[Hunt n' Fish]

Al or anyone,

My father wants to try trolling for stripers this weekend. I want to try using shad bodies. I was wondering what is the best way to rig them. I have heard that I should use an umbrella rig, but how do you rig the shad on the hooks? I have an assortment of large bass assasins that I use on lead heads. Do I just run a bare hook through the body the same as I would a jig head. If so, what keeps the body from sliding on the hook?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

 

[Hunt n' Fish]

Also,

Does anyone recommend a particular color right now? (Chartruse, White, Blue backs, etc) and can I mix and match or should they all be the same on the umbrella rig?

 

[Crazy-Al]

Hello Chris,
I?ve seen pre-made umbrella (shad) rigs on the market but I am not sure how you would rig them? As for the jig head and the plastic bodies ? I generally use crazy glue and it really works!

One thing you should also know when using umbrella rigs? You may want to use wireline to keep it close to the bottom.

Tight lines!

"Crazy" Alberto
[email protected]

 

[Crazy-Al]

Chris,
To answer your second question - Right now depending where you are fishing, there are herring around and the best matching color is the blueback plastics.

As per your mixing color question, I would do it on the first few runs to figure out what the hot color of the day is. Once you do, I would change it all to the same color.

Also- the general color rule goes... Bright days use bright colors - Dark use dark colors.

Hope this helps.

"Crazy" Alberto
[email protected]

 

[Hunt n' Fish]

Thanks Al,

That helps a lot. Dad has a wireline rod he wants to troll spoons with and I am borrowing a rod with leadcore line. We'll be fishing out of Moriches and East, so I will definately try the Bluebacks. Thanks again.

 

[Crazy-Al]

Chris,

No problem, it's my pleasure.

BTW: Lately there are lots of gannets reporting West of Montauk beaches heading your direction... If you spot them, you may want to troll around those big birds (big fish). Also work the 20-40 ft. line because that's the latest big fish migration path!

Good Luck and Enjoy!

"Crazy" Alberto
[email protected]

 

[Hunt n' Fish]

Al,

Thanks again for the help. The gulls and gannets were working about a mile east of Moriches Inlet this morning. The fishing was great. We tried trolling for about ten minutes, caught one and went back to casting. It was my first try at it and probably my last. I think I would rather not catch fish while casting or using bait, then drag one behind the boat on wire.

 

[614097]

DB-

I have been trolling shad umbrellas with a great deal of success for the past two seasons. That said, if I can consistently catch fish by casting bucktails - I'll stick with that every time. If however, things slow down & the fish are spread over a wide area, trolling becomes a good choice. I pull the shad umbrella with mono. I know lots of guys will disagree with me, but I could pull up a truckload of junk off the bottom to illustrate the fact that you can go deep with mono. Just slow down - no more than 3 knots.

Good luck

Here's a shad umbrella double header

 

[Hunt n' Fish]

Hi Steve,

That had to be a fun time getting those fish to the boat together. How do you troll the umbrella with mono, big drail, downrigger, planer board and how deep can you go? Catching the fish on mono would be a lot more fun then using the wire.

 

[614097]

No drail, no planer, no downrigger - just mono. The umbrella has about 1-ounce of lead at the top - that's it. How deep? I hang bottom occasionally in 40+ feet. Go slow & it'll go deep. Keep it under 3 knots.


Try it - you might be surprised.

Good Luck!

 

[614097]

BTW, doubles & triples are common. Last december I had 5 fish at once! They were all around 24-inches. My best double was a pair of 17-pounders.

Here's the one I kept:

 

[Hunt n' Fish]

Thanks for the info Steve, and again nice fish.