<em>By David Conley</em>

Fishing with umbrella rigs has been referred to as using a lure with training wheels. Umbrella Rigs are either loved or hated by fisherman up and down the coast. But when the fishing is tough, you will not find a better solution to catching stripers anywhere. Why do the professionals use them day in and day out? Because they catch fish!!

The purpose of the umbrella rig is to simulate a small pod of bait, being chased by one or two larger baits. That's it, now picture 3, 4, 5, 6, or up to 12 or more of these Umbrella Rigs in the water at one time. That is a big school of fish chasing your boat. They are definitely attention-getters.

There all kinds of Umbrella Rigs showing up from ultra big to really small. Using the larger Umbrellas does create more stress to your trolling outfit, so stout poles and good reels should be deployed when hooking up to a umbrella frame.

Most frames that we use are 20 inches in length, which allows you to set the Umbrella up as a Single drop, (Using one Lure down the middle), or the very popular double drop, (Using two lures, one on the end of each frame). You double your chances of catching two fish at one time using the double drop umbrella rig.

Go on just about any Charter Boat on the Chesapeake Bay that fishes umbrella rigs and the plastic shad bodies on the frames will usually be only 2 colors. white and chartreuse. You will also find only 2 sizes of the shad bodies 6" for teasers, and 9" to go on the lures, the 9" shads will also have stinger hooks placed in the shad, as most fish seem to come off this last hook.

Fishing theses types of rigs does require some thought, the time of year, and the area you fish in, and undoubtedly a good depth finder. In the spring time, most of the stripers in the Chesapeake Bay are up high in the water column, and most umbrellas are deployed from top of water down to 35 feet down give or take, and in the fall / winter on the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, we try to cover ever aspect of the water depth. 

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To accomplish the different depths needed to catch these stripers, some umbrellas can be deployed using just the weight of the frame and the lures attached to the frame, also we rely on different size inline weights from 2oz's up to 28oz's to cover the different water columns. These Inline sinkers are placed in between the main line of the pole to the leader going to the umbrella rigs. Make sure you are using a minimum of 150lb good quality snap swivels for these connections.

When it comes to the leader, we also use good quality leader from 100lb test to 200lb test. The length's of these leaders can be anywhere from 4 feet to 12 feet. When the fishing is wide open I prefer the short leader as the angler reels the fish up to the boat, the fish can be netted without having to hand line the extra leader. When stripers are in a frenzy, leader length does not make a difference. So go short!

When the current is flying, and the water depth is deep, another way which has become very popular is to use a large mojo from 24oz's to 48oz's or even larger off a 3 way from the main line. We only use white or Chartreuse colored heads, and will place a 9" shad on the hook of the mojo. This particular rig can also be called the closest rig to the boat, as this set up has the most weight, so you want it close to the boat, I usually run mine 55 feet from the boat.

Every boat is different when it comes to trolling which leads us to deployment of your spread. Now there are no guarantees that fish will be caught, that's why its called fishing and not catching, but you will improve your catch ratio by fishing with more baits in the water. Once you figure out what works, stick with it, as you will begin fine tuning your spread. Every rod we fish has its own rod holder, and is marked to match that rod holder, so there is no confusion where a rod goes.

It really helps when you don't have a mate to keep it straight. Take different colors of tape and mark each rod, and rod holder. Blue to Blue, Red to Red, Orange to Orange, you get the idea. There are many ways to mark lines, by using line meters, using the level wind on the reel if you have that type of reel, or permanent markers, even using tying thread which requires time and space. The reason to mark these lines is to get the lines spaced out within the spread. If not you will just end up with a big bundle of mess in the first turn you take.

Working from front to back of a 26 foot center console, I setup my spread as follows: The mid port and mid starboard lines off the sides of the boat are set to 55 feet with a small single drop umbrella and a large mojo, off the 3 way we discussed above. The next two I call my port and starboard corner rods which are marked at 125, using double drop umbrellas, with different inline sinkers of 16oz on one side and 20oz on the other. Then we shoot a long line right down the middle of the spread about 175 feet back. Using a small single drop umbrella or just a double rig without any extra weight.

The double rig is just two lures one at 10 ft, with a 6oz parachute, and the other is at 6 ft , with a 4 oz parachute. Both of the lures are tied to a 3 way which goes to the main line. Both parachute lures have 9 inch sassy shads with stinger hooks installed in them.

The above examples are just ways of deploying a spread, and many more poles can be set by deploying outriggers, down riggers, planner boards, and dummy lines.
