Over the weekend I had a chance to do some open water trolling on Mille Lacs with the new Sufix 832 Advanced Lead Core Line and I was very impressed with the results. It played a big reason in our success and we were able to put some walleyes in the net. Over the course of two days, we caught over 40 walleyes during a very tough late summer bite. We trolled 4 lines at a time and on Sunday we spent the majority of our time trolling 4 lead core lines – 2 lines with regular lead core and the other 2 lines with the new 832 Advanced Lead Core line both long lining and on planer boards. The new 832 lead core line caught the majority of our fish even though we were using the same crankbaits and colors trolled at the same depths. I will try and go into greater detail for the reasons why.
Let’s first talk about the changes. The engineers at Sufix exchanged out the exterior polyester sheath with the same Dyneema fibers used in making the 832 Advanced Superline. This weave is a lot tighter and thus resulting in a 70% increase in line strength, it dives 30% deeper and it has a lot more sensitivity.
Increase In Line Strength: This allows an angler to downsize to the 12 lb. test versus using the traditional 18 lb. test and not have to sacrifice line strength. The line density amongst these two lines is smaller (.55 mm versus .63 mm) and because of this you receive many benefits.
More Sensitivity: If you’ve fished Mille Lacs in August, you’ve probably noticed that there’s lots of weeds floating around out there even in the open basin and many of them end up getting tangled on your hooks. This leads to down time in not knowing that your crankbait is fouled up. Due to the increase in sensitivity in this new lead core line, I decided to attach 50’ braided leaders (20 lb test / 6 lb diameter) versus mono or fluorocarbon leaders to maximize the sensitivity effect. Mono or fluorocarbon leaders will stretch and you will lose some of that sensitivity. The end result it’s a lot easier to detect debris on your 832 Advanced Lead Core line and you can see if your crankbait is swimming properly by looking at the vibration of your rod tip. It acts very similar as if you were trolling with braided line.
Dives Deeper: The general rule of thumb when trolling traditional lead core line is that you achieve about 5 feet of depth for every color (30 feet) when trolling at 2.0 m.p.h. The Sufix 832 Advanced Lead Core dives about 30% more and the end result is you achieve about 7 feet per color. One advantage of that is you simply need to put out less line to achieve your desired depth.
Works Better on Planer Boards: Over the weekend I did some experimenting clipping this new lead core line directly to a planer board to see how it would differ from the traditional lead core line. What I noticed right away is that I could put this line out much further on a planer board than the regular lead core line. The reason for this is the exterior of the Sufix 832 Advanced Lead Core absorbs less water which means it weighs less out of the water once it gets wet. The significance of this is you can clip it on your planer board and place it further away from your boat and without having that sag in your line between your planer board and your rod tip. The reason this is important is because you don’t want the waves pulling on your lead core line in front of your planer board which causes your planer boards to surge back and forth and then it affects the swimming action of your crankbait below. I also examined the line for damage and didn’t see any negative effects by using the custom OR-18 adjustable tension releases. Net result is no need to move to a segmented lead core presentation while using a planer board which locks you into that depth. That’s a big benefit and you can now adjust your depth accordingly.
Less Lift: Another benefit of this line absorbing less water is it has a reduced resistance which lessons the lift. Trolling with traditional lead core line is very speed sensitive. The faster you troll – the higher your line will lift and vice versa. The slower you troll – the more your line will sink. A bow in your line forms under the water when you troll with traditional lead core, and your line kind of snakes around back there as your boat turns left and right and as it moves up and down in the waves. The benefit of less lift is that you are able to better maintain your depth control and it’s not as speed sensitive. Simply put, you’ll be able to place your crankbait in the strike zone more consistently. The other benefit of less left is that your leader depth curve of your crankbait will be more accurate. When trolling the traditional lead core line, I usually factor 20% less of that depth curve for my leader because of the lift. Since the lift is less in the 832 lead core line, you no longer have to adjust.
You Can Spool It On Smaller Reels: The last benefit on this smaller diameter lead core line is that you can spool it on smaller reels and still be able to get on 4 or 5 colors. This is nice and if you have a couple of smaller reels lying around and you don’t have to go out and buy an oversized reel just to spool up a few colors. This also means that your rod doesn’t need to have such a stiff bank either to absorb the weight of your lead core line. Instead of spooling up 6 colors of the old leadcore line to achieve a depth of 30 feet, you now only have to spool up approximately 4 colors.
Spooks Less Fish: This line also has a greater resistance to UV rays and sunlight which means it will most likely spook less fish. Another benefit that’s extremely important when trolling in an open water presentation.
Contour Trolling: I also feel the Sufix 832 Advanced Lead Core line would be ideal for contour trolling. The advantage of using lead core line when you are trolling various depths is that it rounds better than braid or mono and it follows the path of your boat. Braided line and mono line will cut corners and the end result is that you lose control of your depth. The increase in sensitivity will allow you to feel the structure and detect any debris. Having less line out is another advantage when contour trolling. It takes out a lot of the guesswork when trying to time your turns and making those speed adjustments.
It’s great to see some advancement in lead core line which has been around for many years and really hasn’t changed that much until this new Sufix Advanced Performance 832 line. We were catching all of these walleyes with only 2 colors of lead core out and a 50’ braided leader using Storm Deep Thundersticks in blue/chrome/orange (3.5” body) while trolling about 2.2 m.p.h in 33 feet of water.
