Hi,

For the first time starting last spring, I tried trolling for lakers at the bottom of the lake using a linecounting reel, stainless steel trolling wire tied to 20 lbd test and upside down streamers. I did have a reasonable degree of success with this method and had a lot of fun. At the same time, I experienced a great deal of frustration with the equipment I was using. I will try to describe what I was doing and specifically the equipment I was using and hopefully you will be able to help me determine if it was a mistake in my technique or faulty (or incorrectly selected) equipment that is the cause.

I used a rod/reel combo from Cabelas. Specifically the Depthmaster gold reel/trolling rod combo. I think the reel is essentially the diawa counter reel oem'd to cabelas, but not sure.

When I let line out, I slow my boat to about 5 miles/hour. This enables me to keep the tension on my line as i put it out. The general rule of thumb i try to follow is between 60-80 feet of line per 10 feet of depth i'm going to be fishing in (as long as the lake is not crowded, i have gone over this since the hook us upside down and avoids snags if it goes too shallow). Once I have the line out, I slow the boat to between .5 and 1 mph. It is at this speed that I troll. When I reel in, I maintain a steady rate of line retrieval and keep constant tension on the line as i do it.

My problem is that I will often find the metal line get jammed between the spool and reel casing or gets wrapped in itself on the reel. This causes major issues when I try to put my line out next time. Your dealing with a ton of line here, so this really causes a great deal of frustration.

So, can somebody help me determine if this is me or the equipment? Also, what would be the difference between using this steel wire and a leadcore line (except the leadcore taking up more spool capacity).

If there is anymore information I can provide to help, please ask.

Any input is appreciated.

Cheers