Trolling Spinner Rig Techinque Revealed

I was checking my messages after returning home from a Walleye Tournament last weekend and noticed one from my young friend Taylor Klimczak. It said are you in for a day of trolling some cranks tomorrow. I meet Taylor when Andy Yu and Lonny Michel of Wannabe Fisherman added him to their Pro Staff Team this spring. I had the opportunity one evening to troll some cranks with him earlier this summer. I was pleasantly surprised by the knowledge this young angler poised about trolling crank baits. Over the summer were unable to hook up again for another trip, however I was free so how could resist the offer. The next day with Taylors' new to him boat, a 18 foot 2001 Tracker Targa in tot, we were on our way. Once at the lake we found our bait balls over open water and seen some big marks which we assumed were Walleye near them and began setting lines. By using the Precision Trolling app, we were able to let out the proper amount of line that would allow us to place our cranks just above the marks. For those who are wondering what the Precision Trolling App is, it's a app with dive charts of most crank baits on the market. It shows you how deep a crank bait will dive to and how much line you should let out for the crank bait to achieve the target depth you want it to run at. After numerous passes and changing cranks on each pass without any contact Taylor picked up his lead core trolling rod. What he did next took me by surprise. It wasn't a crank bait he picked up to attach to the lead core but a spinner rig. I just had to asked him what made him try this. He replied, I started using lead core last year with crank baits. This year on slower days I was looking for a technique to get spinners down deep on suspended fish. After trying other methods with not too much luck I tried just running them on lead core. Taylor said that he doesn't know if it's cause he was able to estimate his depths better with lead core or that it just doesn't spook fish as much as those other techniques, but he has had more success pulling spinners on lead than any other method when targeting fish suspended in the water column. He told me that he was guiding his friend Paul Kerash this past weekend using this technique which resulted in the biggest walleye of the day along with many other quality walleyes being boated throughout the day. The set up Taylor uses is Suffix 832 advanced 18lb test lead core which he then he ties a 30ft 10lb mono leader. He then attaches the mono leader to the lead core with a barrel swivel. Each color of the lead core is 30 feet long and at 2 mph will drop the spinner rig 7 feet down in the water column. The nice thing about lead core is that it is speed dependent. This means the faster you troll the more it will rise in the water column and the slower you troll the more it will drop in the water column. Lead core also raises and falls gradually were other techniques have a herky jerky rise and fall to them. I don't know if this is something new however in all the years I have spent reading articles, watching videos/fishing shows or fishing, I don't recall ever seeing or hearing about this technique. If it has been around for awhile well it sure deserves being mentioning again. By the pictures of all the hogs Taylor has caught and posted on face book over this season from different water bodies is proof enough for me that it works. Taylor also believes in catch and release. All of the giants he has caught this season were released to swim and spawn again. By releasing them, he feels will ensure for a healthy fishery for the future. I want to Thank Taylor for a great day on the water and for the new technique that I to will be adding to my bags of tricks now. Although we didn't catch any on it this trip we did manage a nice 25 incher that fell victim to my crank bait along with a couple of Pike and another 17 inch walleye. Can't beat that for a slow day of fishing, just image if the bite was on. I thought my fellow NPS members might enjoy reading about this technique and give it a try the next time their trolling for open water Walleyes. You'll be glad you did