trolling rods and lead core

[DRH1175]

I am buying a couple new trolling rods. Should I put lead core or fireline on them. How deep can i get with the lead core?

[slovene]

Depending on how much core you have on your reel, the sky is the limit on how deep you can go. The advantage of lead core is the ability to put small or floating style baits down to where you want them, not where they are normally designed to dive to. It takes a lot of practice to master it, but once learned, it's an extremely effective tool to have in your arsenal as an option for deep fish.

[tunrevir]

This really depends on the depth you are going to fish on a regular basis. With the superlines you can reach down to the 30+ foot range and beyond with some of the deeper diving cranks. Leadcore as a rule sinks about 5' per color so a full ten colors you could hit fifty feet but it can be pretty bulky to work with versus the super braids and at ten yards per color you have alot of line out. The upside is that you can run some of the longer stick type baits versus the deep divers which can be an advantage when you have forage like tullibees and smelt versus shad and shiners. The lead will follow better when contour trolling off the edges of reefs as it tends to follow fairly close to the path that the boat takes whereas the superbraids will cut the corners rather then bend around the corners. Longer trolling runs in open water or deep river channels are good places for lead as well as times when you are fishing clear water and can benefit from the lure running further behind the boat. I like that the superbraids allow you to feel the bait and if it is fouled by weeds or ticking weed tops or bottom, you don't get as much feel with the lead. The braids will allow you to use the reels you own right now whereas you will need a high capacity reel when using leadcore. Just some things to noodle, hope this helps.

Tunrevir~

[PerchJerker]

Good answers already. I think leadcore is a lot more specialized than the superbraid lines. I have trolling reels with superbraid on them all year long ---- I only put leadcore on my trolling reels for the mid-summer bite.

[Esox_Magnum]

I prefer lead over anything for cranks. I mainly fish a lake thats only 24' max but lead normaly will outproduce any other line for me. I remembe a pro winning a tourney a few years ago pulling lead shallow and leaving the rest in the dust. I'm going to try husky jerk-baits early in the season this year on lead while lindy rigging or drifting just to see what happens.

[Crusty old Swede]

Another possiblity for depths to about 50' is snap weights on braid. Not as much feel as straight braid, not as long as lead core, a little clumbsey when netting a fish.

[2thepointsetters]

To fit a full core (10 colors) you need a pretty good sized reel. If you dont have much backing you can fit 10 colors on a Diawa Accudepth 47LC but if you want to run 300 feet of mono backing with it you need a 57LC reel which is pretty big. If your using it for walleye that reel would be over kill and and you would barley feel a fish. I use the 57lc and 47lc on Superior with lead and I have found with a shad-rap and 5 colors you will be fishing between 27 and 34 feet down. I do use my big lake gear for inland walleye becuase it is very effective but you sure dont feel the fish on there. On the other hand a Diawa 27LC Accudepth makes a nice walleye reel with braidline and snap weights.

[Sandmannd]

Get line counter reels on whichever you choose. I have some setup for lead core and others setup for braided line. Depends on how deep you are fishing.