running a hard pulling crank like a reef runner then a symmetrically hooked small fish will reduce the drag & the board will run ahead of the others.

 

another thing you want to do is when you get a fish on the outside lift it up high and move to the center of the boat and let the fish move over your inside line before reeling it in. this will save a lot of tangles with the back line.
sherman

 

This doesn't always work with smaller fish
Sometimes it's best to just crank the little bugger like heck in the side
Little fish don't always swing to back of boat
Also sometimes quicker

 

I agree with what the others are saying about letting them out slow. I turn the clicker on on my reels and loosen the free spool tension until the diver starts going out on its own. this has worked good for us. but if you go to slow on an outside rod the diver may pull over and tangle the back line. if you use your clicker to let it out you should be good to go.
sherman

 

One way that works for me is to set my drag as light as it will hold with the clicker on. When I get a small fish hit it will make a click or two, big fish continuous click as it falls back. This even helps me realize if the boat has entered current or if I have sped up.

 

Very good points.

 

Yes, thanks for all the helpful info.
Much to experiment with next trip out.