The Essence Of Lead Core

[GLF]

By Jim Six(Sixshooter)

Lead core line is often at the top of controversy lists when Great Lakes fishing methods is the primary topic of conversation. On a sunny prime time August morning you can often hear fellow fishermen tossing verbal diarrhea back and forth about somebody running over somebody else’s lead core. Let’s face it, if you have a full core out behind your boat you are looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 to 400 feet of line behind the boat. I advise use of common sense and not fish your long cores in crowds. On days where I can’t get away from the crowd I will not fish my lead core setups.

However, on the flip side lead core is a VERY productive method to catch fish.

Lead core generally comes in 100 yard spools. The spool is segmented into colors. It may start off red, then after ten yards it may turn white, then yellow, etc. This will go for the ten colors that make up the 100 yards of the spool. Before I go further, let me toss out the terms of the lead core trade:

• Full Core--full 10 colors (100yards) lead core.
• Half Core--5 colors (50 yards) lead core.
• Short Cores--also known as 1, 2 and 3 color cores....and you can guess what that means.


Spool of lead core. As you can see the different colors.

Of course being Americans, in the land of ingenuity, we will use any length under the sun for different depths we wish to probe. Somebody may put a core and a half on a reel, which would be one full lead core with a half core added on for extra cranking.

Now that you have some of the basic terminology of lead core in your grasp, I can start getting a little more in depth.

SETTING UP A LEAD CORE:
First, for full lead core setups, you need a high capacity reel. Depending on who you ask, you will get different opinions on this issue. The Okuma Convector 45L is a fine reel for such a cause. Some fisherman will only put about 150yards of line to back the lead core but, that scares me. I like to have about 300 yards of line on my lead core setups.
This can cause a problem with the Convector 45L because you cannot fit 300 yards of 20lb mono on the reel and a full core. The way I get around this, is to use a super braid.

Get yourself a spool of 30lb Power Pro it has the diameter of 8lb mono. You can spool on 300yards of Power Pro and then use a “Double Willis Knot” (see bottom of article for instructions on how to tie the Willis Knot) to attach the backing to your lead core. Spool on your lead core and use the Willis Knot again to attach a leader.

For leaders, I like to use 20 to 25lb test Berkley Big Game. I will add anywhere from 12 to 35 feet of leader. It has been my experience that shorter leaders seem to work better than longer leaders. And there is, of course, less to reel in.

For a rod, Okuma makes a 7’ trigger rod just for lead cores. These little rods are awesome for fishing with inline boards. They are short so you can reach your board without a stepladder, and they are stout enough to handle the board really well.

WHAT STARTED MY LEAD CORE CRAZE
One January afternoon standing waist deep in frigid water on the upper stretches of the Muskegon River. My good friend and fishing buddy, Ken DeVries, and I were thinking how we couldn’t wait for the spring boat fishing to start again. Ken was telling me about this novel concept he was thinking about trying in the spring. His idea was simple, to use “short” cores in the spring, trolling the sandbars.

To this point I refused to add lead core to my big lake fishing arsenal. All the fighting on the radio I vowed would never be me. But my mind was quickly changed when I fished with him in the spring. He invited me to fish with him out of his 26’ boat parked in a Muskegon Lake Marina. Of course the sucker I am to go fishing I accepted. Ken’s little trick proved to be worth its weight in lead.

We were running high lines on walleye boards on the outsides, then on the inside boards, we were running 2 color short cores. Then I think we ran a couple down riggers that day. In our short trip in early April we took home a mixed bag of six fish. It was a mixture of Browns and Chinooks.

From there, my interest was peaked and I had to learn more so I took the plunge, bought some lead core stuff to get me going. I spooled up a full core on a Mitchell Riptide reel, then a half core on a Rhino RBCXL, a 2 color core on an old Penn 209 and a 3 color core on a similar Penn 209.

I have to admit that I don’t run the full core all that often but sometimes it is the rod that will take the fish. I don’t like reeling in all that line out there. Although this past season the biggest fish landed on my boat was a 20lb 2oz Chinook that was taken on a full core pulling a Bloody Nose Magnum Stinger spoon. My hottest lead core set up this year was half cores and the short cores. In fact, my half core was so productive for me that I bought another half core setup.