replacing copper with weighted steel wire line

[rolmops]

replacing copper with weighted steel wire line

Today,at the Niagara Fishing Expo I bought a 300 foot length of the weighted steel wire line. I love the way you can just throw it on the ground in a heap and not get a birds nest. not on the ground and not on the reel.It is great stuff. According to the torpedo people you can use the 200 or 300 foot of 46 pound test wire in combination with their regular 20 or 30 pound wire and the sinking rate will remain the same as copper. I plan to load a reel with a 1000 foot of thirty pound and on top of that add the 300 feet of of weighted wire.I want to use just one or two  setups like this (one for each side) with the possibility  of running it at different lengths instead of having six copper rods with different length lines. For now,the reel I,m going to use is a Penn 340 or 345 levelwind without a line counter. This means that I will have to mark the thirty pound test with a color code mark every 50 or 100 feet (different colors each time). Do you have any good ideas about how to effectively get color on a steel wire line and make it stick? Or which reel with a line counter would you suggest to hold this entire 1000 +300 + mono length of line? Also,does anybody have experience with a line counter sitting on the rod?

Thanks for any suggestions and opinions.

Rolmops.

Edited January 23, 2017 by rolmops

[Xxx]

I'm asking a general question ROLO, why would put a 1000. Feet of steel and another 300. Feet of this newer weighted line? I'm more interested as to why you would need a 1000. Feet of backer of any kind? I'm not being an ass.

[rolmops]

Mainly because that was the test material that the torpedo people used. They explained to me that the very thin diameter of 30 pound test wire ( 0.015 inch) reduces the water resistance to the point where the heavy line will keep on sinking like copper. Also because I will be able to use it instead of 300 ,400,500 and even 600 copper and still have plenty of backing. But maybe there is some overkill in this amount of backing. I also wonder about using braid instead of wire., it has a very small diameter but it does not add any weight at all where wire line does have weight.

[Sk8man]

Forget about the line counter on the rod (e.g. Berkely) it sucks. The line or especially wire pops out of it all the time despite snugging it down

[Xxx]

10 minutes ago, Sk8man said:

Forget about the line counter on the rod (e.g. Berkely) it sucks. The line or especially wire pops out of it all the time despite snugging it down

Took me a bit Les, you mean the Berkley line counter itself? Yea I bought one so I knew how much backer I was putting on each reel as I was doing 6 reels and I was putting on Berkley big game on and the counter flew apart before I had the 6th reel done. .  I see what your doing now Rolmops, making a multi purpose reel to cover all the lengths of wire. I saw a #55 line counter reel at our local bait shop, that thing looked huge, filled with wire, you might have to buy one of those rod holder that goes around your body and over your shoulders like suspenders on the count of weight!! Just for the rod & reel!! It will as heavy as a battery till you put all that metal line and weighted line on top yet!! LOL

[rolmops]

Multi purposing is exactly what I am doing. One copper rod instead of 3 for each side. The same with leadcore. Right now I have 8 in the cuddy, but with 30 or 40 feet of mono between sets of colors (3-5-8-10) I can do with four if I want to run 2 on each side. This means decluttering  my cuddy and less maintenance overall. The wire instead of copper means no more clusterf...s and bird's nests to unravel. My ultimate goal is less clutter,fewer F.. ups and more effective fishing time to enjoy. Heck, maybe I'll even catch more fish.

[Xxx]

Really interested in the leadcore if it works like proposed. I guess if you run them strictly off of boards it would work with 30 or 40 foot of mono. I have run leadcore for years and I'm kinda confused about. I was taught that leadcore to work effectively must come through the water such as -------'----- this but wavey with the water currents? So now in my mind or was of thinking is if you don't let out at least the length of the core in backer the core is coming through the water on a angle with maybe the lure on depth but the rest angled towards the surface? Or am I all wet!! 

[Tall Tails]

It is certainly not a replacement for copper.  It is just another application.  I am certain it will have a different signature and applied action on the lure.  Just like leadcore is different then copper.  All it means is more rods on the boat.

[mudflat]

Here's Matthew's post from Spoon Pullers with his video:

http://www.spoonpullers.com/forums/index.php/topic,26358.msg158933.html#msg158933

 

This would work fine down the chute but I would be concerned hooking the wire into a release off a board, maybe use rubber bands?

 

I did fit 300' of 60lb weighted steel with 900' pp backing onto a Clarion 553. 

The weighted steel takes about the same amount of room on the reel as copper and the 30 lb wire (.015) would take a little more room than 50# power pro (.014). 

[minion]

I bought a 300 weighted steel set up last year and was very impressed .... the depth out to 600' seems to be pretty close to copper as it was in the same strike zone as my other coppers ...

I was able to get 300ft weighted steel , 300ft 19 strand and somewhere close to 300 yards 50lb pp on a convector 45 high speed ...

Much easier reeling in fish when your using over 300 coppers

And pap someday you will see why u need 1000 ft backing lol

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[vetting]

Just have reels with specific length and have a set of rods that you can easily swap different reels on them. 

 

For all of my leadcore and weighted steel I have 6 Okuma CPLC-70CT rods.  The last time I got a 4 pack of them for $75.  They eyelets are larger to allow large knots through.  Just reel the swivel right through them and slap a different reel on.  I run a max of 3 per side on boards and just swap the reels that I want onto the rods.  

[TyeeTanic]

What reel are you going to use to put 1000 ft of wire, and then 300 ft of weighted steel?

[hawkeye625]

To the original post...try a sharpie or bright fingernail Polish to mark wire. I picked some of the steel up at the show also. Just wish I would've seen the u tube video 1st. Would've done the 200 not 300. Sinks the same...why waste the room on the reel. I wonder if anyone ever tried the wire backer trick on regular copper? My guess is it'll sink the same as the weighted steel. I'm thinking 1000 ft wire and 200 weighted steel should fit on a saltist 50 or tekota 800 or similar size reel.

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[sammygee]

i've found the best way to mark your copper or steel in 50 or 100 ft intervals is with shrink tubing. Put 6 pieces about an inch or so on the copper or steel.  Measure your 50 foot intervals, slide the shrink tubing, apply heat and the tubing will not slip. 

[rolmops]

In the end I put 400 feet of 80 pound test powerpro ,300 feet of 19 strand and 300 feet of weighted steel on a Penn 345 levelwind.

I used Sammygee's suggestion to use heat shrink tubing on the 19 strand wire. Now I have  one wire rod for each side with the possibility to go from 300 to 600 feet.

According to Matthew of Torpedo wires, the 19 strand wire has the same characteristics as 27 pound leadcore and has the same sink rate. I will set up a reel with 300feet of 19 strand with color coded markers every thirty feet and use it instead of a leadcore. I can run it of the boards at whatever color/length I want. If it works I will sell a bunch of rods with Penn levelwinds and leadcore.

Edited January 30, 2017 by rolmops