Leadcore Setup

I hate to keep beating these leadcore setup questions to death, but now that I have my reels and rods set to go for leadcore, something about the setup is just not clicking for me.

I have the precision trolling 6th edition book and was reading it last night. The section on leadcore discussed “segmented” leadcore setup. Comparing that to the many discussions here on leadcore, there seemed to be a disconnect.

My question is, do most of you use the segmented leadcore setup approach or do you just run leadcore with a short(er) lead of mono. The book calls for 3 colors of leadcore with a 50 foot ‘leader’ of mono. The dive curves are based on this setup.

Most of the posts I’ve read here on IDA talk about the use of leadcore with a 20 foot or less leader of mono. Is this the preferred method and how do you calculate the dive curves? Are more current editions of the trolling bible updated with dive curves for this setup. Is there a rule of thumb that for every color of lead you can assume a certain depth?

Help! I’m missing something here and I can’t seem to put my finger on it!

Thanks,

Eric

When I think about segmented leadcore, I think about a lake/planar board application. You won’t be using straight leadcore because, among other reasons, clipping a board to leadcore will kink the inner lead strand and break it. Thus, you run a leader, then 3 colors of lead, and then mono backing. You end up clipping your board to the mono backing and not the leadcore.

I use straight leadcore on the rivers (and for that matter, on lakes when not using boards). 8 colors of lead on a sealine 47 with about 15′ (+/-) of leader to the crank. Don’t forget a small swivel between the leadcore and the leader to prevent the leadcore from getting all twisted up from a fouled bait.

Same here. Straight leadcore with a leader for the river, segmented for lake planner board trolling.

Here is a basic formula for straight leadcore. (Not Segmented.) with a 4-10 foot leader. (I usually run a leader at 5-6 feet.

One color of leadcore will take your lure down 6 feet at 1.5 mph. 5 feet down at 2mph. You always need to factor in current speed. You may also need to factor in addition dive from a crank. (For instance, a #9 shad rap will dig a little more than a #5) But the above formula will always get you in the ballpark.

Another leadcore tip. Lets say you are targeting a 19-20 foot breakline and you want the crank at 18 feet. At 1.5 mph you let out 3 colors. It will take a little while for the leadcore and crank to “settle in” to that depth. After it settles in, you can kick the motor out of gear and you crank should drop and start ticking bottom inside of a 5 count. Knock it back in gear and your crank will jump back into the zone you were targeting. Same situation except the bottom un-expectedly comes up to 16-17 feet. Hit the gas and get the boat speed up to 4-5 mph and your line/crank will rise with the additional speed. After you clear the hump and are back in 19-20 feet, resume normal speed and your crank will fall back to the depth you had originally set. Make sense?

-J.

Was going to ask the same question and have a couple more. What lb leadcore do you favor and about how much backing do you put on the reel, I have 47 to, and how many colors after the backing? thanks

12 or 18. They both basically run the same. Note: both lines are the same weight lead inside the line.

I don’t run any backing. A 47 will hold all 10 colors perfectly with no backing. (When I say all 10 colors, that means all of the line that comes on a standard 100 yrd spool.)

-J.

For most River and Mille Lacs applications, 18 is the way to go. One other thing, use a slow loading medium action rod. A fast tip can “Buck” when a fish strikes, causing fewer hook-ups. Slower action rods act as a shock absorber, and offer better hook sets. St. Croix Tidemasters in Medium/Moderate are great choices, as are any medium/Moderate rods in 7-6 to 8 foot. That is strictly my opinion. But I pull a lot of lead. I know Jon J does as well, and is very successful at it. What rods to you recommend JJ?

Oh, and another thing, keep you rod tips close to the water. You do not want a lot of droop in your line, as it also hinders good hook setting. A fish has to make up that gap before driving the lure home. The more of the line that is in the water reduces this lag…

I agree with Jason. Segmented Leadcore fishing is a segment of lead core line between two lengths of mono/braided lines. I use this method a lot on Mille Lacs when I troll deep diving crank baits in the 1.8 – 2.5 m.p.h. range. When I troll slower – I like to use snap weights instead versus lead core.

A typical lead core set up for me is 300′ of mono backing, 3 colors of lead core and a 50′ braided leader. I like the braided line (versus mono) leader when using boards. Since there is no stretch, I can detect strikes/bites a little bit easier and/or fouled lines with weeds. I use mono backing because hooking braided line to a board can slip if you are using the standard releases that come with the planer board (versus the OR-18 release that you can purchase separately). You can also double clamp the braided line but it does take a little longer to unclip it when you are bringing in a fish.

I’ve experimented a lot last summer with different leader lengths. I don’t think the length of the leader matters much when using stick baits or smaller crank baits. However, I do think it matters when using larger deep diving crank baits. I want these baits to run as true as possible and getting too close to the leadcore weighted line may affect the swimming action. Just my two cents but I did have better success last summer with longer leaders.

A general rule of lead core is one color equals 5 feet of sink. However, when it comes to depth curves, trolling lead core line is very speed sensitive. The Precision Trolling book is a great place to start but do keep in mind that your speed will play a major factor in determining the depth of your crankbait.

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What rods to you recommend JJ?

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I agree with you. 7.5 to 8 footer with a moderate to soft tip and backbone. Many glass downrigger rods fall into this category and the price is right.

-J.

Thanks Guys.

Some very helpful and useful information for this Lead Core Novice.

Cougar, keep beating it up!

Thanks guys. This helps alot. My rods for leadcore are rigged and I’m ready to go. Will be trying it this weekend.

Eric

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12 or 18. They both basically run the same. Note: both lines are the same weight lead inside the line.

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Not to be a pain but actually Lead Core 18# and ABOVE has the same thickness of lead inside, 15, 12 and so on have less. Kavajecz Article

In shallow water applications 12# can be very very useful. Usually walleye anglers like to used 18 because it’s the most lead but still enough # test.

Rough rule of thumb on 18# test is that for every color of line you can go down about 4-6′. The faster the less dive.

Also remember leadcore undulates and responds more like a snake than a straight line behind the boat. This is part of the reason it works better or worse than say snap weights on certain days and in certain locations.

I like to use about a 25′ leader normally of fireline.

Good luck!

Does any of you guys run the 27 series Sealines with leadcore? My tourney partner runs just the 27’s with 5 or 6 colors on his.

I run the smaller size in the cabelas series on one rod and I can get 7 or 8 colors on there I believe..never had a problem running low on core and run 16-22 ft on Lake pepin

Bob, I run the 27’s and get 8 colors on.

I was pretty sure that you didn’t need to run the big 47 series Diawa’s to get the job done!!