Copper setups for lake Erie

[Blackhawk]

I am taking a trip over to the East side at the end of June. I have some 45# and want to run some copper with harnesses or maybe a spoon/plug pattern.

What would you guys spool up for 18' to 24' deep waters. The new Bloodrun results have a 50' of 45#copper running 10' at 2.0mph. we usually run 1.0 to 1.5 I am thinking this could be a good one to start with.

[BlueCollarOutdoors]

50 should work for you. Better be careful on turns though or that copper will be in the ground if you turn hard.

[Blackhawk]

Thanks BCO, This is my dilema. I only have a couple days and would like to see what others have ran. It is a new technique and maybe not deep enough water to get the true effects of what copper has to offer like we see on the west side.

[FsnMachine]

Why? I always thought copper was for depth. If you don't need the depth why bother. Maybe a 2 or 3 color leadcore would be a better choice. We fish the North side of Erie at times.

[Blackhawk]

I have some extra from spooling up this spring. I would have to buy a spool of lead. If it is not worth messing with, well, that is what I want to know.

[Line Dancin]

Dont mess with it. I tried led core and you limit what you can do. fish have been in the top five foot one day the next on the bottom. use mono and mini divers or jets off boards and you can get to any depth. with lead or copper your stuck to fish that depth and could be missing feeding fish. Where you headed to? i have my boat over there at brest bay through the second week of july.

[fishy1]

Torpedo divers work great at any speed and give you infinite depth and lead ranges.

[Blackhawk]

Excellent info guys. We camp at Sterling State park and head out from the DNR launch. Thanks for saving me time rigging and running something that could be counter-productive. This is a great site made up of some very helpful fisherman:thumb:

[Line Dancin]

I would stay away from torpedos they take you line down to fast. you want to get away from the boat. Small spoons streak jrs and minis are best for spoons. the little bit larger spoon will help keep some of the junk fish off.

What weekend you going to be at sterling? I will be there next wed evening through Monday afternoon.

If you want to slip your boat while you are there check out brest bay marina it is five-ten minutes from the campground. I think they charge 25 a night 150 week. a month is 250. we usually do the econo docks for the season for 450

http://www.brestbaymarina.com/summer.html

[fishy1]

I would stay away from torpedos they take you line down to fast. you want to get away from the boat. Small spoons streak jrs and minis are best for spoons. the little bit larger spoon will help keep some of the junk fish off.

What weekend you going to be at sterling? I will be there next wed evening through Monday afternoon.

If you want to slip your boat while you are there check out brest bay marina it is five-ten minutes from the campground. I think they charge 25 a night 150 week. a month is 250. we usually do the econo docks for the season for 450

http://www.brestbaymarina.com/summer.html

Torpedoes only go down as far and as fast as you let them out I have used them from the time they have come out for both walleye and salmon and are a great tool to have in your arsenal

[Blackhawk]

We just load it up and bring everything back to camp. That's why I love the State Park.

We usually just run bottom bouncers with a 4 rod spread when the crawler bite is good. You stay pretty busy and everyone keeps an eye on their own rod. Makes for some good competition too. I will often send out a reef runner or Tot out on a board just to liven things up. This is where I got to thinking about bringing a couple long lines just to throw out.

[southtrollsouth]

I have some extra from spooling up this spring. I would have to buy a spool of lead. If it is not worth messing with, well, that is what I want to know.

You are on the right track. There are a number of Walleye pro's and charter captains that are pulling only copper for Walleyes now on both Lake Erie and Saginaw Bay, in lieu of leadcore or messing with mini disks.

You can use the short segments of 45lb that you have, here are the depth numbers on the 20lb Walleye Copper. These are for clean spoons or crawler harnesses. The bottom set of numbers are for various sizes of reef runners.

Line Out 2.5 gps 2.0 gps 1.5 gps

300' 49 65' 90

250' 40 55' 74

200' 33 43' 67

150' 24 31' 51

100' 16 20' 35

90' 14 20' 29

80' 12 16' 26

70' 11 14' 24

60' 10 12' 21

50' 8 10' 17

40' 6 8' 14

30' 5 6' 11

20' 3 4' 9

10' 1 2' 7

Copper Out @ 2.0 GPS Reef Deep Diver 800 Reef Ripstick 700 Reef Deep Little Rip 600 Reef Little Rip 500

300' 68' 68' 62' 58'

250' 57' 55' 53' 55'

200' 46' 46' 45' 45'

150' 36' 34' 37' 36'

100' 26' 24' 26' 27'

90' 22' 19' 22' 23'

80' 20' 16' 19' 21'

70' 18' 14' 18' 19'

60' 16' 13' 15' 16'

50' 14' 11' 13' 14'

40' 12' 9' 10' 12'

30' 10' 5' 8' 10'

20' 8' 4' 6' 8'

10' 6' 2' 4' 6'

[Line Dancin]

I would stay with discs if you are just fishing mich waters it is too shallow to mess with the other stuff. and you can adjust the discs to the depth you want them unless you want to rig a bunch of rods with different lengths of copper for over there. We did the lead core thing back years ago and your stuck to that depth and having a bunch of rods that are in the wrong zone. discs or jets you can fish any depth and they are easy to set/retrieve off boards.

[Blackhawk]

Thank you STS for the super informative chart. That is one of the best guide line's I have seen.

I will be bringing a couple for sure to run on the outside away from our normal spread. we will cover top to bottom with the inside spread and let the copper work it's magic away from the boat. I just have to believe it is an ideal presentation for finicky walleye.

I really appreciate all of this input.

[southtrollsouth]

Thank you STS for the super informative chart. That is one of the best guide line's I have seen.

I will be bringing a couple for sure to run on the outside away from our normal spread. we will cover top to bottom with the inside spread and let the copper work it's magic away from the boat. I just have to believe it is an ideal presentation for finicky walleye.

I really appreciate all of this input.

No problem Hawk...a cleaner version was just posted here

http://www.bloodruntackle.com/walleye-copper-dive-curve-depth-charts-reef-runner-dive-curves-depth-data/

Its a great way to make use of your left over copper for sure! Let us know how you end up..good luck.