I saw on Nuts and Bolts where Capt Mac was trolling with an umbrella rig on Erie. Just curious to see if any of you guys use these or have used them before?
They are very common here now. I have used them in saltwater and personally don’t care to use them, but lots of people do and they work very well.
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
I use yumbrella rigs which is basically a small castable umbrella rig. I troll them they work real good on Murray.
Used to troll w/ u-rigs a good bit. I made my own rigs w/ components and had great luck with them. Used them with downriggers as well as flat lines. 3 of my 5 fish over over 20#s came on u-rigs on Clarks Hill(those fish never saw anything like that). Sold all my u-rig stuff b/c I just didn’t troll anymore. Fished them year round with success. Best way I found to cover water and find the fish.
28# and some change
“There is something about hunting those fish that will stick with me and my future fishing plans like a bad case of striper herpes”
-SCOF
How fast do you normally troll? I was using one on Greenwood in 40 ft of water and it snagged something on the bottom and I lost it. Should I be trolling faster?
When I pull u-rigs I troll at idle speed which is usually 2.2 to 2.5 mph. How deep it goes depends on the weight of the rig and how much line you have out. But, if you’re snagging bottom in 40ft you are probably trolling too slow.
War Eagle 754 Ducks Unlimited - Yamaha 75
I agree with Crabjack on the speed, but I have never been in a striper boat with more than a 50 HP motor that would run slower than 2.2 mph (unless you were pulling drift socks or 5 gallon buckets). So, I would probably say you had too much line out.
Rick K
I was thinking the same thing as well. Even as heavy as an umbrella rig is, it’s hard to imagine a boat idling slow enough to get it down 40’ with mono unless you had a ton of line out or maybe heading into a stiff wind. Nowake, how do you monitor your trolling speed? Any chance this happened as you were making a sharp turn?
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
I ran across this one day while looking for somethig else. Looks like this would be pretty cool for anyone trolling without downriggers. You could go out sometime and make some controlled measurements by keeping the speed the same and figuring out what depth you are at for how much line you have out. Seems like they could have made it a little more hydro dynamic, but wouldn’t think it would have much effect on something like a U rig. It’s $150, but wouldn’t be bad if you had a few guys to go in on it. See the video at 1:20 in.