Ranger- I have used Dipsy's before while canoeing and they do work well and pack light. Not too much drag at all. I used them back in the early 90's chasing big suspended walleyes on large water when deep trolling was the tactic.

I pretty much gave up on using Dipsy's and went to using snap weights for trollong deep.

With the advent of better deep diving cranks I now have abandoned using Dipsy's and snap weights for deep trolling. On underfished Quetico Lakes,  deep diving cranks are easier to use and very efficient. I think that on lakes that do recieve some fishing pressure from motorized watercaft that putting crankbaits away from the boat to catch fish makes sense.