The Spoonpluggers Forum

My home lake is deep, up to 65 feet.
After spending many hours trying to learn trolling with mono and reaching depths of about 23 ft with the 800 series, I bought some lead core line and went out last weekend. Unfortunately I was able to get down only to about 28 feet with the 800 lure. I tried line lengths from 40 yards to 70 yards.

Is this typical?
BTW, I just ordered from buckperry.com the SS wire line to try it the next time I go out.

The problem with leadcore, is its large diameter. You have to let out several hundred feet to reach your depths.
Monel, steel wire will cut right through the water like a knife.
You also must "sink" the wire . This involves letting the line out slowly, and the cutting the speed of the motor to almost nothing, and "working " the line slowly back, allowing it to sink. Once the lure bumps bottom, the line can be taken in, so that you only use as much out as you need to bump bottom.
The bumping will then keep the lure down, and only minor adjustments need to be done in order to keep the lure down.
Too much line out and the line will drag on the bottom, causing poor feel, and hangs.

Thanks, Steve!

I was watching a video of Don Dickson trolling for walleyes. What he did was let out the amount of line he needed and then he moved his pole back and forth slowly to sink the line. I believe this is what Steve means when he said you have to work the line. Don said that if you just let the lure sink without moving the boat that it will tumble and possibly become fouled.

I'm new to this, also. I just bought the reel for my steel line yesterday. Still need to acquire the rod. It's getting cold here. I probably won't get around to trying to troll the 75ft. depths of White Bear Lake until next spring. Going to have to get myself a couple of those JB2s between now and then.