What do you get when you combine two Canadian engineers and some molten lead? Torpedo Divers. And they’re no joke.
In fact, they’re capable of solving the riddle of how deep your lure is.
Matthew Sawrie and his partner Everol Layne are engineers and hardcore anglers who have started a new company called Cuda Sinkers. The Torpedo Divers are one of their first products. In four sizes, each is designed to get your lures deeper than any other kind of weight of similar size.
“People aren’t aware of the importance of efficiency,” says Sawrie. He says that a single, 1-pound ball has the same drag as 32 Musky-size Torpedo Divers, which weigh 8 ounces each. This hydrodynamic efficiency not only helps the design get deeper with less weight—when a fish runs the Torpedo Diver turns with the fish and creates little resistance.
Sawrie also touts the versatility of the TDs, which hold firmly with an Offshore OR 16 clip (which has a peg in the pads) to mono, braided and steel wire line.
“You can put them out to get a similar presentation to a Dipsy by clipping the weight close to the lure, a similar distance as a Dipsy leader,” says Sawrie. “For stealth, just let out as much line as you want and then attach the weight.” He noted Offshore and Church Walleye Boards can handle the 8-ounce Muskysize, the second largest. Others are the 2- 1/2-ounce Snapper, the 5-ounce Shark and the 14-ounce Cuda.
Sawrie notes that while the weights do go deep, they also allow the angler to determine just how deep they’re taking the lure.
“The guys who are going out and getting their limits, it just means they’re keeping their lures in front of the fish longer,” Sawrie says. “And while you can get to any depth you want to with Torpedo Divers, more important is the ability to be precise— to know exactly where your stuff is.“
To achieve this, Sawrie spent countless hours trolling at different speeds and recording in what water depths each weight contacted bottom, producing charts for each size. All these are available at the company website. By the end of this fishing season, he hopes to have added charts that take into account how the drag of different lures, such as flasher/fly combos versus spoons, affect the depth at different speeds.
The Torpedos already have deepwater guru Mark Chmura excited about their potential for taking 200 feet deep and deeper.
“I can definitely see the 14-ouncers out on big boards getting more lures to those fish than we can with downriggers, and lots easier to handle than wire and 3-pound weights we’re using now,” says the Manistee, Michigan captain who used and caught fish with weights last season.
Sawrie says the depth potential is unlimited. Just add more Torpedo Divers to the line, “shirt buttoning” like float anglers do with split shot.
“When ‘shirt buttoning’ with a Musky Torpedo (which weighs 8 ounces), at 2 mph, 55 feet of line (30-pound braid or wire) out equals 40 feet down,” Sawrie says. “When we clip on a second 8-ounce MTD and put another 55 feet of line out, our first MTD is now 80 feet down. Now we have 1 pound of weight, 110 feet of line out, down 80 feet. We can continue doing this and reach infinite depths. So 400 feet of depth equals 550 feet of line out, eight MTDs—four pounds of weight. The coefficient drag of a Torpedo Diver is .045, the coefficient drag of a sphere or ball is .5, meaning that 10 MTDs will have the same drag as a sphere of the same combined frontal area. Ten MTDs may seem like a lot of drag but considering that 32 MTDs have the same drag as a single, 1-pound ball the drag isn’t that bad. The weight of a fish will feel 4 pounds heavier reeling it in.”
You can also add a TD between your cannonball and downrigger lure—a Secret Weapon Rig variation, taking the lure below the ball. Or, use them in lieu of downriggers during fall’s boat-infested weekends
around the pierheads for salmon. Some anglers will add them in front of copper or leadcore lengths to achieve greater depths, too. With a clip and wire, the prices range from $18 for the small Snapper up to $22 for the Cuda.
No doubt more than a few Great Lakes anglers will dial in these weights and make the Torpedo Divers new weapons in their trolling arsenals. –Dave Mull
Deep kings guru Mark Chmura has tested and sees huge potential for Torpedo Divers.
May 2009
