Fished one for the first time yesterday. Running 40lb Big Game and a 3oz Capt Mack (sp?) Rig with 5 bucktails. Seem to us it was running approx 15’ at 2.5mph with about 50-60’ line out. Sound right? What other weight would be useful to have?
Can you run these under a planer or just behind the boat? Do you ususally run additional ones at different depths?
Finally, are they used successfully in the spring when the fish move up or are they more a winter/summer deal?
Unrelated to the u-rig, do people troll anything else, like plugs? I tied on a stretch 15 but had no takers.
I use them but normally at least 100’ back and that will get them down to around 20-22’. I will normally run 2 one at around 100’ and the other at 150’.
What works well is to run you boat in big “S” patterns and that has the rigs dropping and coming back up and that is what will trigger a strike a lot of times. Also if you come across a hump and see fish down deeper throw the boat in neutral and let them drop for a 2-5 second count and then back in gear, this will also trigger a bite.
Most guys that are real successful with them are very very aggressive and will buzz trees and brush and work back through them.
A very good video are the 2 Capt Mack puts out, one on umbrellas and the other on downriggers.
The umbrella rigs work great right now and stay good through early summer. I will fish live bait for the first few hours of a day and if that is not or quites producing I will then go to umbrella rigs.
When I troll I use big bucktails with trailers and we also use the stretch lures as well as the big Cisico Kids.
During the heat of summer the downriggers work great in deep water as well as leadcore line in deep water. Here on Hartwell we fish the main channels around/near the dam.
Thanks for the reponse. I was up Tugaloo on Hartwell yesterday, little breezy! Just caught a couple bass in the back of a creek on the u-rig. Lots of bass boat traffic in the creeks. And the recent rain really made some of the bigger creeks a muddy mess where I was.
Sounds like I did not have it far enough out but did not want to lose it in the timber. I hung it on the first drop but only because I did not keep tension on the line while dropping in an area of trees.
Do they work under a planer or just go to a single bait? And if I troll a single bucktail you like a .5 - 1.5ounce head or so depending on line size and speed.
Thanks again. I will be a little better off once they get shallow as I know more places where I have caught them while bass fishing in the past in April/May/June.
tprice- Ever try loading an umbrella rig with flukes and pulling in off the downrigger? I was thinking to try it early in April when they start that suspending-and-not-eating crap. I was thinking that 9 shad colored flukes drug in front of them might trigger a reaction strike, and the downrigger would hold the exact depth so you could put it on their nose.
Lot of guys around here are starting to use different lures/jigs and such on umbrellas and I have seen some with flukes.
Some are loading them up with roadrunners as well.
According to Capt Mack you can pull them on the downrigger but it takes a very good release to hold them, he recommends the Roemer Release. I have never tried it but it summer it should work great.
I am going to switch over to the roemer release on my downrigger and try it some, I keep seeing them on ebay but they also have a web site so I may just break down and purchase them there
Tprice- Yeah, I saw the same recomendation for the Roemer release. They look good. Right now I’m using AFTCO flat line clips as my release and they work OK. Let me know how the Roemers work for you.
I’ll get a good look at how u-rigs work on downriggers this Saturday. We’ve got a tournament on Clark Hill and it looks like blue skies by mid-morning. I’m carrying two u-rigs with flukes to run on the downrigger. Should be pulling them from 10:00 on.
I use downriggers to get u-rigs deep when fish are holding deep in the summer and have had very good success using Cannon uni-releases. I usually run off the weight, but will occasionally stack two off one downrigger if the bite is particularly slow. It works, but blowback is considerably more when stacked.
I went with a fiend on Tuesday up on Hartwell and we caught them all day long pulling two umbrella rigs. That sounds about right on the depth and the line. When we were setting them out we put them out about 35-55 pulls from the reel to the first rod eyelet which usually never ran more than 20 feet deep. I have seen some people run them on planer boards, which helps especially in turns to keep them from getting tangled up. I have used them succesfully year round. Also you can troll basically anything you want but just remember when you troll a plug the faster you go the deeper it goes and when pulling a umbrella rig the faster you go the shallower it gets
Mav - apparently I have got to put in some more time with the u-rig. We have been catching them well up Tugaloo on herring but tried the u-rig for about 30 minutes today when things slowed with no bites. Maybe I should not wait until things slow down!
You using the rigs with bucktails?
Can you catch the smaller fish on them - been around a lot of 2-5 pounders.
WE WERE USING JUST ABOUT ANYTHING ON THE RIGS FROM BUCKTAILS WITH CURLY TAIL WORMS AS TRAILERS TO THE PANTHER MARTIN RIGS WITH THE PRE-RIGGED PLASTIC BAITFISH. WE CAUGHT FISH ANYWHERE FROM 2-10 POUNDS, BUT WE WERE CLOSER TO THE SOUTHERN DAM THEN I THINK YOU WERE. ALSO PEOPLE TROLL JUST ABOUT ANYTHING THEY WANT ON THEM, BUT YOU GOTTA STAY WITH THE RIGS. USUALLY IF THE FISH ARE IN 20 FEET OR SHALLOWER NO MATTER WHAT THE BOTTOM DEPTH IS YOU SHOULD USUALLY DO PRETTY GOOD.