Wire and lead core with Umbrella rigs? Why

rothfm

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Been a burning question of mine

New England fishing: started using various umbrella rigs with braid and I have no trouble fishing 20 to 25 feet near the bottom.

Why all the fuss with wire and lead core when im sure i can get the rigs down? I troll 2-4 knots with 60LB braid.

I can understand if i was trying to go deeper say at 30-50 + in which case i would use a drail or downriggers.
 

dingbat

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Here on the Chesapeake, mono and braid rule the rooster dragging umbrellas.

Fished with a group of guys off NJ several years back and was told leadcore and wire caught better.

Fished a NJ tournament last year and most where fishing braid. Traditions die slow
 
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dingbat

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Maybe the wire helps keep the baits separated for a better presentation to fish?....
I fished wire for years before switching to braid. Because of braids small diameter and lite weight, depth control is easy and predictable from surface to bottom. Did I mention braid doesn't kink?

I troll 21 rods off a 8' beam boat. Try that with wire...lol
 

Benny67

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I fished wire for years before switching to braid. Because of braids small diameter and lite weight, depth control is easy and predictable from surface to bottom. Did I mention braid doesn't kink?

I troll 21 rods off a 8' beam boat. Try that with wire...lol

21 individual fishing rods?

Got ant photos of that cause I would love to see how that works..in my mind I am imagining quite a mess.
 

dingbat

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21 individual fishing rods?

Got ant photos of that cause I would love to see how that works..in my mind I am imagining quite a mess.
Standard practice Striper fishing in the Chesapeake.
Boat2_1000x600.jpg


I run the spread below with an additional 5 rods straight out the back from my rocket launchers and 2 more on downriggers

11_Line_Spread_Rock_Fish_e31d805d-0513-4289-85f7-2abe29196517_1024x1024.png
 

Benny67

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I would think that if you hook into a school of them...or Bluefish for that matter the rest of your day would be spent untangling lines.

My 27 ft ft I only fish 2 rods...maybe 3 if I have seasoned fisherman out with me. Seems like a lot of work to me but to each his own.
 

dingbat

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I would think that if you hook into a school of them...or Bluefish for that matter the rest of your day would be spent untangling lines.

My 27 ft ft I only fish 2 rods...maybe 3 if I have seasoned fisherman out with me. Seems like a lot of work to me but to each his own.
My I ask what you pulling? I'll run 6 rods if I'm out fishing by myself.

Fishing the Bay is a bit different than the ocean. The fish are not schooled so we're targeting individual fish in the top 15' of the water column. It's not unusual for them to lie right below the surface and sound when approached. What makes planer boards so deadly is that I can fish baits right below the surface yet keep the boat 100-125' away. Most days planers out catch boat rods 3:1.

Stripers are a poor fighting fish to say the least. They're weak with no horizontal fight to them at all. We run "pounded" drags and keep lines reality short. Stripers rarely pull more than a couple feet of drag. They take the bait and fall back behind the boat in the open positions off the two back corners of the boat. Pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I can count the number of tangles we've had in the past 3-4 years on one hand. We've had 8 fish on at a time with a two man crew. Put the auto pilot on and deal with them in turn.

Water is too cold for Blues when we're trolling Stripers. The few that show up from time to time aren't big enough to trip the release clips. They just play havoc with the plastics in the spread
 

Benny67

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2 rods at most...either umbrella rig,fake eel or a bucktail. On wire.

Not much action in the sound last year (long island, midway point) as compared to fishing the point in prior years (Montauk) but I'm still learning the area.

Only my second year (this season) with my boat in this area...so my strategy may change this coming year.
 

Benny67

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Most of my time fishing is spent drifting chunk bait or live eels.

I'm not one of those fisherman that goes out "balls to the wall" running and gunning to every bird they see diving into the water. I'm out there for the fun and relaxation. If I do well then, well that's a bonus. Most of the time I catch fish and that's good enough for me.
 

firstcatch

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I only pull 3 lines. But I am usually fishing deep (35-50 ft) as that is where they tend to hang off of IBSP.
 

rothfm

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ReUpping my original post....,

I bought a 50w class Okuma offshore reel. Had a very knowledgable tackleshop guy load it with heavy mono for a mix of fishing.

May want to occasionally use this for dragging my small umbrella rigs. What can I expect for depths? Do i automatically need to use a drail or weights.

I tested one this weekend around Nomansland Island off Marthas Vinyard, and i cant get a feel for how deep i was and i didnt want to chance loosing a rig on first drop.

Thoughts
 

dingbat

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May want to occasionally use this for dragging my small umbrella rigs. What can I expect for depths? Do i automatically need to use a drail or weights.
It depends on how deep the fish are.....

Umbrellas run at various depends depending on how it's rigged. Umbrellas tend to run high in the water column so you typically need some kind of weight.

I run umbrellas with a single parachute (8-10 oz.) rigged in the center or two (2 - 6 oz). parachutes mounted to opposing arms. An umbrella with 10 oz., back 125 feet will run @ 15-18 ft. deep. Adding a 10 oz. in-line will get you to about 28-30 ft. deep. If I need to get that deep, I run them off my downriggers.

The double rigged baits I run off my planer boards with no additional weight. I'll run back anywhere from 60 ft. (5-8 ft. deep) to 100 ft. (10-12 ft. deep)
 
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