What am I looking for in the plugging water verses bait diver water? Are they the same? Any help would be nice! Thanks!

I've pulled divers and plug in the same water everytime I go on a drift. Afterall, your typical baitdiver is a Hot-n-Tot" plug" with the hooks off of it and painted black. Same water to me,
just keep the bait tight on the hooks.

I've pulled divers and plug in the same water everytime I go on a drift. Afterall, your typical baitdiver is a Hot-n-Tot" plug" with the hooks off of it and painted black. Same water to me,
just keep the bait tight on the hooks.

Chum Eater,

Great question.
I think it depends on the river. Seems to me you just need a little more room and far more even conditions for divers and bait than you do for plugs.
I don't run divers in riffles, areas where there are a lot of bigger rocks, knarly water or when I'm fishing pockets because they get fouled too easily. It's the deeper, bigger, slower or more even runs that salmon like that seem to favor divers and bait. My .02.

I'm like Mooch. I tend to use them interchangably. Plug water is water that has steelhead in it that I can reach with the plugs. Same with diver water. If there are a lot of boulders, or the current is a bit slower, sometimes the divers tend to hang up a lot, so I stick with plugs. I prefer divers, however, because I like to watch the 'chomp'.

The conditions for the most part will be the same, but it also depends on what species you're targeting as to the water you fish.