I saw a thread on the Six Ole Geezers website from Captain Kurt saying he is trolling Umbrella Rigs at 2-3 MPH and catching stripers. I would be interested in hearing what y'all think of that tactic in 50 degree water.

I have wanted to try trolling A-rigs, but haven't been in the right situation or place to do it. I thought they should work great on down riggers!

I think he is using the big true umbrella rigs like Captain Mack not the garden variety A rig. With those you use boat speed and line length to get the depth you want (they are much heavier than A rig)and not have to use downriggers. I have a couple on my boat but haven't produced yet but Kurt seems to do well with it.

Captain Dusty is big on trolling the South Dallas Rig

Worked great on whites last year
when I had the pontoon. Can't wait till we run the whites with them trolling from the Angry White Shark.

I have done it at Elephant Butte for stripers sometimes you get two at a time. I was using Capt Mac u-rigs.

45 degree water.

A good friend of mine trolls for stripers all winter on Norris and Cherokee lakes in TN. Water temp is around 42 degrees right now and he is still catching them. He trolls big homemade U_Riggs. He adjusts the weight and the amount of line out depending on the depth of the fish.

Good topic. Was wondering the same thing yesterday when I was staring at my collection of Capt Macks rigs before going out, but left them at the dock...ran thru some of my usual hot spots for u-rigs and did not mark many fish at all. I'd like to try to pull them during colder months for grins if I marked fish. Boy the weather was nice yesterday here at PK. Fishing was slow though.

Well I tried the umbrella rigs Yesterday around Mill Creek at texoma. I mark huge schools of Shad and lots of big fish. I got one small hit on the umbrella rig that did not hook up. I caught a nice 25 inch Blue Cat on a Bomber Fat free shad later so I figure a lot of the fish were cats.

Only 13 days until March and 34 til Spring. This Tuff fishing is going to end pretty quickly.

I have a picture of some nice hybrids caught Saturday on an A-rig on Lake Tawakoni. Will someone PM me with instructions on how to add a picture to a post on the forum.

I fished Tawakoni on Saturday with Jamoke. There was no wind and I moved around dead sticking at a slow speed. Jamoke had to throw and slow troll an A-rig. The picture below is his result in 48 degree water.

those are nice.

I thought I had posted to this thread but I guess somehow, I either messed it up or for some reason, it didn't post.

On U-rigs, yes, they work year round. I pull them everytime I go fishing. We generally pull four rigs, two straight back and two out the side.

Also I genreally put two lures on the downrigger, at different depths, trying to cover all areas.

U-rigs are expensive and you WILL hang them up. But if you have a retriever, chances are good that you'll get them back.

I started out with a Capt Macs but quickly started building my own. Buying the frames in bulk and then jigs and trailers. Swimshad, grubs,etc,etc. it is a little cheaper and you can control the quality of hooks.

Up until a week or two ago, using u-rigs, my nephew held the Texoma, youth, anglers record. 14+ lbs. caught in August, using this rig.

Winter fishing, this way can be a little slow, but winter fishing is slow. Spring and summer and fall is our best times.
It's just how we prefer to fish. My boat is set up for it, as we also offshore fish. We also try our best to stay to our own areas and not crowd others. But people will watch you and sometimes, if you catch fish, they will crowd you.

Thanks for the info Captjohn. I keep pulling them and get myself a retriever.