Re: Riggin' leadcore, what's your color "out"
Color means nothing just a way to track depth. Ten colors gets you about 40 feet of depth dependent heavily on speed and current. run ten colors 7 colors and 3-4 colors on both sides of boat depending on if I am running copper line which has similar effect bit achieves greater depth.
Sortof. Running depth on a particular day from a particular boat varies dependent on a number of factors- speed and current(s) being the two greatest factors followed by the weight of the lure/spoon.
More accurately, the colors are a way of tracking and repeating a setup. In other words, in lieu of a line counter reel, the sheathing of the line is a different color every 30 feet of line length. This part is easy- say if you have caught fish at 4-1/2 colors out, then you can repeat the same setup after every fish. Conversely, by having several different lengths
back to start the day and one particular length back starts catching fish, you can adjust the others by reeling in (or letting out) the right amount of line to duplicate the hot setup.
As far as calculating depth with leadcore- that's a different ball of wax. New leadcore, worn leadcore, 36# or 18# leadcore- they all run a little different depth in the water side-by-side under the same conditions. 4' of depth per color might be about right over 2.2mph, but you'll likely have 6-feet
plus at 1.4mph.
I run out over a known depth every now and again with my lead lines (in a known low-or-no-snag area) and see at which point I actually hit bottom at the target speed for the lure(s) I am using that day. For me that is usually a 2-3/8 to 2-3/4" spoon or a stick bait like a Thunderstick Jr. or an original Rapala. I run over a depth (20' or 30' for example) and pay close attention to my target speed and then keep leaking line out until I tick bottom. That stupid process has been one of my greatest educators in raising the bar for repeatability in my trolling games with leadcore and controlled-depth methods.
Copper goes deeper than lead with less line out but it
does not behave like leadcore at all. Totally different. I don't have any copper setups yet but I may put one together this summer.
I assume that OP will be running a full core on a reel, and not pairs of rods/reels with different leadcore segments. Segments might be good on Ontario or the other Great Lakes but for the smaller lakes the versatility of a full core has benefits because we fish so many different conditions.
Redundant, but I have my two leadcores spooled on on Okuma
line counters. The Okuma reels are relatively inexpensive and have been dependable. I run about 25 feet of 25#mono backer, 75 yards of 30# powerpro, then the full core. The end of the full core has 25'- 30' of CLEAR 20# mono slipped into the lead sheathing (with the lead removed) and then double-overhand knotted as a shock leader. This terminates to a swivel and 5' to 8' 14# fluorocarbon leader.
This works for me.
