Snap weights and trolling for giant green bay walleye!

We had some amazing trips this last weekend out in some deeper water pulling cranks with snap weights. I used to despise running snap weights or lead core because I would doubt my depths and precise lure location. I have come to ignore that nagging voice in my head questioning my accuracy and just focus on dialing in the bite and getting all 6 rods to work, putting more fish in the boat at a high rate of speed!

So lets break down a few important things about trolling with weight assist.

Snap weights VS lead-core

So lets look at a few of the differences in lead core and snap weights.

If your not familiar with either this is 2 different ways to assist your lure to dive to a deeper depth than what it can do in normal settings. Each has there own pro's & con's and uses that are better suited than the other. Snap weights dive faster over a shorter distance of line out but allow for a much bigger bow in your line. Lead core requires longer distance of line out to reach the same depth but has zero stretch imparting more action on your bait.

So when do I run snaps over lead?

Well I take into account a few different things when making this decision.

1. How deep do I need to fish?

2. What kind of bait am I using?

3. Speed of my troll

4. How Rough are the waves.

5. How well are the fish hooking up.

Lets touch on these variables and what that mean to me in the decision making process.

How deep do I need to get?

So when I head out looking for fish if I know I'm planning to fish deeper than 18 feet I make sure to have both lead core and snap weights on board. Most deep diving crank baits max out around the 16-18 feet depth range so if I'm planning to target deeper than that I will need some extra weight! With that said if I am looking to get down to 35+ feet deep with my baits I am going to look more towards lead core than snap weights. Once you start to let out that much monofilament the drag in the water and the amount of slack/bow in your line becomes a problem. Lets pick a specific lure depth combo for an example.

We'll look at a flicker minnow #9 if we want to get to 38 feet at summer trolling speeds of 1.7-2.0 we would first let out 50 feet then our 2 ounce snap weight then another 95 feet. that's a total of 145 feet of line out with 95 of that having a significant bow in it so when a fish bites they don't feel that instant hook setting tension. Where lead core you have a similar amount of line out 155 feet total (15 feet leader included) but your ability to secure a tight hook set is increased due to zero line stretch over the majority of your line. If you have never tested how much mono stretches I suggest walking out 150 ft of mono and giving it a tug you will be surprised how easily 10+ feet of stretch is achieved. Lead core you will feel that instant resistance.

What kind of bait am I trolling with?

Are you using crawler harness or crank baits? Speed affects your depth more than anything else. Harness trolling in general is slower speed compared to pulling cranks. If planning to pull harness lean more toward snap weights, you will see a faster drop in depth per line out keeping you in your targeted depth range with less line out than lead core. Having the least amount of line out to catch fish is always a preferred tactic when easily obtained. You'll get a better hook set, less time for the fish to get off , and better chance to successfully release a fish if desired.

Its all about the speed!!!

As I just mentioned above speed is a huge factor when trolling weighted line and it can be used to your advantage! Minor speed adjustments of .2 MPH can change your depth by multiple feet depending on what your pulling.

I recently used this to my advantage last weekend putting 50+ walleye in the Ultimatum Charter boat in 4-5 hours. I was pulling Flicker minnow #9 with 2 ounce snap weights with suspended fish from 18 feet down to 25 feet.

At 2.0 MPH my baits were in the 18-20 foot range but when I stalled out to 1.2 they would sink down to the bottom. Then I would speed back up raising them up and bam we would get bit. I would drive at a higher speed and still have my baits in an effective zone covering water at a greater speed but when I went over a larger pod of fish I would wait a few seconds then p the throttle to drop those baits over there head. This gives your baits a third axis of movement (UP and Down) that they would normally not get. If anyone has ever snap jigged for walleye with live scop you will know that the rapid up and down of a bait is a sure fire way to get a fish triggered!

When your trolling along at steady speed your bait is all happily driving along at one depth hopefully right over a walleyes head. That fish can just follow along at his or her comfortable depth and decide at there own pace if they want to eat it or not. but when you change that up with a stall or speed up or change in direction up, down or turn left or right they now have to decide if its worth following or should they attack now!

More often than not they will react during a rapid change in axial movement. DON'T GET LAZY! Work those baits short sharp turns and speed changes frequently will get you more strikes even more so when using weighted lines.

How rough is it?

Just as above waves can enact some crazy action to your baits. You can also use this to your advantage or have it be a hinderance.

So if your out in some nasty rough stuff and your boat is surging forward and back from the waves and your boards and changing height by several feet think of all of the pulling action happening to your bait. Lets take a look at what happens to your baits with lead core. Minimal stretch, less of a bow in your line with an almost instant reaction on your lure when pulled. Your bait will be getting yanked and pulled all over the place More times than not if it is very very rough lead core will hinder your chances of success over snap weights. All of that pulling can also lead to lost fish by way of being yanked off by a sudden surge from a big whit cap.

Snap weights have a built in shock absorbing feature by way of that bow in your line. ill illustrate this in a very generic photo. (don't make fun of my art skills)!

Hopefully you get the idea that the snap weight has a larger bow in the line to allow for that shock absorption

So when it is really snotty out try snap weights next time over lead core.

When you have a nice mild chop and you want to enact a little different action to your baits try lead core it will give it way more action!

I feel like we have touched well enough on the hooking up part of the topics through this last section but if you find yourself missing a lot of bites or poor hook up to landing ratio try lead core on one side of the boat vs the other with snap weights. See if that solves your issues. That zero stretch will transfer a solid hook set even at low low speeds.

How to set your depths

There are apps out there that will get you in the right range for depths but i have tested the numbers for my self and found them to be a little off leading you to think your baits are deeper than they really are. So as in my other articles I treat this very similarly. I have a target I shoot for in depth then Span either side of that target number by a little bit.

Example, I'm using the 50 +2 method here , that's 50 feet then a 2 ounce snap weight then i continue on to my final number of feet out.

lets pretend 80 total is my desired length out. On one side of the boat i would have 90-80-70

the other side 95-85-75. I would then mix up my speed do some turns then bam first fist hits at 85. That's my first clue... I then take my 80 back and drop that to 85 and continue on, if one or the other hits at 85 or 90 then I match that and narrow up my gap between lines.

Pretty soon you should see a clear pattern of what length line is working best now lock it all in to with in a few feet of each other and hammer away!

If things stop working start back over see if the fish moved up a few feet in the column or down. If the initial depths you chose didn't produce shift your spread all up or all down with all new numbers. Do NOT GET LAZY. some days you have to work for those fish others they jump on the hook but most important thing to remember is you can always improve, always strive to get every bit of data of info of the day so you can put together the puzzle!

Tight lines and hope to see you out there! we have a lot of season left to go and the bite remains hot hot hot !!!!!