Shimano Tekota… buy em at the sports show and at 15%-20% off or whatever they will give you. 5 years down the line you’ll be happy you made the investment over an Okuma or Accudepth or the like…
Especially for bigger fish like salmon or lakers the drag is MUCH MUCH better.
Most trolling rods are pretty similar… St Croix EYECON, Jason mitchell series, Shimano compre trolling series…..all would suit you well for walleyes.
With how you’re describing it, I don’t think you can go wrong with the Cabela’s depth master series rods and reels. Very economical and if you have a problem they can be returned with no questions asked. I troll for both walleyes and salmon with them and have never had an issue. Diawa Wilderness trolling rods are also very inexpensive and bulletproof, they are the workhorses of all my salmon set-ps.
Shimano Tekota… buy em at the sports show and at 15%-20% off or whatever they will give you. 5 years down the line you’ll be happy you made the investment over an Okuma or Accudepth or the like…
Especially for bigger fish like salmon or lakers the drag is MUCH MUCH better.
Most trolling rods are pretty similar… St Croix EYECON, Jason mitchell series, Shimano compre trolling series…..all would suit you well for walleyes.
Depends on what “breaks the bank” for you? What sktrwx2100 suggests are nice higher end stuff (for me at least). Member TJB is currently listing some on this forum “used” for a good price.
I don’t use very often so I just got some “Shakespeare Tidewater Line Counter Combo, 8’6″, Medium.” Works fine for me and the whole combo sells for $70. 
I’ve been fishing Lake Superior for the last 15 years with Daiwa Heartland (now discontinued) and Wilderness rods and Accudepth and Sealine reels. Unless you are gong to Lake Michigan for kings, there is no need for a more expensive combo than the $85 LC47 Accudepth reel/8.5′ Wilderness rod for Superior here.
Use them for downrigging, running leadcore, and for both inline and big boards.
If you want to do anything to them, replace the stock drag washers with an upgraded set (which can be done easily and for @$10).
wow guys! thanks for all the info…. I was looking for something around the 100$ mark and it sounds like there’s plenty of options for me!!!
what would be a good line to use besides leadcore….. 10 lb mono??
Here is a good video on how to calibrate your line counter reels.
If you are using the precision trolling app then yes 10lbs mono is what they calibrate depth with.
what would be a good line to use besides leadcore….. 10 lb mono??
Either 10 lb. mono or 10/4 Fireline or the equivalent 4 pound braid also works. The Precision Trolling Bible uses both and I actually prefer 15/4 Power Pro myself but it’s personal choice. I prefer braid because ultraviolet light and heat don’t break it down like mono. A spool of braid will literally last you for years and breakage is something that you never have to worry about. The only thing that you have to do is to buy a limber rod to compensate for the “no stretch” quality of braid and make sure your rod is angled correctly when trolling to absorb the shock of a hit. The combo of braid and a limber rod works extremely well.
As far as line counters, since they’re your first, buy some inexpensive line counters and get the hang of how to use them before spending big money on expensive reels if you feel the need. I have quite a few Cabela’s line counters as well as some Diawas and Okumas and they all work well, but I fish mainly for walleyes and not salmon or lake trout. There are line counter combos out there for less than $100 and I’ve never found any reason to spend more on them in my experience.
I find the Cabela’s combos to be a good bang for the buck and great when trolling braid if you get something about 8’6″ with a medium or medium light action.
Again I didn’t open with the question, but again this forum continues to feed me with valuable information on things I’ve been starting to dabble in. Lotsa great info…! 
Karry, I’ve started off with exactly what you suggested. I already have a setup with the 10 lb mono for more inshore, shallower water but my next endeavor is setting up leadcore for the Mille Lacs flats. I am a rookie on that. Suggestions?
I would look into lead core unless you troll really shallow. I use my core set ups more and more with time. My opinion, diawa accudepth 47 with whatever rod you like. I bought combos from cabelas. I string it with 25′ of twenty lb flurocarbon.
walleyestudent,
Another way to get crank baits deep that works very well is to use heavy snap weights instead of lead core. I use lead core as well, but there are advantages to heavy snap weights too and you don’t need another rod and reel combo to do it. I prefer heavy snap weights over lead core in many situations because it’s simple to do and you can get your line in and out of the water quickly. You can also turn considerably sharper with snap weights without fouling your lines than if you’re running lead core which can be advantageous when working sharp contours or structure or even in open water when you’re working a school of fish that you’re trying to stay on top of.
