11/05 Shrewsbury Rocks

[dorado]

Water temp was between 55 and 58 degress, water clarity was ok considering the blow over the weekend. Trolled bunker spoons and umbrella rigs with one quick run off and one cocktail blue. Marked tons of bait. Hope it will break wide open soon.

[Ramtough750]

Need some advice..........Whats the best way to troll umbrella rigs or spoons on the rocks without kissing them GOODBYE!!!!!Lost 1 each there already ,new at this as you can tell.Thanks!!!!!!!

[bgreene]

There is no easy way, unless you know very closely how deep your umbrellas are trolling given: speed, line, tide, etc.

General rule trolling Bunker spoons with wire line is 10' depth for every 100ft of line you put out.

Better to troll around the Rocks areas then to lose expensive tackle, and experience all the hassles that go with it.

I've trolled shad body umbrella rigs on mono easily at the Rocks - just not down deep. You can also troll stretch 25's / 30's on mono - just stick with the deeper water because those lures go down some.

I love the feeling of a big bass on a trolled stretch 25: feels like.....victory.

[makorider]

Line up the can offshore with the building with the arch. Between them runs the deeper water, draw a line in your head and stay on it.

There are a couple other ledges you can troll as well, that one I can at least put into words.

Ram, your gonna lose gear to the rock gods up there. I hate it as well, you lose gear no matter what...but hopefully the fish make up for it.

[dorado]

Rough rule of thumb is 10' for every 100' of wire. When I start trolling I let out the 150' marker just pat the rod tip, once I have the correct boat speed and rod action I let the 150' marker out till it hit the water. Remember if your speed is too slow for proper spoon swimming motion the spoons run slightly deeper. When running umbrella rigs I usually only let the 150' marker out past the rod tip. This is because the umbrella rigs do not swim like a spoon and typically run slightly deeper than the spoon. I use a small compact umbrella rig not on of those 3' umbrella rigs. My best advice is to practice over sandy bottom with spoons, umbrella rigs, and shad rigs to avoid the costly penalty for snagging rough bottom and loosing your gear. My reels are loaded with 50 backing tide to 300' of 40lb monel marked at 150' and 225'. This lets me get down 150', 225', and 300' when I let all the wire out. I use 20' of 80lb leader material, my theory is if I snag bottom and can get over the top of forward of where I snagged bottom, I have a good chance of coming free. If not I sometimes lose my spoon, maybe my spoon and leader, and sometimes my spoon, leader, and some wire. I know some other folks that use 30-40lb leader so they keep they're loses to a spoon ans leader. Hope this info helps. Just keep practicing and trolling, you will eventually get the hang of it. Just remember, if at some point you haven't snagged bottom, you're not trolling deep enough. Good luck.

[Ramtough750]

I thank all you guys for the advice!!!!!

[JSB]

In lines with what they said the best approach is follow the contour lines on your machine or chart although most are too great of scale to help..you have to really watch the machine and the bottom comes up have someone crank up some line or speed up to get over it, i have snagged several times there and always got the spoon back, its a pita but if you just bring up the other lines and swing around the other side you can get it back, hopefully the other boats will play nice if its crowded

[SEA CUBED Fishing]

How is the bite at the rocks... Whats the best technique right now for catching striper.? Are there bluefish there too?