Leadcore trolling ?s

[The Dogger23]

Did my first run at leadcore trolling yesterday and it went OK, actually caught a couple fish. I did a ton of research on the topic before I did this but as usual I have some questions after actually doing it. My setup is Daiwa47's, 7' okuma LC sticks with 18lb Suffix 832 LC line, 12' of 10lb 832 leader.

First question: I know being consistant is a rule between all my rods, but where do people zero the line counter. With the bait reeled all the way up to the rod, where the leadcore comes out of the reel or where the leadcore is at the rod tip? This leads to my 2nd question -

2.) I want my lure to be at 28 fow. (lets just say for example purposes I'm getting 7 feet per segment at my given speed of 2mph) so does this mean I want 4 segments of leadcore line actually below the the waterline or out of the reel? When I put out 4 segments of line from the reel itself I notice that about half of one line segment is above the waterline running up to the rod and down the rod to the reel.

My biggest concern is that I'm running to high in the water column, its easy to know when I'm hitting bottom but I want to know whether I'm 3 feet off the bottom or 6 - due to half a line segment being above the waterline.

I guess my general question is in regards to when people say 4 segments of line gets your down X feet - do they mean segments of LC line actually in the water or just out of the reel itself?

Thanks in advance.

[Steeleyes]

Not sure that there is a hard and fast rule, but the way I was taught is to zero the linecounter with your bait just in the water. That way the segment of line from the rod tip to the waterline is ignored.
That said, 2 points; first if you are trying to fish just off the bottom like in your scenario you could test how close you are running by letting out some extra until you hit bottom then reel back up. This would help you zero in your setting. Second always better to be above the walleye than below.

[Burr]

I agree with Steeleyes - I never try to use a formula for the level of precisness you are looking for - but I'm always that precise. You do so by multiple signals and calcluations.

If you want to be 3 feet up, yeah, I'd take one rod, and test it for bottom. Becareful to reel up a little bit, and then let it pull for a while so you can see what the linecounter says when you just tick the bottom from time to time. With suffix 832 lead - once you have that distance, reel up 15 feet and you will be 3 feet off.

Also - hopefully you can pull multiple lines - the other approach is to bracket the depth you want to hit. Run one where you think it should be, another deeper, another shallower. Then - if you start catching fish - match it. You'll never really know the exact depth - but maybe 3 feet off the bottom wasn't where the fish were biting anyway.

If you were trying to fish 24 feet down, over 45 fow, it's more difficult.

I will often break the water column into quartiles - and put one rod in each quartile - and reel in or out to vary within the quartile - until some fish are caught. It might surprise you how often that upper quartile produces.

But we don't get a chance to fish like this in MN very much with one line, I do this in other states.

[Karas3434]

How are you running your lines? on boards, downriggers or flatlining?

Would seem to me that anything not in the water you should not add to your depth count.

[The Dogger23]

I'm straight-lining and running two rods. I have been running at multiple depths as well.

Good point on just run it down till I hit bottom, then pull up X feet for where I want to be off bottom. I was marking a lot of fish in 30 FOW, 3 feet up off the bottom. Suprised me for this time of year on the st. croix, and they were "bigger" fish than the ones I got trolling shallow. I was actually out practicing the LC thing for later this summer, lesson learned.\

So I guess the last thing I'd like some more input on is what is considered 4 colors out? 4 colors below the water line or just out of the reel. I would have to think people mean below waterline...there will come a time when I will be fishing suspended fish and if I wanted to be in 28FOW over a much deeper area then it would be nice to know.

Good help so far, thanks.

[black white face]

I was told by a reliable source that feeding walleye will come up as high as 10 ft to hit a lure, water clarity obviously has a bearing on this logic. Always good to be above them

[TomP.]

I TRY and keep a keep a log when trolling different depths using X crankbait running X speed and I ticked bottom at X feet with X amount of line out. Pretty easy to do if I keep up with it. Trolling over 30 feet of water and I come across a point only 27 feet deep did any of my lines tick bottom if so which ones, make a note. So I am out another day and mark fish over 40 feet of water suspended at 30 feet look at my log and I can get pretty darn close and be pretty certain I am at least in the ballpark

[huntnfish79]

I count "colors" as colors in the water. I use LC for salmon on Lake Michigan, so I don't have to be as precise as you trying to hug bottom for 'eyes, I use downriggers for that.

[Burr]

Originally Posted by The Dogger23

...So I guess the last thing I'd like some more input on is what is considered 4 colors out? 4 colors below the water line or just out of the reel. I would have to think people mean below waterline...there will come a time when I will be fishing suspended fish and if I wanted to be in 28FOW over a much deeper area then it would be nice to know.

Good help so far, thanks.

To protect myself - I'm going to start by saying you can do this many different ways - the critical part is to be consistent.

What I do - 0 the LC at the end of the leadcore - the leader is always in addition to my LC number.

Then - the only distance I'm concerned with is from where the line enters the water (to the end of the leadcore). That way - the height of the rod tip above the water is eliminated.

Leader length - I do a manual calculation for the leader to add to the lead core depths anticipated. Leader depths vary slightly from one crank to another. But I run short leads - so the variance is not large.

It's nice to have both of your reels setup to match - so you can use the color visual que to match/vary your lead rods with each other. ie - run one rod 10 feet after the red line enters the water, and the other 10 feet before the red enters the water.

After some break-offs, it might be hard to keep your leadcore reels in sync with each other - but really try to sync them when you first spool up new leadcore. I often replace leadcore before I needed to just to put my reels back in sync with each other. As in AFTER a trip to Mobridge fishing in the trees with lead... Not before.