Educational Articles

I am amazed when I talk to many Walleye trolling anglers that they put little or no thought into calibrating their line counter reels. In my opinion it is the most overlooked aspect and every bit as important as boat control. Let’s put it in perspective, you fill or have your reels spooled and the counter is accurate right, wrong probably not. I set all my reels to calibrate accurately at a 50-foot mark which I will explain later in the article. 

I had one outing in Saginaw bay where we were pounding Walleyes on an early July morning where I contacted a close family member who was fishing just miles from us on his boat with no action at his location. The active fish were suspended in the water column so when he arrived at our location, I instructed him as to how to set his lines. 40 to 45 back with 1.5-ounce inline sinkers trolled at 1.2 trolling speed. As he pulled in slightly behind and to the side of me we both set lines and started our troll downwind with the waves. Three-line set’s in and it was game on with nonstop action until we filled our three-man ticket. Halfway through the pass and began farming one fish after another back to the bay. I felt bad as our side kick was not having any success and watched as we continued to just pound fish after fish with multiple doubles.

How could this be as he was running the same harnesses (I supplied him as I tie all my own). His speed and location were identical. My suspicions were later confirmed when I met him at his cabin at my request. We set a tape measure mark at 50 feet and field checked 6 of his set ups with quite the variation found reel to reel. They should have checked out 50 at 50 feet but they varied from 60 to 78 feet on the line counter to the check line of 50 feet. In essence when he let out 45 feet of line, he was really averaging 30 to 35 feet of line, at least ten foot shorter than anything we were running which equates to 6 to 7 feet above us and not in the happy zone. As my suspicions were confirmed we calibrated all his set ups to within one foot of each other and now measure 50 feet at 50 feet on the counter. Needless to say, his catch rate has since soared. 

Have you ever been in a trolling experience where one or two lines are producing and though you matched other lines with the exact set up (weight, harness, color) they fail to produce. I have to admit I learned this early on the hard way and when I did figure it out it was light a light bulb turned on. The counter works by the revolutions of the spool not line length. If your reel is half full the diameter is smaller so your counter will read more line than there actually is. Whether you’re targeting suspended fish or just attempting to tick the bottom with bottom bouncers it is essential that your line counter reels are accurate and identical so you can duplicate what’s working.  

Calibration can be completed easily if you follow these steps. NOTE: To accomplish this task do not cut the line from the supply spool you are filling your reel with. Leave it connected until you verify the line counters is accurate as you must add or subtract line as needed to calibrate. 

Step One: Use a measuring tape mark 50 feet at each end. 

Step Two: Reset the line counter to zero and pull rod tip from point to point and check the line counter to see what it displays.

Step Three: If it measures less than 50 feet remove some line and repeat step two. On most reels about 30 feet of line is equal to about 1 foot of line counter readout depending on reel brand and model (30 to 50 feet is normal).

Step Four: If the line counter measures more than 50 feet then you will need to add line to the reel in same increments described in step three (although you will add not take away line). Therefore, you cannot cut the line from the filling supply spool until calibration is confirmed.

Step Five: Double check all the reals afterwards to ensure all reels are calibrated to 50 feet. Now you can match what’s working with extreme accuracy. Removing or adding line changes the spools diameter which allows the calibration of the counter to be accurate.

You can change your calibration should 50 feet not fit the body of water’s you fish (75 to 100 ft. are acceptable). Reel Rumors Fishing Charters specializes in Walleye charters in Saginaw Bay out of the home port of the Au Gres River. Contact Captain Dale Megie at 989-915-3312 or reelrumors@gmail.com

You can watch the complete how-to video by clicking on our how to video tab "Calibrate Your Line Counter Reels to Catch More Fish"

As a full time charter captain on Saginaw Bay with many decades on Lake Erie I find it interesting many anglers treat both bodies of water the same. Approximately one third of our charter bookings are clients that fish walleye looking to up their game and become more successful on the bay. My first recommendation “Quit treating Saginaw Bay like its Erie”. If you use the normal tactics targeting suspended fish throughout Saginaw Bay, you are going to have a lot of bad days. I am not saying there is no suspension, it’s just limited in comparison. If your fishing skinny water (We consider 10 to 18 feet skinny) you can get away with some suspension at times when they are active. Try that in deeper water especially 30 + feet and you will have some exceptionally long days. You will need to know how to fish the bottom if you are going to produce consistently. Keeping six to eight lines within three feet of the bottom is not simple but it can be accomplished. Early to mid-summer you can locate larger schools of above average belly down in deep water.  That is when you can cash in, there finicky yes, the bite can be light yes, but we have many 50 plus fish days in those conditions when boats around us barely lift a net. If you can master that most other conditions become easy. Read our article “Calibrate to Catch Fish” for starters. In deep water nothing produces more in Saginaw Bay deep water than spinner rigs. If you follow us, you know it is all we run. Our custom harnesses have gone through endless R&D and flat out get it done. Hire a captain that knows deep water that can not only teach but will let you set rods while learning hands on. It’s a fact skinny water fish are more active but the deep-water bite on average produces much better numbers and size if you put in the time. At Reel Rumors we target deeper depths. Most captains prefer the skinny water with some pulling spoons but most pulling crank baits such as flicker shads trolling fast and covering as much ground as possible. Our normal program includes slow troll over deep water at or near the bottom with meet. There are days we do abandon the deep bite but at times but not by choice. Keep in mind you must adapt and let the fish dictate your approach. One thing never changes and that is spinner rigs/harnesses as our bait of choice. Regardless if its May 1st or Labor Day “you can’t beat meat” as it continually produces. Speed is another critical factor with early season dialed in at slower speeds of 1 to 1.2 while creeping up to 1.5 by mid-summer. Only the on slot of trash fish will push our speed beyond that range pushing 1.8 to 2 mph. The increase in speed requires some changes in our blade size for the Reel Rumors program. From Spring through late summer, it is our #4 Colorado Blade with two #4 bait holder hooks at speeds from 1 to 1.5. Should we need to exceed 1.5 we switch to our 3.5 HS size blades. One option is to simply switch blades with the quick-change clevis. The second option which we practice is switching to our HS Series single hook harness consisting of the 3.5 blade and one #2 bait holder hook. I like the larger hook exceeds what most white perch can intake. We seldom run anything over #4’s, not that you can’t as I know lots of anglers that do well on our #5 blades. I will run the 5’s only if we are in dirty water which also includes slowing our speed. As for weights we run bottom bouncers religiously. That is a preference, but we lean towards heavier verses light weight. Generally, we do not go lighter than 2 ounce as the heavier the weight the better the hook set. In deeper water (25 plus ft.) 3 to 3.75 ounce is the go-to program. We run Church Walleye Boards and no other board. As we fish a lot of deep water with heavy weights, we have found the other boards just do not handle weights exceeding 2 ounce in deeper choppy water like the Church boards. If your fishing skinny water pulling cranks and lighter weights there are a lot of boards you can use that will get it done, but if you go deep running heavy there is nothing that matches their performance. We run an 8-rod set (three boards per side along with two dead sticks/down rods) if we have the crew that can handle it, but most days is not needed. You will find once your dialed in more lines is not always better (more possible tangles). On many days we can produce a fish every 5 to 6 minutes running a rod set not exceeding 6 lines (somedays 4 to 5 lines).  We are always experimenting but with limitations. When it is a new bait make it one rod not the complete set. You want to experiment when fishing is good not when your struggling. Sometimes it’s the smallest of changes that can turn a tough day into fish mania.