Get the lead out

Last week I detailed the “nuts and bolts” of power-corking. Power-corking shines when fish are concentrated on a specific structure. When fish are randomly spread out across the expanse, it’s time to break out the lead-core trolling rods.

The lead-core technique starts with the line itself. Lead-core is a Dacron or braid coated line with lead at its “core” or center. Instead of relying on snap-weights, sinkers, or the natural dive curve of a crankbait, the lead-core itself controls lure depth. Every thirty feet of lead-core is color coded. Even without a line-counter reel, you can keep track of the amount of lead you have dispersed. Dive curves vary by brand, but Suffix Advanced Lead-Core dives about 7 feet per color trolling at 2.0 MPH.

A lot of decisions go into how you set-up your lead core reels. How many colors do I need to reach the fish? How clear is the water? Am I going run an in-line board? These questions all play a part in how I prepare my reels. I start with 200 feet of monofilament backing. I tie a blood knot to attach the backing to my lead-core line. I spool up between three and seven colors of lead depending on my target depth. For a leader, I tie another blood knot. For stained water or river fishing, I tie a 20-foot fireline leader in 10-pound test. If I’m fishing clear water, I tie a 50-foot section of 10-pound monofilament. Baitcaster reels that can hold several hundred feet of line need a good sized trolling rod to support them. I run 8-10 foot telescoping rods. They have a nice soft tip that allows me to monitor my bait, coupled with a solid backbone to help fight larger fish.

You can run crankbaits, spinners, and spoons effectively on lead-core. Most of the time I prefer to run crankbaits. The beauty of the system is that it allows me to fish any crankbait much deeper than it would run on its own. For example, a #4 Salmo Hornet is one of my favorite crankbaits. Unfortunately, its maximum running depth is 12 feet, no matter how much line I let out. However, with a lead-core rod and reel, I can fish it as deep as 50 feet.

Each time you set your offering, there is some math involved. For example, if I’m trolling “no man’s land” on Mille Lacs in central Minnesota, much of the basin bottoms out in 33-35 feet of water. I’m also aware that most fish actively feeding tend to ride a little higher in the water column, oftentimes in that 27-32 foot range. Over the years I’ve also learned that trolling above the fish triggers more bites than fishing at or below their level. Therefore, if I want to run that tiny #4 Salmo Hornet down, let’s say 29 feet, I need to calculate a few things. First, on a 50-foot leader, what is the dive curve of the #4 Hornet? A quick check of my Precision Trolling App shows it will dive 8 feet on a 50-foot leader. Based on a quick calculation, 29 minus 8 equals 21 feet I need for my lead-core to deliver my crankbait into my desired zone. At 7-feet a color, I need to let 3 colors of lead out. In the rod holder it goes, confident that 29 feet down and 140 feet behind the boat, the Salmo Hornet will get crushed in short order. The math gets simpler if you use a shorter leader, but on clear water like Mille Lacs, the long leader can make a big difference in the number of strikes.

If you are going to couple your lead-core with in-line boards, you need to plan ahead. In the example above, if I only had 3 colors of lead spooled, I could easily attach my backing to a board and send it out away from the boat. However, if I had four to seven colors of lead on my reel, I would never clip a board directly to the lead-core line. This would quickly damage the line beyond usability. Planning ahead, I usually run two boards with 3 colors of lead 75-100 feet of each side of the boat. Directly behind the boat, I will run lead-core reels spooled with up to seven colors. If I have five people in the boat, I will also run one rod directly in the prop-wash.

Lead-core trolling and power-corking put a lot of fish in the boat over the course of a summer. Next week I will detail a third technique that fills a void between the two. When you can’t cover ground with lead-core, or snipe individual fish through power-corking, it’s time to break out the casting rods.

Bret Baker is a lifetime resident of Cloquet. He is a proud husband, father, educator and outdoorsman. Bret began guiding fishing trips when he was 16 years old. Today, in his 40s, his passion is to introduce people to the tremendous outdoor adventures available in our region.