Looking at getting into leadcore. A lot of posts here that I’ve perused. Plan on using 18-lb Sufix Performance leadcore and generally fish a variety of depths on Great Lakes and Midwest reservoirs. Anyone know what the smallest size of the new Shimano Tekotas or Okuma Coldwaters I can get away with to hold all 10 colors of a 100-yd spool? 600 for the Tekota and 30 for the Okuma?
I have up to 4 colors of 27 pound on Okuma Coldwater 303s and have put up to 7 colors on a coldwater 453. That’s with 300 yards of 30 pound braid and some backing underneath the lead on each reel. Depending on backing I’ve more heard that a 500 series convector is better for a full core but that’s with a large amount of braid behind it too. Not sure how much diff 18 to 27 pound will be.
I run Okuma XPD-30Da and run 6 colors. You could do all 10 but will get the spool pretty tightly wrapped. I like more mono backer and get it as large as I can. Lead comes off a little easier.
The old Tekota 600 will hold ten colors with no backing. However I do not know if the new model will.
I have a couple of the Tekota 500s but not sure how many colors I have on them. I know I’ve had 5 colors out on the river and not come close to the bottom of spool. I would guess I have 3 to 5 colors left. But not sure.
Think my 500 Tekotas have 7 colors with backing. So, 600 should be close. I had 600s, but found them bulky. 500 has been plenty for the river. Run braid on 300s. Love the way they fit my hand, but just won’t hold enough lead. Haven’t tried Okuma, but bad luck with SeaLines.
That’s a bit of a loaded question, depending on what you’re doing (you mentioned great lakes fishing too)
Are you planning on running it on planer boards (all 10 colors out with plenty of backer left) or just down the chute?
Are you fishing salmon/trout or just walleyes?
I doubt a 600 Tekota would hold 10 colors of standard 18lb with any reasonable amount of backer, an Okuma 30 would probably hold it all, but they’re realistically good for up to 7 colors (tops) of standard 18lb with adequate an adequate amount of 30-40# braid backing.
If you have 10 colors of leadcore out on a board 50 yards from the boat, you’ll want a minimum of 150 yards of backer. A big king can easily peel 100+ yards off your reel in a heartbeat.
For what it’s worth, I never run more than 5 colors of leadcore on any reel (I use 4-5 colors of 12# 832 for walleyes on Okuma 20 size reels)
For salmon and trout, same thing, never more than 5 colors (I run heavier standard leadcore for them). Anything deeper I use copper instead. Less line out to achieve deeper depths.
My biggest and deepest rod is a 400′ 45lb copper on a 553 Clarion. It’s called the “Punisher” for a reason lol But it catches a ton of fish
Agree with B-man if you are walleye fishing and want a smaller reel then don’t use ten colors of lead. I don’t have a single walleye lead core rod with 10 colors and fish all over. I have 600 and CW30 with 7 colors don’t usually run them on boards as they are my deepest set up. If you are fishing salmon/Lakers ten color your looking at a whole different caliber of reel and smallest isn’t really the question to ask. I believe my okuna convectors are 55’s for my salmon rigs.
Everything B-man said plus the following. I’ve ran a lot of the Suffix Performance 18 lb leadcore and have fallen out of love with it. Especially when running more than 5 colors. It doesn’t seem to last very long so I’ve had a lot of issues with it breaking. It really isn’t ideal for Great Lakes trolling.
I’ve switched all my 7-10 color leadcore setups to 300’ of copper and switched my 5 color setups to 150’ of copper. I may add some shorter lengths of leqdcore but I don’t really plan to use much leadcore any more.
Question: What is the advantage of lead core over downriggers?
Question: What is the advantage of lead core over downriggers?
Ability to run it on boards. Distance from boat for boat shy fish. Sometimes leadcore/copper is the hot ticket on a given day. Couldn’t tell you exactly why.
The reality is that it doesn’t really have advantages but main thing is that it’s part of your spread. If you could run 8 lines off your downriggers that would be cool but you can’t. I struggle to run stackers on my downriggers.
Dipsys are a part of the spread sometimes as well.
I wanted to add my thoughts on reels. I’ve had Daiwa Sealines and some of the old Great Lakes Sealines over the years. I recently replaced a couple of the GL Sealines with Okuma Coldwater 453DS (high speed) and love everything about them compared to all of my Sealines. I’ll definitely be switching all my Sealines over to Coldwaters.
I don’t have the budget for Tekotas and with the performance of the Coldwaters I have no interest in getting them.
I previously used the Diawa Accudepth reels and they fell apart.
My favorite, by far, are now the Penn 209, Line Counter reels. They are tanks. They just do the job and the leadcore weight doesn’t wear them out. Plus they are priced right. Highly recommend.
I will suggest to look at other options for the Leadcore line itself other than the Suffix 832, not all its cracked up to be.
As for the reels, I have some of everything, and if you are just getting started and want to get your feet wet, the Cabela’s depthmasters are decent enough to get you started. All depends on how much you think you will use it.
just my .02
Question: What is the advantage of lead core over downriggers?
