Umbrella rig with LARGE shads
 

I've had good success trolling shad umbrella rigs for striped bass.

So this winter, I'm rigging one with large 12" white shad bodies, intention being to see if it catches larger stripers.

Plan to start when the larger fish are running up from the south.

Early season for Stripes it's clamming......then chunking and trolling the stretch lures.

Looking forward to it.

I've always had success with umbrellas and shad bodies, but never tried the 12" bodies. Sounds like a good idea.

That'll put a big pull on the line. Might be hard to keep down, even on wire line.

Get some big old bunker spoons.

Got spoons, and been fishing wire for a few years ........

I expect the big shad rig will swim down ok, especially since I use a drail weight.

I've caught many a striper trolling the shad umbrellas, double, triple, and at the end of last season FOUR on one umbrella !!!! One was a keeper, I forgot. Boater near me claimed he had FIVE schoolies on one !!!


I rigged it up - 4 and 1 down the middle.

Can't hurt to try something different. How much drail weight do you normally run? I've always just used wire and the umbrellas. I've been running 150ft of wire but I'm going to upgrade this year to 450ft so I have a little more depth control.

I use a 6 - 8oz drail and with 300' of wire out, I'm getting around 50' down with umbrellas.

Learned by letting out more at troll speed ( 2.8 - 3.0 ) until it touches bottom, then 10 cranks up or so.

Tsunami Trophy 7'6" with Penn 113 H.......standard monel rod / reel set up.

I pull 2 umbrella rigs with 4 12-16"lg shad. Depending on the water depth I'm fishing in, I take a 18oz to 36oz parachute rig and attach to the center line of the umbrella rig to weigh it down. Sometimes I hook the parachute about 15ft in front of the umbrella rig, this lets you fish at 2 different depths.
Either way you can fish it down about 15 ft behind the boat while trolling.

3 years ago I dip netted a 25lb striper that was on the surface because he had a huge croker in his mouth that was too big for him to swallow.

Our BFT that have been mixing with our rock bass eat them big shad bodies like candy! The rockfish wear em out also. Or have the past. I love having an obnoxious sized bait in the mix.

Hey K Jack - I like your table..........I mean boat.

A good canyon runner, and maybe trolling rig, if the slower speed doesn't get you into trouble.

Low cost, that's the way to go - the fish don't know if you're running a new 28' Regulator or from your table / boat !!