I did my first lead core trolling yesterday.

My first rig was a king fish skirt over a blueback (snelling knotted) with a relatively large jig trailing it by 12-18 inches. While I was letting the line out it started spooling on it's own. Brain fart time. I thought "that isn't enough line to hit the trees at this depth" and .... yanked it lose. No more resistance. Reeled it in and the blue back was gone. How stupid.

Now for the one I'm still hot about:
A while later a fish hit that went side ways and when I fought back took 100ft of line before I could blink, even with a good amount of drag. By the time I worked back towards him, he had gone straight down. When I got right on top of it, I could tell by the colors and leader length he was 90ft down in the freaking trees. My PB is only 18lbs a year into this, and this thing had way more fight than that one. I never had to deal with trees in the ocean.

I can relate-- there weren't too many trees in the Chesapeake either!

Sounds like you've got the leadcore technique working, though--- nice.

Some of these guys may have techniques when it comes to trees and getting the fish out of them.... giving them slack can sometimes work if you're incredibly lucky; I've read somewhere that smacking the rod with your hand can help, but my guess this is for smaller fish in less dense forest. I wonder if staying away from getting straight on top would be a good idea---trying to coax them back out closer to the angle they went in...?

I can relate-- there weren't too many trees in the Chesapeake either!

Sounds like you've got the leadcore technique working, though--- nice.

Some of these guys may have techniques when it comes to trees and getting the fish out of them.... giving them slack can sometimes work if you're incredibly lucky; I've read somewhere that smacking the rod with your hand can help, but my guess this is for smaller fish in less dense forest. I wonder if staying away from getting straight on top would be a good idea---trying to coax them back out closer to the angle they went in...?

Another vote for the Spro swivel. Also glue the knot when you tie the leadcore to the swivel if you have the time. Make sure it is good and tight.

sorry-- not sure why it posted twice.

One thing i forgot to mention-- when these guys hit leadcore, i think it's best to just keep the boat moving in the direction it was going and at the same speed. In my experience, this tends to keep the fish up near the surface, even when stripping line and pulling to the side. If they start coming towards the boat they can angle down and into the trees, so it's best to keep some speed

Hammonds has 50-75 pound swivels smaller that a blood knot. I get line twist without a swivel so what's the point?

I bought the Spro swivels today. Those suckers are TINY and perfect for the leadcore to leader tie (pass easily through the line guide).

One thing to remember is NOT to outstage your leader. If you are using 27lb leadcore and now you use 30# leader you stand a good chance of breaking off your main line instead of the leader. Just a thought before you find out the hard way!

have you guys ever tried this knot: strip out 3-4 inches of lead, put the mono in braid, tie a square knot about 1 inch from the lead, tie another square about an inch away. My cousin says they use that for Walleye in the midwest. He says it works great and if you want to shore it up more, put a dot of superglue on each square knot.

Laxcoach,
I use that knot. Seems like it is a Willis knot or something like that. I strip out about a foot of lead or more and tie a big very loose overhand knot. If you strip out enough lead you can tie two very loose knots back to back for even more security. Then thread the leader (or backing mono) into the leadcore sheath and push it all the way in until it hits the lead. Pull tight and that's it. No swivel required. I'm always afraid that a swivel will knick the eye and eventually wear the ine.