# Wire Line setup



## put-put (Sep 3, 2004)

How would I go about setting up wire line on trolling gear for walleye around Ashtabula area. Type (copper/leadcore)? #test, what lengths?


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

There are many good posts about this from myself and carpetbagger from years past on this. I use Penn 320's (need a good size reel for all that cranking). I spooled it with 50 raps of Trilene Big Game for some backing. Then 100 raps of Power Pro 30 lbs braid. Then a real small barrel swivel. Then add 300' of 20 lbs test single strand wire (some use as light as 12 lbs test). Then another small barrel swivel, then 17' of 20 lbs fluorocarbon. You can use a small amount of shrink tubing over the barrel swivel but be careful when shrinking it as to not burn off your line. A haywire tool is necessary for making the twist in the wire - you can't knot it. Once spooled, add a nice deep diving crank and let out all the wire and send out on the board.


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## beetlebailey (May 26, 2009)

you gave away the secret


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## Lerie (May 15, 2014)

I fish the deeper Eastern Basin out of Dunkirk and have been using Stainless Monel Wire for some 30 years to target walleyes in the thermocline. For the 2 reels I have set up I began by spooling with 15# Berkley Big Game. Then I added 125 feet of the Monel in 12 #. Then added is whatever you prefer in leader material, I use Berkley XT in green finish. I just twist the monel to form a loop and tie on backing and leader with uni-knot. I like Misdirections idea of adding the shrink tube and will be trying that. I then fish this off the Off Shore boards letting all the wire out and whatever I feel is necessary of the mono backing. Due to the no stretch factor of the Monel, I add close to 70% to my crankbait depth over Mono. For instance there is one crankbait that I use that will get down to 24 feet with Mono. With the wire set up it gets down to 40 feet. So you can see that it is easy to target deep suspending walleye with the Monel Wire. If I need to get deeper, I just add a snap weight on the leader material before the wire. This way I can fish worm harnesses and flutter spoons down deep. I will run up to 8 ounces of lead on the Off Shore boards depending on where the fish suspend in the water column.


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

Lerie - how does the dive curve work with the weights and wire? Is it still 4' per ounce? I'm getting 30' + crank depth with my current setup and getting down to that magical 50' area here in the central basin...just curious...


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## Lerie (May 15, 2014)

Misdirection said:


> Lerie - how does the dive curve work with the weights and wire? Is it still 4' per ounce? I'm getting 30' + crank depth with my current setup and getting down to that magical 50' area here in the central basin...just curious...


Dive curve

Dive curve?? I believe I know what your referring to, but my dive curve is some 35 years of experience of fishing with this set up. For instance with 8 ounces of lead and fished off the wire I can easily target fish in the 60 to 70 foot range when trolling spinners and spoons. I do not like to use crankbaits at those depths as I believe the added pressure of that depth leads to water leaks into the crankbait chamber. One thing that I do with fishing the Monel is to try and be over the top of the fish. So you can see where trolling in a S pattern should be effective as on the inside turn the lures will dive underneath the suspending fish and then come back up through them. There are times when I will see a pod of fish on the chart suspending significantly beneath where I am trolling at. In this case I will place the motor in neutral for a count of 10 seconds and place the motor back in gear - at this point I'm usually at a speed slower than what I was trolling at and will add throttle to reach my trolling speed about 30 seconds after placing the motor back in gear. This is the time I will get most of my strikes Even went as far as to figure out how many feet per second that I travel at a given trolling speed to time my placing of motor in neutral after spotting the fish to target them. Hope this was helpful and if any questions please ask.


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

I troll the S pattern as well, but I go by the 1' of depth for every 10' of wire + crank depth as the basis of the dive curve. So now I'll need to experiment with what the weight does...but I understand where your coming from with the weight and dropping / rising thru the water column.


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## Dcummins (Jul 19, 2013)

I know with copper line getting deep like 100 plus guys will run like 100' and then clip on a tadpole diver to achieve the depth they want. Putting the weight below the wire would make it harder to figure out your dive curve. I guess once you figure out what it runs at either way is correct more personal pref


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