3-way trolling rig help

I thought I might try advancing my walleye fishing techniques a little by trying to troll a 3-way rig on the St. Croix over this up coming weekend. I understand the basic setup, but am not sure on the details. Would anybody care to give me any advice on where to start as far as:
How long should the drop line be?
How long should the leader be?
How heavy should the weight be?

I know it is important to vary the presentation until you find what they want but I’m just looking for a starting point. I thought I would try trolling the sharp drop-offs somewhere between Afton and the Kinni. I thought I might try some sort of Rapala or maybe just a minnow on a floating jig head.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks – Dave

18 inches to the weight and 4 feet to the lure works for me as a general rule.

If your drifting live bait with this rig, i’d shorten up the line back to the bait. I’d keep the dropper around 12-18″

Just my .02

I hope this helps.

Whats A 3-Way?

I agree with Fishaholik, a 12-18″ dropper with about a 4 foot lead to the crankbait works good. I used that same presentation last weekend on the St. Croix and it worked great. If you’re going to use live bait, about a two foot lead to a plain hook seemed to work best. I’ll be down
there this weekend as well. Maybe I’ll see you out there.
Oh yeah, I was using a 1 oz weight for the dropper. If you’ll be fishing deeper that about 20′ I’d go with a heavier dropper weight.

I use the same drop lenght, approx 12-18 inches, but when I’m trolling stick baits, I usually use a 10-12 foot leader. Not sure who told me, but I’ve had the best luck using this long leader. Now for weight, right now I’m running between 4 and 6 oz. I used 20lb mono test on the 3 way components setup and 20 lb power pro on the rod with 9 ft down rigger rods and line counters. I can tell you that it 20′ of water I need about 35 feet of line out.
This is what has been working for me.

Jami