lead core noob questions

Karry Kyllo wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>arcticm1000 wrote:</div>
I got down to the St Croix to do some trolling for a couple of hours this afternoon. Tried some tail dancers off of boards, a jointed shad rap off lead core, and a couple of jointed shads with 8 oz snap weights. This is the first time I have used snap weights. They caught all the fish. They were easy to work with. 50′ snap weight and then another 30 to 50′ depending on depth. Quick and easy to raise or drop with the depth. I will definitely be using them in the future.

Thanks to everyone for posting all the great info in this thread.

We troll 8 oz. snap weights on inside lines and leadcore on outside lines on lakes where my wife and I can troll with multiple lines. It works very well with one method outfishing the other on certain days but usually, both methods catch fish equally as well. More often than not, it seems like it’s just a matter of getting the right depth dialed in on one method or the other to get the fish biting on all of them.
I’ve read articles stating that slight differences in the up and down movement of crankbaits using leadcore vs. snapweights when changing speeds can make a difference at times also. It makes some sense to me that one may trigger fish more than the other at certain times because of it.
Snap weights do have the advantage over leadcore of being able to quickly get a lure in the water and down to depth where leadcore takes time to do so. It’s also a lot quicker to check a lure to see if it’s running properly or change crankbaits fishing with snap weights than doing the same fishing with leadcore.

Good points. I have read similar articles. I could defiantly see one producing better one day and the other producing better another day. It was my first time trying snap weights and I was really impressed with how easy they were to adjust and deploy.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

I prefer to tie the leadcore to a swivel and then never tie it again unless it is becoming suspect.

The swivel also protects the leadcore from a spinning lure.

Then you can change your leader many times over without having to touch your leadcore.

Sometimes that lead can be very difficult to extract from the braided line. Just keep cutting off leadcore until you get a stretch you can pull the braid back.

I found it easiest to wet the section that I was going to remove the lead from, the braid usually slides back fairly easy after that.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

I prefer to tie the leadcore to a swivel and then never tie it again unless it is becoming suspect.

The swivel also protects the leadcore from a spinning lure.

Then you can change your leader many times over without having to touch your leadcore.

Sometimes that lead can be very difficult to extract from the braided line. Just keep cutting off leadcore until you get a stretch you can pull the braid back.

+1 do yourselves a favor and tie a good, high quality swivel on the end of the braid. From there, you can experiment with leaders.

My rules of thumb for leaders is to only go as long as necessary. The longer the leader, the less sensitive your setup will be. Braid transmits the vibrations from cranks the best…but it has no stretch and can pull right through a fish’s mouth if not paired with the correct rod and drag.

The leader has to be paired with the correct rod action and leader type for the best hookup percentage. If you’re using a rigid rod, you better back off the drag and have a mono leader. If you use a long, nimble rod you can maybe get away with braid if the water allows.

I catch 80% of my fish with the rod in my hand, letting the bait fall back slowly between pulses. Kicking the boat out of gear can entice lookers as well.

The most overlooked piece of equipment is your boat/motor. A 4 stroke kicker is obviously ideal, but it’s not the only way to troll lead. I pull lead with a 115hp Optimax, but I only run full synthetic AMSOIL to eliminate carbon build up and fouled plugs. I also run the boat nearly wide open back to the landing after a day of trolling. If you pull with a big motor, leaving your bowmount deployed and utilizing Ipilot or copilot will give you drag to slow the boat and even more control.

I spent the afternoon on the St Croix yesterday, my first shot with leadcore. I trolled two rods, only one with leadcore. My setup was mono backing > 18lb suffix performance leadcore > small swivel > 8 ft, 10 lb flouro leader. Most of the day was spent trolling around 2.2, but I ranged from 1.7 to 3.2.

My power-pro reel on the other side saw more action overall (white bass, northern), but the lead rig was the only one to catch eyes/sauger.

At the end of the day my motor quit while trolling the channel. I had 100+ feet of lead out, and must’ve got caught up, broke off right where the dacron was tied to the swivel with a palomar knot. I’m not surprised at all, that knot was brutal to tie and I’ve since read that the suffix leadcore is trickier to tie than others. The main knot kept cinching up too tightly to allow the final loop to tighten down over it.

Overall it was fun, but probably just a quick diversion for me. I didn’t even think about re-tying when I broke off. I’ll be looking into the off-shore or similar snap weights that can be used with my standard braid setups that sill allow for casting, etc. Prefer to remain more versatile and like that my trolling set-ups also cast well.

In my years and dozen spools of lead I’ve used, I’ve yet to have a leadcore knot break before my leader.

Don’t give up yet. Tie a good knot and don’t look back.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

In my years and dozen spools of lead I’ve used, I’ve yet to have a leadcore knot break before my leader.

Don’t give up yet. Tie a good knot and don’t look back.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great tool I’m just not sure I want the lead on my reel all year long, and I’m not ready to dedicate a reel or a number of them to this method. If I get to the point where I can afford that, then I’ll probably look at a different kind of leadcore because the dacron on the suffix is a nightmare in my opinion.

pool2fool, I seen you out there yesterday. We were in the Black Alumacraft Trophy 185. We waved at each other when you were heading out to go back by the bridge. We were running snap weights and lead core. Caught fish on both. We ended up with 4 Saugers and 1 White bass. On the lead core I did a uni to uni knot, not too bad to tie and have held up good so far. I run the Suffix performance lead core. I have heard the Suffix Advanced lead core (the stuff that dives 7’ instead of 5’) is tougher to deal with. On the snap weights, I run OR-16’s and double wrap the braided line. I just bought some at Fleet Farm, they are a little spendy, but have worked well so far. I have been using 8 oz weights off of them. I got them from Amazon for pretty cheap, like $22 for a 10 pack. I think I am going to get some 6 oz weights to try. It was pretty chilly out there after the sun went back behind the clouds.

arcticm1000 wrote:

pool2fool, I seen you out there yesterday. We were in the Black Alumacraft Trophy 185. We waved at each other when you were heading out to go back by the bridge. We were running snap weights and lead core. Caught fish on both. We ended up with 4 Saugers and 1 White bass. On the lead core I did a uni to uni knot, not too bad to tie and have held up good so far. I run the Suffix performance lead core. I have heard the Suffix Advanced lead core (the stuff that dives 7’ instead of 5’) is tougher to deal with. On the snap weights, I run OR-16’s and double wrap the braided line. I just bought some at Fleet Farm, they are a little spendy, but have worked well so far. I have been using 8 oz weights off of them. I got them from Amazon for pretty cheap, like $22 for a 10 pack. I think I am going to get some 6 oz weights to try. It was pretty chilly out there after the sun went back behind the clouds.

Nice! Nobody waves anymore, you were the only boat I think.

We’re running the same sufix stuff. The double uni is what I used to hook up to the backing and had no issues there. Tying the leadcore sheath to a swivel is where I had issues.

I’ll keep it strung up for the rest of the fall/winter. There are some deeper spots on pool 2 that I’ve been wanting to try as well.