Leadcore rigging Rivers and lakes?

I would like to try trolling leadcore with #5 and #7 shadraps on Lake Pepin in May and June. Might even try it in the river at the head of the lake area. What is the best set-up? How many colors of leadcore and how long should the mono-leader be? I was thinking of a 25ft leader and 3 colors. Is there a rule of thumb for #of colors of LC and leader length.? Does trolling speed impact leadcore? With regular mono, length of line determines depth. It would seem to me that speed affects leadcore differently. Any help would be appreciated.
Dave C. ( coffee )

You may get as many opinions on this as there are leadcore fishermen!!

I spool up the entire 10 colors on my reel. My lead is short, 6-8 feet of 65# power pro attached with a barrel swivel.

One color will put a shad rap down 6 feet at 1.5 mph. (2 colors, 12 feet, 3 colors 18 feet….)and so on. Speed is a big factor, go faster and yo will need to play out more leadcore.

The reason I go with the #65 power pro is if I get snagged, I can usually pull the crank free. Sure, the hooks may be wrecked, but I can replace them.

Jon J.

Jon, I had not heard that relationship between colors and depth with shad raps…thanks for sharing. I am not much into lead core anymore but when I last used it instead of 65# leader I used a single strand black wire..like we use for making quick strike rigs for Pike fishing. That was really effective and the zebies and clams didn’t fray the wire a bit. Prior to that I had to retie the leader very frequently because the line quickly deteriorated.

Jon
thanks,
I was thinking of spooling up just 2-3 colors, with a backing of 10lb XT to use with planer boards. In this way I could get down 18ft with 3 colors out, but could limit the depth to 10-12 ft with only 2 colors out. Couldn’t I attach the planer board at the 2 color mark, and still get the boards 40-50ft out from the boat? If I spool up with all leadcore, wouldn’t this be an issue using planer boards?
thanks,
Dave C. ( coffee )

I’ve had miserable experiences running segmented leadcore…especially the way you describe with a board. You can still run straight leadcore with a board but you just cant send the board out as far. Say 8-10 yard max.

Good Luck,

Jon J.

http://www.fishtheriver.com/articles/leadtroll_pepin.html

Click on the above site and it will take you to an article written by James Holst on Trolling Leadcore On Lake Pepin.

hi Dave,
Bill beat me to it. I was reading all the replies, and I was going to say the article is a must read for beginners to intermediate leadcore users. IT is a good article and has been on this board for no less that 2 years. I’m always refering people to it. Leadcore topic comes out every year. see you at the meeting. Jack.

In the artical it says to run a 25 to 50 ft mono leader!!! Holy Smokes

When I first learned how to fish for walleyes with lead line til now I have never had a leader longer then 12 ft.
If your not getting them with long leaders dont be afraid to cut your leader in half or more.

Good luck fishin
http://www.geocities.com/wish_i_was_fishing2002

Just about any setup works for lead core. I have been using Shimano 400 size spinning reels with backing + 2 colors of 18 lb lead + a 50’ leader of 30 lb fireline for years. The long leader helps me retrieve my lure when it gets hung up. Everybody does it a bit different and all methods seam to work just fine. I think boat control is the name of the game when lead lining in pool 4.

Dave Gulczinski