My wife and I have used heavy snap weights for a number of years now and caught literally hundreds and hundreds of walleyes on them on Lake of the Woods, Devils Lake and Lake Sakakawea, the lakes we generally fish and they work well. In North Dakota where two lines are legal we fish snap weights together with lead core and I’ve never noticed a difference on catch rates between the snap weights and lead core.
There are many ways to use snap weights, but the method we use is really simple. Using a line counter reel, let your crank bait out the number of feet the water is deep, attach your snap weight and let out that number of feet again. In 30 feet of water for example, let out 30 ft. of line, attach your snap weight and let out 30 more feet. We use 8 ounces of weight and troll around 2 mph. Try not to go much slower because the snap weights will drop fast. 8 ounces seems heavy but it works really, really well and it’s an easy system to learn. We’ve never used leaders on our snap weight setups and use 15/4 Power Pro attaching the crank baits directly using a crank bait snap. 10 pound mono should work just as well. I doesn’t seem like it matters if we use a shallow stick bait, a #5, a #7 a #8 or even a #9 crank bait or a Deep Little Ripper…………only rarely do we have to make any depth adjustments. The main thing is to just to have the crank bait in the fish zone most of the time.
We experiment with a few feet up or down once in a while, but it’s not needed very often.
I see no reason why it won’t work on Mille Lacs.
you guys are a ton of help, thank you , thank you !!!
karry…… snap weight?? can you explain them and how they work in greater detail or give me a link?
karry…… snap weight?? can you explain them and how they work in greater detail or give me a link?
I’ve heard of them and probably saw them on some fishing show years back.
Great info Karry… 
Here are a couple of good articles explaining snap weights better. Google “Heavy snap weights or snap weights for walleyes” and there’s a bunch of info on the web. Not everyone uses heavy 8 oz. snap weights like I do but the idea is the same no matter the weight. I just found 8 oz. to be the simplest for me to learn and use because you need no charts or anything to make it work. All you do is let out the feet corresponding to the depth, attach the snap weight, let out the same feet again, put the rod in the holder and you’re fishing.
I’ve also found that it’s difficult to have calibrated line counters all the time and no two typically read exactly the same or are completely accurate in my experience but it is important to have the amount of line out that corresponds to the depth. There’s an easy way around it. Before I start trolling, I stop the boat so that it’s sitting still, snap my weight to line right just above my crank bait and drop it to the bottom. Whatever depth I read on the line counter is then the number I use for depth. If my line counter is off a bit it makes no difference because I then have the number I need for repeatability and the number feet that I need to get my crank bait where I want it.
http://www.flwfishing.com/tips/2010-05-22-it-s-a-snap
http://www.walleyecentral.com/articles/?a=4129
Hope this helps.
What kind of snaps do you use?
Where did you get the 8 oz snap weights from?
I did some searching for them last summer and I didn’t find much that where that heavy.
im a musky fisherman who ended up with a cabin on a very deep, very clear, very popular/ heavy boat traffic lake that has a decent walleye population. so not knowing much about walleyes and wanting to learn more about them I start doing my research……. sounds like guys are catching them suspended over deep water at night. so im trying to get cranks down 20-30 feet….
that’s my problem and I knows theres a ton of people that troll lead but I just really don’t know if I want to go that way
Snap weights work very well and you can use different weights for rods on the same side of the boat to keep the lines separated. I will use a 2 and 4 ounce on the same side of the boat or in deeper water or faster trolling speed 3 and 5 ounce to keep the lines apart.
The snaps I use are the Off Shore Tackle “OR16”. They have a pin in the middle of the pad that keeps them from coming off the line. Pick up a few bell sinkers and you are ready to go.
Unless I’m fishing really clear water, I place the weight 5-10 feet ahead of the bait. This allows for netting fish or cleaning off weeds without having to remove the weight.
I have replaced all but 1 lead core setup with 30# Suffix 832 braid and run snap weights most of the time. This also allows me to use the same rods for other applications i.e. long lining, 3 ways…
I use the Off Shore OR16 snaps too. For weights, I just pour my own 4 ounce bank sinkers in a Do-It mold and hang two of them below a ring hooked to the OR16 snap. Any style of weight attached the ring will work as long as you have the weight you want. The weights don’t have to be like the weights Off Shore sells in their snap weight kit.
Right on. Thanks for the info. I am going to buy a couple snaps and weights and give it a try.
If you are up in the Duluth area, stop in to Marine General and have them show you where the “pound and half-pound balls” are. Much cheaper.
We run 16 oz (pound ball) and 8 oz (half pound ball) once in awhile.
Before I got into leadcore I used these pretty often with spoons. I run 40# Powerpro, use the Church Super clips to hold the pound/half-pound ball, and then run @ 25′ of 12# flourocarbon to the stick/spoon.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
