Trolling Set Up

Hey guys, I am new to trolling and I am looking to put together a set up. I would like to put lead core on it. What do you guys recommend for a first set up? It will be mostly used for walleye fishing.

I run 4 combos.
Two are 5′ depth master rods, love em.
Other two are 10′ eagle claw rods. I think, there yellow.

Okuma MA-45DXT New Magda Linecounter Reel on my shorties.
Is a good reel for the price. You don’t accidently reset the counter either which is very very important to me.

My other two reels are Diawa acccudepths. Same deal where reset button is NOT ON TOP.

Suffix leadcore on all

There are, of course much pricier and better reels out there for sure.

Keep a small white board in the boat to write down:
Speed, line amount, current, lure, and tally fish.
It’s quite nice to have that info when running 4 rods and different depths before finding the right combination of all for that day

Everything you ever wanted to know about lead core…

https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/articles_759159/

Personally I run 10 colors on a Daiwa 47 using an 8’6″ Limit Creek trolling rod. Plain Jane 14# Cabela’s line for me. Awesome price for line right now at $7.88 for 200 yards.

What kind of budget do you have? How many setups are you hoping to have?

Tuma, I am looking to get 2 set ups going and I am really not looking to break the bank totally on them. Maybe 100-150 per set up.

There’s no need to break the bank on a lead core setup. I personally like 10′ limber rods for lead core and reels large enough to hold 10 colors of 18# test lead core line. Which brand is irrelevant in my opinion. I have both Cabela’s and Scheel’s rods as well as Cabela’s reels, Okuma reels and Diawa reels. They all catch the same amount of fish and they all work well. Why 18# test instead of 14# test like Francis recommends? 18# test lead core has the maximum amount of lead of any test weights of lead core line so it’s the fastest sinking test weight lead core line there is and much of the published data that you read for lead core line is based on 18# test weight lead core line because of that. The sheath around the lead is the only thing different between 18# lead core and heavier test weights and 18# lead core is more than strong enough for walleyes.
There’s no need to buy expensive lead core line either. I’ve found the less expensive lead core lines to be as good as the expensive brands. I’ve tried the more expensive lead core lines over the years but have never found them to be beneficial.
Guys will run different length leaders and leader materials and many work well, but I run a 20 lb. Power Pro leader 6 feet or so long attached to the lead core by a small swivel. If a crank bait fouls and starts twisting while trolling, twisted lead core is something that you don’t want to have to deal with. I’d recommend a swivel. If fishing in 30′ of water as an example, I let out 180 feet of lead, troll at about 2 mph, and I’m fishing. It’s a very simple and effective method to fish. At 2 mph, I always assume approximately 5 feet of depth for every 30 ft. (one color) of lead core and it’s in the ballpark because pulling crank baits with lead core has caught a lot of walleyes for me using those numbers over the years.
Don’t get too hung up on the exact depth that you’re crank bait is running but rather, make sure your crank bait is in the fish zone first and fine tune it if you have to from there. Some guys even like to let enough line out to bang their crank baits off the bottom and just reel up a few cranks from there. It all works.