Keel weights or inline weights....

[walteye]

Maybe I am doing something wrong but...
I have very poor fishing luck running keel weights or inlines-my best luck has been running clip ons from a distance. Even when running jets and dipseys-a longer lead seems to work better. What are the norms for leads fom the keel/inline to the lure or spinner? I now usually run a lead of 15'+ off my dipsey or jet and find I have better luck.
Thanks for the input.
And yes-I don't like having to handline in the fish-especially if I am alone.
Walteye

[eyestopper]

I tie leaders the lengths of my outstretched arms, about 6'. Good for dipsy's and jets. For harnesses behind inline's, mayby a bit shorter 5'. 15'! wow, must make landing the fish an adventure.

[Terroreyes]

I generally run 6' leads on inlines, keels, jets, or Dipseys. From my experimentation, anything longer is just more of a hassle with no noticeable benefit in catch rate. Never noticed a bit of difference between unpainted keels and inlines for catch rate. The difference I did notice was less line twist with the keels.

[Bluewalleye]

Walteye, I would agree with the others. I normally have my leader length the same as my rod length. I run 8 foot rods, so I have 8 foot leaders. Also what kind of leader line are you using? I use stickly flourocarbon line as leader line. I fish very clean water and it seems to do a great job for me.

[WALLEYE65]

how much weight are you using and what depth of water are you fishing in if you use to much weight and your line is going almost straight down you will have trouble , as for leaders 14 lb flourocarbon slightly shorter than the pole you are using is good

[Guest]

If you like 15 ft + leads on dipsies and don't like the "handlining" part you may want to check into Slidedivers. Basically, you rig a stop 5 ft or whatever from the bait, set any leader length and the diver slides down the line to the stop when it trips. I wasn't exactly crazy about the release set-up on the 1st models but haven't tried them since they made some modifications to what was 1st introduced. Same thing as a dipsy except the dive curve is a bit different.

Really heavy keel weights close to the bait may spook fish. Water clarity could be a factor. If your taking about lighter weights then a big difference is how keels/in-lines closer to the bait respond to speed changes and turns compared to a snap weight 25 to 50 ft up the line. Sometimes fish want different things. Your snap weight fish may/apparently prefer a gradual up and down or steady pull as opposed to a more abrupt up and down action. Another lake, another season, different conditions may dictate one over the other.

Good Luck