Copper Fishing Wire Tips & Tricks

Here are a few tips from Blood Run Fishing Pro Staff to make you more effective and efficient in rigging, deploying and fishing copper trolling wire setups for Salmon, Walleye and Striped Bass.

- Levelwind reels are not required but generally preferred by salmon and walleye fishermen for ease of retrieval and packing copper back onto the reel smoothly.

- Roller tips or Twili tips are not required for using copper, however, if you decide to only do a partial deployment of copper off the back of the boat, then they ARE required to reduce wear and tear on the copper.    Copper is a soft metal with minimal tensile strength.

- Do not snap or pinch anything directly to copper, including additional diving weights or planer boards.    These will create a weak spot in the copper and separate the copper strands causing failure.

- When retrieving copper from the water without a fish, or with a small fish, press down on the copper onto the foregrip of your fishing rod which applies pressure to the copper as you pack on the last 30-50 feet.   Freewheeling copper back onto a reel without tension will cause backlash and tangles on the next deployment.

- Fill reels completely to the top with copper and backing material.   The more backing material, the greater amount of line you will put back onto the reel while cranking.

- Adjust the spool tension control knob to "full on" to slow down the spool arbor on your fishing reel.   This will completely eliminate backlashes when deploying copper.    The tension control knob on your fishing reel is the small round knob on the side plate of your fishing reel on the same side as the handle.  Finger tight this knob all the way to slow the spool down.

- Deploy the first 30-50 feet of copper with the "clicker on" and do not be afraid to shake the fishing rod to get the knot through your line guides.   Once a decent amount of copper has been deployed, the weight of the copper will carry the rest off the reel with the clicker left on and and the reel wide open.

- Extend your handle on  your fishing reel to the outermost setting to allow for greater turning radius of the handle which increases torque on reeling.

- Use braid backing whenever possible for copper as the smaller diameter allows for greater amounts of backing to be spooled onto your reel, and reduces wind drag when deploying copper out on planer boards.

- Get to know the copper repair knot for quick on the water repairs when the copper wire becomes damaged or a strand breaks.   Keep some heatshrink and a lighter on the boat to make the repair even more low profile.