Everyone will have their opinions but I think there are a few advantages to lead core over downriggers but also vice versa. One of advantage of lead core is if you are trolling contours and stray into an area shallower than you are running your cranks, hitting the throttle will raise your cranks in the water column almost immediately to avoid snags. It’s also relatively easy to let out another color to troll 5 ft. deeper or reel in one color to troll 5 ft. shallower. Downriggers on the other hand are designed more for open water trolling and not so easy to quickly change depths. Another advantage of lead core is that you don’t need downriggers, cannonballs, releases, boat mounts, etc. for trolling with lead core that you’d need for trolling with downriggers making the initial investment to troll with lead core quite a bit less than downriggers. I own downriggers but only fish for walleyes and they’ve been collecting dust in my quonset for years now. I much prefer leadcore rather than downriggers for walleyes or even snapweights, which I prefer even more than lead core.
This has pretty much been said, but 10 colors on anything but a big reel (ie to big to want to hold) is just for walleyes who don’t run and you flip the LC over in 5 years got get 2x out of it. It’s not practical on smaller reels as when the spool is low (line is out) the retrieve rate is very poor and takes way to much turning. I originally set up a few metal depth masters that way and over the years went down to less LC with more backing so it was more fun the reel in. If you do set them up, I recommend you do it backwards and then use a drill to reverse item an old spool piece wise. My set up is cheap mono to get the spool built up, couple 100 yards of braid, 20 yards of high vis mono to clip the board to then the LC. Going in reverse you can do each reel perfectly.
It’s also worth noting that unless you run mag boards, it hard to get 10 colors to flare enough from the boat to get an inside spread so you are limited to 1 10 color per side ( or buying mags at 60 bucks a pop!)
It’s also worth noting that unless you run mag boards, it hard to get 10 colors to flare enough from the boat to get an inside spread so you are limited to 1 10 color per side ( or buying mags at 60 bucks a pop!)
Not sure if this is only true for off-shore boards but I run Church TX-22 boards and have no issue running 10 colors of lead (or 300’ of copper) behind them. They only sag back maybe 5’ max from the outer boards. Makes for a cleaner spread if you want to run dipsys. The only risk I see is if a very large fish hits and takes them under. I’ve had lakers take TX-22 boards under like a bobber with 4 colors of lead so I don’t think this is unique to 10 colors.
For what it’s worth, for my first 10 color setup this year I went with an Okuma Coldwater 453. I then put 10 colors of Tuffline Micro Lead on it, 300 yards of 30lb Powerpro, and still had to throw some mono backer on there to fill it up. I’ve heard guys say they’ve been able to put 10 colors of the Micro on Okuma 30s or Acudepth 27s and still have a decent amount of space for backing, depending on what you’re using. Pulled it with a Offshore Mag board just fine, but I didn’t try it on a standard size board.
For what it’s worth, for my first 10 color setup this year I went with an Okuma Coldwater 453. I then put 10 colors of Tuffline Micro Lead on it, 300 yards of 30lb Powerpro, and still had to throw some mono backer on there to fill it up. I’ve heard guys say they’ve been able to put 10 colors of the Micro on Okuma 30s or Acudepth 27s and still have a decent amount of space for backing, depending on what you’re using. Pulled it with a Offshore Mag board just fine, but I didn’t try it on a standard size board.
You mean 47 Accudepth? A 27 Accudepth is an awfully small reel for 10 colors of micro/832 leadcore.
They’re almost half the size of an Okuma 30 size reel (which would fit 10 colors of light micro/832 leadcore with backing)
B-man, that’s what I thought, but I did see a forum post (not sure which forum, sorry) where a guy swore up and down he could fit it on an Acudepth. Not sure how much backing the guy was using, but he said it worked fine. I will say that a 45 series Okuma is way overkill, just based on my own reel. One thing I discovered that I hadn’t thought about before was spool width, the spool is so wide that after I get the 10 colors out, the small diameter of the spool/backing (again, 300 yards of 30lb PP and a decent amount of 20lb mono under that) coupled with the width of the spool causes some issues with line feeding. If the line is coming off one end of the spool, and the levelwind is down at the other, it doesn’t always go smoothly. I just have to let a little extra line out until the line/levelwind are closer, but it’s something that a smaller, narrower reel might not run into.
Also if anyone ever needs a basic line calculator, you can use this pretty in-depth and nifty spreadsheet off Tangled Tackle’s website. It’s what I used to spool up my 10 color, and the calculations were close enough that I’m pretty confident in them. If you punch in the numbers for 27lb Micro Lead and 30lb PP (100/300 yards respectively) it only fills up a size 45 reel about 2/3rds. I punched in the specs for a size 30, and the same amount of line fills it up to 93%. I think for my next 10 color I’ll do a smaller reel, and I’ll definitely let everyone know how it goes.
https://tangledtacklecompany.com/pages/trolling-reel-line-calculator
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