Leadcore for walleyes

I’ve done a lot of jigging and standard trolling for walleyes over the years. Yet I have never tried leadcore trolling for walleyes. I would like to get rigged for this. Cabelas list their leadcore rod’s as 6 1/2 feet MH for 10-20#. Is this considered normal? I am used to 8 1/2 foot trolling rods, so this seems short to me. Are line counter reels generally used, I know the line comes colored for easy determination of how much line is out, but are there still advantages to the counter reel? Does leadcore run off from trolling boards also, or just straight off the rod, or both? Are big billed (reef runners, wally divers, etc) still pulled or just the smaller billed (original rapala, smithwick) style stickbaits pulled? Would 18# leadcore be the way to go for walleyes? What is the purpose for backing behind the leadcore? How long and what type of leader material is recommended? Any and all recommendations on rod/reel/line combinations and any other tips are greatly appreciated. Sorry the post is so long. Thanks guys.

I can answer some of the questions: I run a 6 1/2 ft Cabelas tourney rod, no line counter. I use a 5 to 6 ft 8-10lb leader. Tie a swivel to the lead and hook up to the leader.I run my line out untill I just start to tap the btm. then crank up just a bit. Staying close to the btm is the main key. After a couple tries at the line amount you’ll figure out the colors. ex: 25 ft of water with a #5 shad rap go out to orange. I can’t remember what all else you asked but feel free to PM. 15# Cabelas lead line is the best it has a silcone coating. I use Shad raps , Wally divers u name it. Good luck

Twisted,

Thanks, all the info helps. Where is everybody else, 250+ views and only one person willing to help?

I run 6 1/2′ catfish rods with large Shimano reels. I use 28# leadcore with a 6-8′ leader of Proline, help with rocks and clams. I’ll run any bait; raps, wally divers, hot n tots, deep divers. I will also use it at any depth 6-25′, the key is to keep the bait banging the bottom, on average I run out around 3 colors of lead. I pull back the covering, break off the lead, and tie up to a small swivel that runs through the rod guides. The key is to keep pressure on the fish, you will see alot of slack in your line with the weight of the leadcore. I’ve hooked it directly to boards, works either way. Good Luck, you’ll come to enjoy it.

Thanks Schmidtty, slowly trying to put it all together.

Lil Rippers, shad raps and wally divers are my favorite warm water cranks, original minnow, husky jerks, smithwick rattlin rogues for colder water and tougher bite conditions. You will find that the stickbaits are a little more difficult to detect fouling from weeds, zebra mussels, etc. Best bet is practice to get the feel of it. I use 18# leadcore with approx 10′ of 20# test fireline. I use cheap fiberglass rods, 7.5-8.5’with a very soft tip and very loose drag. I have had good luck with Gander Mt guide series line counter reels. Keep drag very loose and clicker on, and keep constant pressure on the fish once it is hooked!
For boards, you need a heavy clip to keep the leadcore in place due to the extra drag of the lead. I enjoy trolling clam beds with boards, where I can run lines in 6-20′ depths in one pass. I’m no expert, but have put a lot of time in with leadcore the past year and have found it to really be worth the effort to learn. If you are running varying depths, try increasing speed slightly to go shallower, and slowing some to run deeper. On some occasions, speed is very critical to triggering strikes, so a gps (I use a handheld E Trex) is really good to have.
I’ve caught fish trolling any speed range from .5 mph upstream to 4.5 mph downstream, but generally run 2-3.5mph.
Shad raps are the most speed tollerant cranks I have found, running well and triggering strikes much faster than most other baits. Hope this helps ya!
John

Thanks rooster all of that information is very helpful. I will be trying to get it all in order here shortly. Thanks again and good luck.

