"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

Where do we start, Umbrella Rigs (Urigs) have to be the easiest and yet some of the more complicated items to fish. Easy from the standpoint of putting them in the water and catching fish (these are the most effective tools we have used for Stripers) and complicated for some of the finer details if you really want to be proficient with them.

As a newby to the Urig world, Bill Carson and Mack Farr have been highly instrumental in taking us up the learning curve on this tool. Bill and Mack are both excellent fishermen and also students of the game. Unlike many who rely on time tested and proven tactics for catching Stripers Capt. Mack has created a line of Urigs, second to none, that give those techniques solid competition. As many of you know, we prefer trolling and Urigs are just the ticket if you at all are inclined to troll for Stripers.

Although we are far from mastering the art of trolling Urigs, we would like to share our experiences, trial and error. First, a quality reel and rod are a must. These rigs have a lot of resistance in the water and require stout equipment that can handle abuse from multiple fish at one time (more on that later). This year Shimano introduced a new trolling lineup which included the Tekota Line Counter and Talora rods. We’ve finally given in to Capt. Mack’s suggestion on the 40# line after going from Power Pro (not enough diameter to match the dive chart), 20# Big Game (not quite strong enough), 25# Yo Zuri (still just a little too small for those multiple fish hits) to 40# Ande mono on three rods and 40# Maxima Fluorocarbon on one (just to see if it makes a difference). As soon as our 40# Big Game Solar Collector arrives at Charlie's we will be spooling up a HI VIS to keep track of multiple fish at the same time, clear line is too difficult to keep track of. The drag on the Tekota is just incredible and can be adjusted in micro increments by listening to the clicker built into the star drag (very nice feature). The rods are just unreal for fighting these fish. With the power winching ability on the reel and the stout backbone on the Talora, the combination is perfect. When we are not fishing for Stripers and pulling lead or cranks for ‘eyes, the added sensitivity of the TC4 graphite wrapped glass construction gives us the feedback we need to monitor those baits. As mentioned above, it is not unusual to hookup multiple fish on one rod so be sure to have good tackle.

We’d also like to add a side not regarding the heavier lines. Knowing a lot of people feel fishing with lighter tackle is more sporting, catch and release is promoted better with the heavier tackle. Stripers are some of the hardest fighting freshwater fish and will fight until they are dead. Using a heavier line than what the situation may call for can add in playing the fish to the boat much faster so it can be released before it has exhausted itself.

The Urig itself is actually a pretty simple concept, but the details are where the differences lie. The Capt. Mack Urig arms are pretty much the same as anyone else’s, a center weight, with wire arms bent to attach multiple leaders (4-7 on the 3 arm and 5-9 on the 4 arm) and jigs or shad bodies. One of the subtle differences that we feel makes a difference in added strikes is that the Capt Mack bucktail rigs (there are cheaper rigs out there) are the only we know of that come with hand tied bucktail jigs developed by Mack himself specifically for Stripers. The other rigs will work, but these rigs truly set themselves apart from other rigs as the bucktails really make the rig come alive. With 6” grub trailers in Chartreuse or White and the hand tied bucktails with mylar inserts and red thread, they are the perfect combination. Mack has also developed a dive chart for these rigs based on using 40# line and a boat speed of 2.5, achieved with most boats at idle or just above. Knowing where these are is critical… if you want to keep them. Trolling open water doesn’t require as much attention to detail, but if you are in structure you need to know where that rig is and Capt Mack tells you right on the package.

The Urig is a negatively buoyant presentation, otherwise known as a lure that SINKS on its own. With that in mind speed and line out become key factors in making sure you know where your bait is. If you decide to add this tactic to your arsenal, be sure to add a Urig retriever to the mix, you will snag up at some point and loosing a $20-30 rig is not that much fun. Once you have all of your tackle and you are ready to give it a try, you’ll also need a good quality rod holder of some sort. For pulling planer boards we prefer the Pursuit Sports rod holders, if we are going to flatline the rigs, we’ll opt for a Ram or Tempress Fish On with a riser. The only reason we don’t use the Pursuits for flatlining is with all of the turning on contours we do, the likelihood of unloading a rig on a turn is pretty high if it snags. The beauty of the Pursuit system is the flexibility it allows us to run any of these style rod holders without having to add extra mounts to the boat, one set of tracks and the rest all fit into the tracks and can be configured in any multitude of ways.

It is also a good place to comment on what to do if you find yourself like so many of us do in too shallow of water for how your rigs are set. Just as they sink if you go slow, they will rise up if you speed up. If you find yourself in a situation where the rigs may be touching bottom and it would be too difficult to shorten the leads on all rods at once, you can simply increase your speed. Don’t be afraid to give a pretty good surge to the rods, even up to 8 or 10 MPH to avoid a snag. You may also be surprised at what speed fish will hit these rigs. ;)

Now that we have all of our tackle, rod holders and are in the boat going 2.5 or faster, we are ready to deploy the first rig. We’ll be sure to hang the rig from the rod tip making sure all the jigs are tangle free and ready, slowly lowering it into the water, we let out line with the clicker on and the clutch off for just enough resistance to prevent tangling. Once we have let out the desired line length, we’ll attach our Offshore OR-31 SST Striper board with pigtail clip and send it out to the side. The front clip is on the line, and the pigtail clip is wrapped around the line so when the fish strikes the board releases out of the front clip and slides down the line free until the fish is landed. Once we have the outside line set and place the rod in the Pursuit holder, we are sure to set our drag so there is just enough resistance to prevent the drag from slipping at trolling speeds. If you are using the Lexan Pursuit tube holder LRH 100, this is critical, locking down your drag so the strike is absorbed completely in the rod holder may result in failure(these fish are traveling at high speeds and hitting this bait, something has to give). If you want to do this be sure to get the Pursuit RRH-230 adjustable rod holder that is metal. We’ve been using the Lexan on Stripers for 3 years now without a failure.

After your rigs are set and you have a nice symmetrical spread of planer boards running alongside the boat, it shouldn’t be long! We try to run the deeper, heavier rigs on the inside boards and the lighter longer lead rigs on the outside. For example, we will run a 3 arm four jig on one outside board, a 4 arm 5 jig light Urig on the other outside and then a heavy shad body rig and a 4 arm 9 jig on the inside two boards. The theory is that if you have a fish hit on the outside, they generally will rise and you can play them across the inside deeper running rig without having to take in any lines. Running multiple boards with Urigs can create quite a circus on the boat, a welcome one. :) If you are going to run the rigs right off the boat, we recommend starting with 2 and moving up from there. When we hookup, we keep the boat moving and play the fish, but some may want to stop and play the fish, if you do this, YOU MUST CLEAR THE OTHER LINE, it will sink to the bottom and become an anchor.

The only item we haven’t covered is landing the fish. We prefer a Boga Grip as we can hold the Urig and grip the fish in the mouth while lifting it into the boat. This prevents the fish and Urig from tangling in the net, the fish can be weighed and released quickly after a photo. Be very careful as 5-9 jigs swinging around on an upset Striper can make quite a mess.

Let us know if you have any questions or if you would like to see first hand how we use these tools, we would love to book a trip for you. If you would like to pick up these rigs in Albuquerque, Charlie’s Sporting Goods carries them or you can contact us if you are not in town and we can get you set up.

Good luck and happy fishing!