Lead core setup

[striper192001]

What is an ideal rod/reel combo for a lead core set up? I am not even sure what to buy for lead core colors so some help there would be great.
Thanks much as always !

John

[Reelax]

Lead core is usually sold in what is called a “full core” which is 10 colors of lead. Each color is 10 yards long and will sink about 5 ft at trolling speeds. Currently I am running 2 color rods which are backed by florocarbon or mono put on the reel 1st. I usually put 1-200 yards of line in 1st, then use a Willis knot (i use double Willis knots)
To secure mono/floro to lead. This is a very simple knot and has the smallest profile available for passing thru islets… I have 3 rods setup with 2 colors for trolling on one side of boat with big otter boards so you can rotate the spread of 3-4 lines as you catch fish. (All same distance out)

You can put as much lead as you want for depth. A full core rod will sink to between 45-55 feet deep but you have 100 yards of trolling lead in The water!

The rig is finished with a leader of 50ft for stealth. I like to use flourocarbon for this with a swivel to a 3’ floro leader to ensure no twist..

You can use the same Willis knot to join lead to floro on the terminal end.


If you add a clip weight then needed with these 2 color rods you can run from 10 down to 20 down and in the spring that is where all the action is in the skinny water!

For a pole I use the light action trolling ugly sticks. Lead can require a little heavier rod than a down rigger pole, especially if you have more than 3-4 colors on the rod. Any 200 series reel (I use okuma cold water 203d’s) will take 2-3 color of line. As you get up to 4-10 colors you may need to move up to. 300 series size reel for capacity…

Lead for some reason can catch fish when no other set will. The stealth long line and the sink and rise when the boat turns will catch fish other sets will not. I will always have lead in the water if the bite in in top 30fow… it just works:)

Hope this helps…

[Reelax]

Ps. If you
Don’t get enough friction with a Willis knot you can double it with 2 square knots about a half inch apart. I call
It a double Willis knot…

The mono inside the nylon sheath seems
Like a hard thing to do but it slides
Right in as long as you have a clean cut in the
Mono…

Hope this helps…

Matt

[striper192001]

That is a huge help Matt............I didn't know about rigging rods with just 2 colors. I will get some tackle asap ! Appreciate the help !

[striper192001]

So to get to ten foot deep.......you let out line until the second color is in the water ?

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Not easy to slide the fluoro line inside the lead core jacket. It took me many tries to get it right. Not something you want to do when on the boat.
Getting my rods ready. Won't be long before hitting lake O.

[Dilly Worm]

all good advice.

So to get to ten foot deep.......you let out line until the second color is in the water ?

Exactly. You only count the colors of lead that are fully submerged.

How much the lead-core sinks is dependent on your speed. I believe you get the standard 5 ft per color going around 2.5 mph, the faster you troll the less it sinks and vice versa.

I use lead core a lot because I do a lot of row-trolling and I can't fit downriggers in the rowboat, so I've always got lead in the water. For the warmer months I'll run up to 13 colors of lead and I use a big 300-size Penn Fathom-II reel to hold it plus a few hundred feet of backer.

I prefer to use braid in the 20 to 30-lb range for backer because the inline planer boards won't slip the way they can with mono. You don't want to put the inline planers directly on the lead-core line, because they can weaken it, so you can splice in segments of braid after every few colors of lead for attaching the boards with varying amounts of lead in the water.

For rods and reels, trial-and-error and some research led me to prefer to a medium-heavy Shimano TDR and a Daiwa Accudepth reel, or the Penn Fathom-II. They both have a drag that is precise enough that so even small fish biting will set of the clicker but the line will stay in place while you troll.

My personal preference is to tie double-uni knots for joining lead to the braid and to the fluoro leader. You have to expose about a foot of the lead core material and break it off, then tie this knot which is extremely strong and never fails:

Double-uni-knot.JPG (36.55 KiB) Viewed 473 times

[Crayfish]

I'm using a skinny version of lead core, and I couldn't get the Willis knot to work. The double-Uni that Dilly posted works perfectly. I bought 1 - 10 color spool and setup 2 - 1 color rods (~5' deep), 1 - 3 color (~15' deep) and 1 - 5 color (~25' deep). Now I realize I only really use lead in the spring, so I will cut up the 5 color to smaller segments, as well. Maybe another 1 color and 2 - 2 colors. As Matt said, at 2.5mph you will get roughly 5' of depth per color. I verified this a couple of times with a Fish hawk TD.

My setups are also similar to Matt's .... mono backer > lead core > 40-50' flouro leader (I use 12-14lb test) > swivel > 4' flouro leader (8-10lb test) > snap.

Also, you don't need line counter reels, so that will save some money with getting setup. I have a bunch of old Tritons that work perfectly for this.

With my 1 color setups, I let out all of the lead and then another 30' or so of mono just to get the lure further from the boat. That puts it about 110' back or so. I don't put as much mono in the water with the longer lines, sometimes clipping in just above the lead if pushing into shallower water.

Good luck, John!

[striper192001]

Thanks much guys..............yeah, I would never try to set this up on the boat.

I have rods and reels ordered..........wish I had seen these posts earlier as I have line counter reels ordered.........I can always use them for something else........now I have to check and see if I have enough fluoro........

John