Thread: Depth Control when cranking

You are very correct on certain baits. Once they begin to plane out, it takes much more line out in order to get them to dive another foot. Eventually, they hit terminal depth.

There is a big difference on a Size 9 Flicker minnow running 40 back vice 50 back. There is not a big difference on the same bait running 80 back vice 90 back.

Just fished a tournament in a clean water situation in which the average human could see the bottom in 30 feet of water. Bait depth (setback) didn't matter near as much as bait selection.

That said, other dirty water situation call for much better depth control.

If one is utilizing dive curve charts, again, the key is ensuring your have your reel calibrated. Everyone always tells me they know there stuff is right until they actually measure it out. They Put a mark on the ground at 25, 50, 75, and 100 feet and begin to let out line. They get to 25 and look at their counter and it shows 32. They get to 50 and it shows 65, they get to 75 and the counter shows 96 and when they get to 100 their counter shows 128. They are losing roughly 7 feet of line for every 25 out. In other words, they have to let out 128 feet of line in order to actually hit the hundred mark.

Other baits, such as reef runners, bandit deep diving walleye baits, smithwick perfect 10's and 20's. 5 feet can be the difference of being in the strike zone or out of it at 75 feet.

all good points guys. To sum it all up, I guess the best course of action is to get the rod tips as close to the water as I can, set my TM on high (which will pull me at 1.5 mph), and keep adjusting my length in/out until I get bites. Then adjust other rods accordingly. And take the dive charts with a grain of salt. Thanks again, this turned out to be a pretty good discussion.