"Lures of the Month" from ABQ Sportfishing and Bob "Lucky" Lechel:
ABQ's pick is the Reef Runner Ripshad 400 Chartreuse/Orange Prism.
Lucky's choice: Lucky Craft Moonsault CB-250 Chartreuse Shad/Ghost Minnow - dives 6-9ft with a tight wiggle. Has rattles like a lipless crank and lip and vibration of a traditional. Great on schooling fish!!!
Check out the July 2008 photos

For those of you who do not have or want to have leadcore, never fear, there is an alternative to getting that bait into the strike zone.

The 50/50 method has been used by big water anglers for years and is making its way into reservoirs and impoundments across the US. This method, particularly suited for speeds lower than 2.5, is a very accurate way of targeting fish at multiple places in the water column with similar or same lead lengths.

The chart that shows speed/depth/weight relative calculations is the Precision Trolling Guide 7th Edition; it is available online at http://www.walleyecentral.com/romanack.htm or locally at Charlie’s Sporting Goods in Albuquerque. This is critical if you want to precisely put your bait where the fish are. The rod/reel/line combo can be almost anything you want, but it will help to have a line counter for getting to the 50/50 line segments required for this method. Snap on line counters by Shakespeare or Rebel will also work, less accurate methods include counting passes of the worm gear or pulls from the reel to the first eye of the rod, generally 2 feet on most trolling rigs. Line choice is not as critical, but for Stripers we prefer 20# Berkley Big Game or XT and for Walleyes 12# Big Game. IF the water is extremely clear and you feel it may make a difference, a 6-20 foot leader of fluorocarbon can be blood knotted to your main line. You’ll need to add a 6 foot leader after the main line with a ball bearing swivel if you are using live bait to prevent line twist. For non-diving stickbaits or similar, no swivel is needed.

For the purpose of this article I am going to focus on how we use the 50/50 method for Stripers. When the live bait bite is hot, there are times when we will run a combination of live bait and cranks, if the cranks are not producing, we will need to run multiple live bait lines with the boards. Leadcore can only serve the purpose up to four boards when line sag from the boat to the boards becomes a problem and you need to get the boards further away from the boat. Clear water situations can also force getting the boards further from the board where leadcore will not accommodate. When this is the case, we rig our mono lines for the 50/50 method. Not being a believer in line color spooking active fish, we run our main line to a Sampo swivel and then add a piece of fluorocarbon from the swivel to a Gamakatsu Octopus hook which we snell (this is better for the fluorocarbon). The size of the hook is directly related to the size of the bait and will vary from 1/0 to 5/0. We also prefer the red hooks as we feel it has improved our number of strikes.

Once we have done some scouting to verify where the fish are with the sonar, we will subtract a couple of feet from their range and start figuring out a pattern. For instance, if we are running 4 boards and see fish at 12 feet, we will run our outside boards higher than the inside boards and run the initial baits at 4 different depths, 6, 8, 10, and 12 feet for instance. The 6 and 10 foot bait will be on one side and the 8 and 12 on the other giving us the maximum initial distance between baits. Once we have hooked up a few fish at a specific depth, we will gradually move to that depth on the other baits. You always want to be sure and run your higher lines to the outside of your deeper lines while trolling. Once you hookup, you can then bring a smaller fish across the top of the inside line or fight a larger fish out behind the other line because the fish has taken some line and even if it has dove, it will be behind the other line as all lines are 100 feet back and the closer board will be running ahead of the outside board.

From here, it is a matter of experimentation and speed to see where the fish are and what is most effective. This can be done with little to no weight at very low speeds and using just an electric to work specific structure or at higher speeds with heavier weight and more speed. There are lots of variables; find the one the fish want and fine tune it.

Good luck,

Brian