Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3908 Mar 27- Apr 10 | Page 11
How To...
VOL.39 • ISS. 8
Mar 27-Apr 10, 2020
9
Leadcore For More & Bigger Fish!
presents
Is Leadcore Still A Useful Tool For
Trout & Salmon Trollers?
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E
A lot of anglers view leadcore as obsolete, but anglers in the
know continue using modern gear and cutting edge tactics paired with
leadcore line to catch big numbers of trout and salmon. This hefty
Lake Davis rainbow blitzed a trolling fly pulled 10 deep on one of Cal
Kellogg’s Hybrid Leadcore Rigs.
>
Boom Fish On! Here
we see author Cal Kellogg in
action just after a Rollins Lake
rainbow crushed a fast moving
spoon being trolled 15 feet deep
behind Cal’s Hobie Pro Angler
Kayak.
by Cal Kellogg
Trolling flies are a very
effective offering for trout trollers
using leadcore that are looking for
a stealthy presentation aimed at
tempting big experienced trout.
There are many
brands of high end leadcore
on the market. In terms of
setting up a Hybrid Rig,
standard grade low cost
leadcore like this Sufix is
the way to go because it’s
easier to work with in terms
of tying knots.
easier to use than downriggers.
With the leadcore outfits everything is
“direct drive” so to speak in that you don’t
have to play around with clipping lines
to downriggers or mess with raising and
lowering downrigger weights.
With leadcore all you need to
do is spool the rig out X distance
and you’re fishing. Best of all,
since a light responsive rod has
replaced granddad’s tuna stick,
you won’t be sacrificing much in
terms of deadening the fight of
the trout and salmon.
For a rod, I employ one of
my 6.5-foot signature series
composite rods. These rods have
a sensitive tip for seeing strikes
and enjoying the fight of the fish,
but they have enough backbone
to deal with the rigor of running
leadcore and the strain of fighting
big trout. And at the end of the day, it’s big
trout that I’m targeting!
The rod is matched with an Abu Garcia
5500 Line Counter reel. The reel is spooled
with 200 yards of 15 or 20-pound braid,
which is very fine in diameter. To the end of
the braid I splice on 3 colors of leadcore. To
the end of the leadcore I splice on 20 to 60
feet of 15 or 17-pound fluorocarbon tipped
with a swivel. To the swivel, I attach a 3 to
4 foot 10 or 12-pound fluorocarbon leader.
I played with several different knots for
linking the braid and fluorocarbon to the
leadcore, but these days I rely on a Double
Uni Knot. Just remember that to make the
connection you’ve got to worm the sheath
of the leadcore back a few inches and snap
off the lead. This allows you to tie the knot
in the woven sheath without interference
from the lead. I like to finish off my knots
with a little drop of super glue.
I’ve used a number of difference sizes
and brands of leadcore. I’ve settled on 15
to 17 pound line and I prefer mid-range
line in terms of price.
The premium stuff is nice. In fact, it’s too
Fish Sniffer
how – to
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>
verybody knows that leadcore
stinks…It’s heavy, it’s lethargic and
its time has passed since anything you can
do with leadcore you can now accomplish
with a downrigger!
These are the assertions that a
lot of trout and salmon trollers
make in reference to leadcore
line and I’ve got to confess,
I’ve uttered a lot of these
criticisms myself in the distant
past. Yet from my current
perspective I believe a lot of
these assertions are off base,
inaccurate or downright false.
Before I go any further let
me make clear that I love
downrigger fishing. All my
boats in recent years have been
fitted with electric downriggers
and I have a crank downrigger
that I use in my kayak.
The point is that I’ve spend a fair amount
of time over the years watching bent down-
rigger rods waiting for those “Oh So Sweet”
releases. However, there are times, particu-
larly in the spring and fall when I don’t use
downrigger, because I can work more effec-
tively using leadcore. I’ll tell you why….
The first thing I want you to do is picture
that heavy old leadcore outfit your grandpa
used. That’s right, it’s that dusty tuna stick
fitted with the sturgeon reel.
Check it out, it’s still rigged up with a
five-foot string of soda can size cow bells….
Now I want you to purge that image from
your mind, because that’s not the kind of
gear I’m talking about when I talk modern
leadcore fishing!
It was Monte Smith of Gold Country
Sportfishing that first turned me on to
modern leadcore trolling a decade ago
and I’ve been running and modifying the
concept ever since.
Monte is a high-speed trolling guru using
his handmade Chucker T Spoons. Monte
found that when working structure from a
boat moving in the 3 mph range that light-
weight responsive leadcore outfits were a lot
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