Left the Whaler at home and took the pontoon since it was already in the water.
The first mate and I trolled u-rigs Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon in the Hollow Creek area. Fished from 2:00 pm until about 5:30 pm Friday. Caught 16 with 7 keepers. The two largest were 12 lbs and 15 lbs. A good afternoon. Went back to the same spots on Saturday afternoon for about 3 hours and caught 19, but only 3 keepers - triplets at 9 lbs each. Still a good afternoon considering we could not get right where we wanted to be because of other boats. Marked a few more deep brush piles to troll over and around.
How about telling us novices how to rig a u-rig …what size rod, line, depth etc.? I assume you;re talking about the unbrella rigs I see at Sportsman Warehouse and Boaters Worls?
Scout, there are so many ways to rig umbrella rigs and I have probably tried most. I buy the basic wire rig and add my own jig heads, plastic shad, road runners, etc. At times, I will add spoons for flash or rattle traps for sound to the u-rigs. I will put these, hookless, on two of the inner wire loops. Sometimes they seem to help, sometimes not - depends upon how aggresive the bite is.
Now for the easiest way to get started with good umbrellas… Buy some 4-arm bare rigs. Buy some 4" Storm Wild Eye shad - chartruese is a good starting color. Buy some 40# test clear line - I like Trilene Big Game. Buy some barrel swivels, some crimping sleeves, and a crimping tool. Your longest drop back should not be over 24" and it is in the center of the rig. I usually drop back just a few inches from the wire for the next ones out from the center and a few inches more for the ones on the ends of the wires. You can start with just 5 hooks if you want or go all the way to 9. The barrel swivel goes at the wire arm. Loop, sleeve, and crimp all other connections. This is a good all around rig that is tried, tested, and true. It has caught fish from way too small up to 28#.
The rigs I am testing now are a one hook variation that is catching larger average fish. The last three times out, I have trolled four rods - two rigged the old way and two rigged with the one hook rigs. All but one of the larger fish came from the one hook rigs, but I am still testing and don’t want to say too much about them, except to say that once you start catching fish, don’t be afraid to try different colors, styles, or rigging.
I use Penn 320’s and 7’ Penn Power Stick rods for trolling. I have had the best results using 50# test Trilene Big Game in clear. I can only get 150 yards on the 320’s, but that is plenty if you are willing to give chase to big fish. I keep the drag where I can pull line off the reel without cutting my hand. This cuts down on the number of bent hooks. One day, I will probably weigh the drag settin
That is true, but there is a certain amount of satisfaction gained by doing things yourself. Kind of like reloading ammo that shoots much tighter groups than ammo you buy in a store.