Question about line & crankbait depth

[SPTiger]

Forum newbie here with a question. I am using crankbaits that are supposed to dive to X number of feet with Y amount of line let out. Using an old trick my dad used to do years ago, he would lay out a tape measure beside his lines and spray paint a mark on the line at certain intervals. If I need to let out 80' of line and I have a mark at that point, do I need to let that mark touch the water for that to be the recommended feet of line let out? I was fishing this past weekend and I let my line out to the point I painted on the line, but there was still 10' or more from my rod tip to the surface of the water so I wasn't sure I was actually getting that lure to the depth I was expecting.

Am I making any sense?:p

["G"]

What you go by when trolling is how many feet of line out......my thinking is this would be from the rod tip or there abouts. I use line counter reels and I just put my rod in the rod holder and drop my crankbait in the water and start measuring.. Here is a link to some Bandit depth charts that might help you. http://www.crappie.com/crappie/archi...pth-chart.html

[SPTiger]

Thanks "G"! I printed out those charts last week. It was Bandit lures that I was using.

[chucktx]

i believe buck perry has a formula for that also......"spoon pluging" is the book i believe

[wilbur]

They say on a 300, line out divided by 10 +1. So 100ft. would be 11ft.

[yikess]

I contacted the creator of the depth charts thay "G" mentioned and he said the measurements were taken with his rod tips 12 - 18" above the water surface.

[SPTiger]

I contacted the creator of the depth charts thay "G" mentioned and he said the measurements were taken with his rod tips 12 - 18" above the water surface.

Sweet! That's the kind of info I was looking for.

I really wish I would have stayed home from work today to get out on the lake. The weather is perfect for it, except my allergies aren't