Les

Les, one thing I forgot to mention. I got a crash course in leadcore from a fellow board member when I was up at Redwing a few years ago. I would definetly recommend fishing with someone who has experience with the technique. There are a lot of great guys on this site who would be glad to have an excuse to show what they know .
There are quite a few people from most areas of MN, WI, IA and IL on the site. Maybe try the “trip swap” forum.
One other thing I thought of that took me a while to learn. When trolling leadcore, especially at steady speeds, make lots of gradual turns, and occasionally throttle down or even take the motor out of gear for a few seconds. The zig zag approach upstream often helps trigger strikes, as your outside line will speed up and indside will slow on each turn. This and the changing of speeds or stopping will often trigger following fish to strike.
Good Luck,
John

Thanks again John, trying to decide between two 6.5 foot or two 8 foot rods, and which pound line to go with. Again all of the help is greatly appreciated. Thank You

I personally would prefer the longer rods for fishing the lead core and the #18 line is perfect for fishing the open and fair un-snaggy (<– is that a word? ) flats found out on Lake Pepin.

About those linecounters… this is one trolling scenario where you can get by without the counter if you’d like to save a few bucks as the line changes colors every ten yards. Although it isn’t as accurate or as easy to monitor as you’ll find with the counters, simply “counting colors” as you play out line and paying attention to how much line you had out when you caught a fish to allow you to repeat the presentation is done by many.

If you do go with the counters, get the larger size reel to accomodate the bulk of the line being used. The Diawa 27’s are adequate but only barely while the 47’s will gobble up more lead core line than you’ll ever have need to play out behind your boat.

Hope this helps. Any other questions, just holler back.

H20,

Thanks info much appreciated. I normally run LC 47’s would your recommend 10, 20, or more colors, and to make it all fit nice on a 47, do you have an idea of how heavy and how much backing to use. Do you prefer telescoping or 2 piece rods. Thanks again

Ten colors of 18# Leadcore will fill the 47’s without any backing.

Hope that helps.

Jon,

Thank you it does help, is ten colors enough then? I hope so if it fills the reel!

I’ve never come close to letting out all 10 colors. Here is a general guidleing for LC in river current. 1 color will take a #5 shad rap down 5 feet at 2mph. 2 colors – 10 feet, 3 colors 15, ect. Slow down to 1.5mph and add 1 foot. (So 1 color 6 feet ,2 colors 12 feet and so on)

Remember that is a general guideline, but those numbers get you in the ballpark.

Good Luck.

Jon,

Again thank-you. All of your guys’ help will save me many hours on the water. Good luck and keep a tight line.

Leadcore is great for getting down deep without letting out alot of line and works well in river situations where current kinda messes up your lure depth when just standard longline trolling. My suggestion is to get The Precision Trolling book if you do not already own one. It will explainalot about leadcore trolling and give you exact depths for your crankbaits and spinners for both longline and leadcore trolling. You don’t have to have a linecounter reeel but I’ll tell you from experience that having a couple sure takes care alot of headaches and its so easy to get your lures to the right depth if you have one. They are not cheap but worth the price 10 fold. Diawa 27 models are the best in my opinion. but don’t get exspensive with your rods you don’t need a $100 rod for trolling. Experiment with your lure presentations but you can’t go wrong with shad raps year round and just remember a general rule of thumb is the warmer the water the faster you luresto wobble or swim. Summer time is Storm Hot-n-Tot time or something with a faster wobble. Good luck hope this helped

Excellent first post long line! Welcome to the site.

A piece of advice from someone who jsut got into LC last year, Cabela’s has line counter combo’s for $59, I got mine one sale for $49 and they have worked great. I have 6, 6 1/2′, 8 1/2′ and 10 1/2′ they all give the bait a little different action, I like having the 10 1/2’s pointed straight out to the side parrallel to the water giving me almost and outrigger type width. then I use the 6 1/2’s on the back corners at a 45 degree angle up giving them a little more erratic action. You can cover a pretty wide swath w/o planer boards.

Guys,

I can’t say thanks enough, a lot of great info shared, saving me lots of time on the water. Thanks again.