Was visiting with an older gentleman yesterday and he told me that he had known someone that had a couple of reels that recorded depth that he used for crappie fishing. He said that if he caught a crappie at 18 feet, the reel would show that depth and after he landed the cappie, he would bait up and go back to that 18 foot depth.

He could not remeber the make of the reels. Anyone know of such a reel and if anything like it is manufactured today?

that would be the zebco slab seeker. Academy-$19.95, BPS $32.00

HI BILL IF YOU USE A SPINING REEL YOU CAN GO TO THE DEPTH YOU WANT FLIP YOUR BAIL OVER AND TUCK THE LINE UNDER THE LINE KEEPER FLIP THE BAIL BACK OVER NOW YOU ARE SET FOR THAT DEPTH. THIS WILL SAVE YOU A FEW DOLLARS.
HOOK-EM

A black marker also works to mark the line.

I have two of the SlabSeeker spinning models and one spincast model. hey're a real bargain for the price. Got 'em at Cabelas for about 16 bucks. Right now Academy is offering the spinning combo for about 20 dollars.

I have a light duty trolling reel which has a line counter built onto the reel. I use it when I am fishing deeper water which is normally when I fish at night. I also use the slab seeker. I normally forget to set the slabseeker.

The black magic marker is a great tip (and cheap)

I also keep one in my tackle box for this reason

Thanks to all for the info! Think I will try the Black Magic Markers first.

I'm not following what you're suggesting.

Can you explain it a little more? What's a line keeper? This method sounds interesting.

Thanks,

GG

HI GREG ON YOUR SPINING REEL YOU HAVE THE BAIL THAT PICK UP THE LINE THEN THE SPOOL THAT HOLD THE LINE RIGHT BELOW THE LINE PART OF THE SPOOL IS THE LINE KEEPER IT LOOKS LIKE A GUITAR PICK. THIS IS WERE YOU TUCK THE LINE. GO TO THE DEPTH YOU WANT TUCK THE LINE UNDER THE LINE KEEPER FLIP THE BAIL OVER NOW YOU READY TO FISH . DON'T PULL OR SET THE HOOK WITH OUT THE BAIL FLIP OVER IT WILL BREAK THE LINE KEEPER IF YOU PULL DIRECTLY ON IT. PULL IN YOUR FISH FLIP THE BAIL OVER AND IT WILL GO TO THE SAME DEPTH. FLIP THE BAIL OVER AND YOU ARE READY TO FISH. HOOK-EM

HI GREG ON YOUR SPINING REEL YOU HAVE THE BAIL THAT PICK UP THE LINE THEN THE SPOOL THAT HOLD THE LINE RIGHT BELOW THE LINE PART OF THE SPOOL IS THE LINE KEEPER IT LOOKS LIKE A GUITAR PICK. THIS IS WERE YOU TUCK THE LINE. GO TO THE DEPTH YOU WANT TUCK THE LINE UNDER THE LINE KEEPER FLIP THE BAIL OVER NOW YOU READY TO FISH . DON'T PULL OR SET THE HOOK WITH OUT THE BAIL FLIP OVER IT WILL BREAK THE LINE KEEPER IF YOU PULL DIRECTLY ON IT. PULL IN YOUR FISH FLIP THE BAIL OVER AND IT WILL GO TO THE SAME DEPTH. FLIP THE BAIL OVER AND YOU ARE READY TO FISH. HOOK-EM

The black marker is great, but I use a bobber stop string on my line. That way if the depth of the crappie changes from one trip to the next, just slide the string up or down. Keeps from having a bunch of black marks to keep up with. This is for open face spinning or baitcasters only.

Just count the pulls from your reel tyour fist eye on ure rod then no black marks and no counter in the way and no need to set anything.

James is right, I ALWAYS know how deep I'm fishing BEFORE I catch a fish. Just use your rod and pulls to get back to the right depth.

For anyone thinking about getting one of the depth locator reels, you might want to wait until the new Zebco SLDL 10 reels come out in the near future. They are smaller than the old (SLDL 20)spinning reels that Zebco makes. I have been testing them for Zebco and using them for the last 5 or 6 months and they have really worked well. One of my clients caught a 5 foot gar on one and landed it. I use 10 lb. solar big game line on all of my crappie reels.