# question about leaded line.



## mogfisher (Jun 13, 2009)

A few years back, just before he passed, my grandfather gave me all of his fishing gear. Included was the shimano reel that he taught me to fish with many years ago. Also in the group was a selection of his old trolling setups with leaded line. My question is about this line. Is it still OK to use after being sitting there for probably 15 years unused? Is it like regular line that goes bad after a while? I'd like to use some of this stuff because it has so much history, but obviously if it's a waste of time then I'll just have to get some new line for them. The reels are kinda neat. To me they look like giant fly rod reels. He used to live on a lake in maine and caught many trout on these poles. Thanks for any advice.


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## thudpucker (Jun 14, 2009)

Test it with a scale.
You might have to take off the last 10 feet.
My uncle had a box full of lead lines. He trolled flies around the Washington state lakes on them.
The nice thing about lead lines is the no-snag part.


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## mogfisher (Jun 16, 2009)

Thanks for the advice. I went out fishing before I read it though. I tried out the line. Worked just fine. Didn't catch anything with it but I didn't troll for that long. I just trolled on the way to my bass spot and caught a few decent large mouth. My grandfather told me about a cool way to attach some mono to the leaded line. It was a pain but worked great. What he would do is to remove about 4" of the lead core and thread the mono up into the braid. Then just a half hitch knot where the mono is in the braid and wala! Works great. Anyone else do it this way?


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## thudpucker (Jun 16, 2009)

No, we just took out some of the lead, made a Nail Knot on the braid. It never failed that I know of. I think that braid is some kind of synthetic so it may not get weak in the sun.

Troll the lead line way back behind the boat. Uncle used to put out 80 to 100 yards.
Use a goofy looking fly called a Carey Special. It dont look like anything I ever saw in the lake or the air above the lake, but it sure as hell caught Rainbows. =D> 

Another one is a Shrimp pattern on a #16 Hook. Normally brown or dark green works best.

Now you got me all cranked up about that lead line, I may dig out some of his old stuff and see if there's one stashed in that old stuff. If I ever get some time to go fishing again.


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## bhos (Jun 18, 2009)

You can use some of that lead line to get your bass crankbaits deeper too, I've heard of folks using some as a leader to do that, but never tried it.


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## Popeye (Jun 21, 2009)

mogfisher said:


> Thanks for the advice. I went out fishing before I read it though. I tried out the line. Worked just fine. Didn't catch anything with it but I didn't troll for that long. I just trolled on the way to my bass spot and caught a few decent large mouth. My grandfather told me about a cool way to attach some mono to the leaded line. It was a pain but worked great. What he would do is to remove about 4" of the lead core and thread the mono up into the braid. Then just a half hitch knot where the mono is in the braid and wala! Works great. Anyone else do it this way?



That's called a Willis knot, except I use a single overhand knot and some guys here use 2 overhand knots. I use PowerPro as a backing and use an Albright Knot to connect those two together.


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