Line counter reels

I troll alot, and have been doing so a long time. I primarily fish walleye on the river mostly pool 4 and 5, with the occasional trip to Lake Superior for salmon and trout. I have never used line counters and usually have no problem finding and developing a pattern for fish. I run bait casters on my trolling rods primarily Garcia 5500 and heavier 6500 on my in line board rods.. every spring I think about getting line counters but never pull the trigger. If you know how your baits are running and have a general idea how much line is out, what is the point? Dialing it in to be more precise I know will be the answer but I have a hard time believing its that critical, especially on the river. Any opinions out there. Anyone else like me think they are not necessary or should I finally break down and purchase them?
Anybody have them and wish they didnt spend the money?

Have them and love them. While not 100% accurate, they sure provide a baseline that is easy to duplicate. I also love knowing how much more line is out while fighting a fish. Under certain conditions, someone may have to be controlling the boat right up to the last minute to get the net. It also doesn’t hurt that my line counters have the smoothest drags of any reels that I own. The Shimano Tekota 300’s are butter and the Daiwa Lexa 100’s and 300’s are a close second.

Keep your current reels and use Power Pro Depth-Hunter or another metered line. No LC calibration required. LC’s also don’t read consistently from full spool to empty spool. The only drawback I’ve experienced with depth hunter is if you clip off 12 inches here or there to re-tie, you’ll need to mentally keep track of how much of that 25-foot color section actually remains. With markings every 5 feet it’s not too tough.

I’m coming up on season #4 using this stuff. A little bit of fading but all the colors are still easy to discern.

I’m not anti-LC necessarily. But you already have the tools to do the job. You can buy like 1,500 yards of PPDH for less than the cost of one Tekota 300 LC. Just my 2 cents anyway.

Line Counter versions of reels are usually zero to $5 more than the non line counter versions…..Why not get the line counter?

tangler, cat got your tongue?

Nah I just made an unnecessarily snarky response to the last post and thought better of it. It’s never too late to do the right thing