Lake Erie Sport Fishing
Differences Between Jet Divers and Mini Discs
By Jim Chamberlin



Jet divers from Luhr Jensen are the hottest new dive planner on the Lake Erie Charter Docks out of Monroe Michigan. These divers dive to a specific depth when trolled. “They just produce a different action on the spoon,” said Captain Ron Levitan of R & D Charters. They are buoyant and return to the surface at rest, which makes them easy to set when using multiple rods on a planner board. Another advantage to the Jets is when checking for small fish the buoyant diver floats over the other lines unlike all of the other divers on the market. The jets come in five sizes and multiple colors.

Last weekend while working as a first mate on Sheryl Rose, a charter boat out of Monroe Michigan I set out to complete a test using Jet Divers on one side and 3/0 Dipsy’s on the other. The variables of this test included using four rods on each side off of planner boards and using the same four spoon colors on each side. We fished two area’s, one in the morning just north of Stony Point and the other in the afternoon in front of Luna Pier.

In the first area, the targeted depth was approximately 17 feet down in 23 ft of water so, we ran the Jet divers back 70 ft and the 3/0 Dipsy Diver back 55 ft. After going through a massive school of Walleye it was evident that the fish liked the Jet Divers spoon presentation better, in fact it was a 5:1 ratio. I was dumbfounded by the discovery but, when I researched what the difference was it was clear, Jet Divers present action much like that of lead core line creating an upward wave action while the 3/0 divers present a downward wave action. How do these divers duplicate lead core? Well it is really easy, when fishing planner boards there is stop and go action when the boards compete with the waves. Since the Jet Divers are buoyant they float up and the 3/0 Dipsy’s sink. The action difference that the Jet Divers provide keeps the lure above the fish, and fish look up to feed. The reason why Jets out produced the 3/0 Dipsy’s, more time in the strike zone! Get a Jet Diver Depth Chart.

That same afternoon we headed out to a new area in front up Luna Pier. The water depth was 11 feet and this time and we switched the 3/0 Dipsy Divers to Big Jon Mini Discs. The spoon colors still remained the same. We targeted the fish down about 8 feet so, we put the Mini Discs back 27 feet and the Jet Divers back 20 feet. In this case the Mini Discs and the Jet Divers produces similar numbers with a 1.2:1 ratio in favor of the Mini Discs.

The differences in results from the morning to the afternoon can be interpreted as a difference in water depth and fish location. Using each of these divers in there respective applications, Jet Divers seem to work better when fish are suspended in water depths greater than 20 feet and Disc style divers, such as 3/0 Dipsy Divers and the Big Jon Mini Disc are most effective when fishing water that is 20 feet or less or when the fish are on or near the bottom.


Jet Diver Release



Lake Erie Articles
- Lake Erie Videos - Lake Erie GPS Coordinates - Charter Fishing - River Fishing - Fishing Reports - Fishing License - Lake Erie Weather - Links

Copyright © 2009 Erie Graphics Design