Do You Calibrate Your Line Conter's

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03-11-2012, 01:25 PM
Walleye Seeker

Do You Calibrate Your Line Conter's

Did you ever wonder how accurate your line counters are. Or are you like me and just trusted what your line counter said it was right on. Well after watching the walleye101 video found on the main page of this forum, I was suprized. So on a nice day like today i had to check my line counters on all my rods. I did exactly as the video said to do. I have eight rods not one of them was close to be accurate. They were anywhere between 23 to 32 ft. off. For example my line counter at 100' on the reel was only 72' on the measuring tape. So in reality i was not at the right depth that i thought i was at, which meant i was 3 to 4.5' above the depth i was marking fish. I found this very informitive thought i would share this with all of you. Check out this video on the home page near the bottom of page and click on the right arrow until you come to calibrating line counters. There are other interesting videos as well.
Have a great day.
Lloyd
Walleye Seeker :)
03-11-2012, 03:27 PM
ebijack

I know Lance very well and know why he calibrates his reels. It's to help all those that he is teaching. So they are all on the same page so to speak. But for the guy that fishes all the time. I just don't think it needs to be done. If you look at 800 RR, the difference between 18 and 24 ft down is 40 ft line out. the difference between 120 out and 160 out is 2 ft deeper. Now you take into acount the many currents out on Erie, the direction your trolling, you still don't know where your baits are running. It's a game changer. Cover the water column the best you can. find the depth/line out they want with the location, direction, type line your running and work from there on color, speed and line out.
But that's me.
03-11-2012, 11:22 PM
gregnwtf

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walleye Seeker

Did you ever wonder how accurate your line counters are. Or are you like me and just trusted what your line counter said it was right on. Well after watching the walleye101 video found on the main page of this forum, I was suprized. So on a nice day like today i had to check my line counters on all my rods. I did exactly as the video said to do. I have eight rods not one of them was close to be accurate. They were anywhere between 23 to 32 ft. off. For example my line counter at 100' on the reel was only 72' on the measuring tape. So in reality i was not at the right depth that i thought i was at, which meant i was 3 to 4.5' above the depth i was marking fish. I found this very informitive thought i would share this with all of you. Check out this video on the home page near the bottom of page and click on the right arrow until you come to calibrating line counters. There are other interesting videos as well.
Have a great day.
Lloyd
Walleye Seeker :)

There are several variables. To start, all the reels are identical, same amount and diameter of backer line if you use a backer, same braid or mono on each reel. Do the zeroing on the counter for each step when loading the line. The counters are designed to read with full spools. Once you get them full , do a test in the yard with a know distance of say 100 ft.
Make sure the line is snug on the spool and not fitting loose. If you still have issues of wrong readings on length, your reel could be bad if its old. not sure on that. The biggest thing that people do wrong is not keeping the spools full. I run some trips in the central basin, trolling for walleye and steelhead, up there I use single strand wire, there is a know length of wire , say 250ft, I let out all the wire then zero the counter and let out another 100ft of the backer. Total of 350 from the board to the bait, equals @50ft down.Thats just an example because of the size of the spool is now smaller after all the wire is gone, would be a different length if I just zero the count and go to 350. I run 30 power pro in the western end with crankbaits or jet divers. For me 30 jets push down to 24-25 ft with 100 ft line out. I let out 120 and still not hitting bottom in 30-32 ft water. This was a case with another guy in the marina, we stretched our lines out in the parking lot and the other guy was shorter than me by alot, the difference was he didnt have enough line on the spools. Inconsistant