How were you calculating your speed and # test is your leader line , you should notice the difference between fish and bottom
5ft per color at 2mph. It was quite windy so I was just drifting and using the trolling motor to control boat position.Trolling for lakers in open water often feels like snagging bottom lol
I agree with Zwiggles, I'd be surprised if you could get to 50 fow even with 20 colors and a dodger at a constant troll of 2mph. But if you make some swings and circles your terminal tackle would drop quick. If anything a dodger would not make it go deeper (while moving) but the added drag would make it fish much higher in the water column. But stop moving forward and it would drop pretty fast.Leadcore is always an interesting topic, in as far as how deep it fishes. I'm of the belief that there are so many factors it's very difficult to be accurate at all, especially the more line you let out. It may say on the package it sinks at 5-7 feet per color, but IMHO the added drag is a huge factor the more line you fish. The more line, the more drag. 1-3 colors it might sink 6 feet per color, 5-7 colors it may go to 5 feet per color, 7-9 colors it might only sink 4 feet per color. And of course there are a lot of other factors- what your terminal tackle is, the density of the water, how aerated the water is, how much debris is on the surface, the angle of your rod, how fast you troll and probably a whole lot more things. At one time, before I had riggers, I had a huge mooching setup with 20 colors of lead and 500 yards of backing. I don't believe I could get to 50 feet deep with that setup unless I stopped moving. In the summertime I would drag over 50 fow with all that lead and half the backing out and never hook bottom. Not actually convinced I'd get 50 feet deep with 100 colors of lead trolling flatfish.Nowadays I don't typically fish anymore than 3 colors of lead, and even that irks me. Nothing worse than having 8 colors out and no idea you have a 10" fish on the line. Then you go to change your presentation and wonder how long you've been dragging that fish and even worse- where did I catch it? That's a data point you'll never get back.
You posted while I was typing. This explains a lot. If you were drifting you were less so trolling and more so vertical jigging. When you're letting the wind push you, the wind also pushes the water quite a bit, certainly at the surface, so you kinda get a net zero troll speed. At the very least it increases the inaccuracy of how deep lead core fishes.
https://www.fishusa.com/Fish-Hawk-TD-Digital-AtDepth-Water-Temp-Gauge
You know I've had two of these units and neither of them worked properly, which was a shame