The area that I fish for these trophy rockfish is along the channel edges. Rockfish like to follow these channel edges down the Bay as they are making their exit out of the Bay, to proceed up the East Coast to their summer quarters. One very important thing that I would like to suggest is to troll cross tide. Rather than going north and south, I troll east and west. This gives me the opportunity to have my lures in the depth of water at one point of time where the fish are as they travel down the bay. To explain this further, if for some reason (current-tide) the fish are following the western edge of the channel in 70 foot of water down the Bay and you are trolling North-South line in 50 foot of water on the Eastern edge, you will never have a hookup. But if you troll East to West, your lures at some point of time will be in that 70 foot of water where the rockfish are making their way out of the bay. I work both sides of the main channel edge to a depth of 40 foot. Since I fish out of Kentmoor Marina on Kent Island, I usually start fishing as I pass the southern mile marker. I gradually work my way toward the Bay Bridge in the first couple of weeks of May in my crossing patterns. During the course of the month I fish from the Bay Bridge down to Bloody Point. This has always been a great location to catch that trophy fish. Just remember to troll cross tide and not get hung up in the mass of boats that fish the North-South pattern.
One other important thing to remember is to fish near the surface of the water. I like to fish within the first 20-25 foot of the water surface. Since the Bay warms only through sunlight, the warmest water will be near the surface. At this time of year, our Bay waters are still fairly cool. Rockfish have a tendency to swim in the warmest water in the Spring. Please remember to review my article "Springtime Bluefish" on how I suggest you set your lines for fishing in the Spring. This should give you a good depth range of the first 20 foot of the water column.

Several years ago the Chesapeake Bay fishing community was introduced to a real radical looking fishing lure. This lure looked so complicated that you knew that it had to get tangled before you could catch a fish on it.

I first saw this lure in action while I was acting captain of "Spoons", a 36-foot Jersey that belonged to Fred Meers, who at the time was the owner of Crippled Alewive Lures. Several MSSA members were onboard on this chilly November day in `92. Fred, along with two past presidents of MSSA, Dale Dirks and Bob Rider, and Frank Holden, Essex/Middle River Chapter president, were working the lines while I was on the flybridge at the helm. After a couple of hours of catching stripers Frank called up to me and asked my opinion about putting out a new lure brought onboard by Dale Dirks. Since we only needed one more fish for our limit I told Frank to go ahead and we’ll give it a try. Within 20 minutes four of our lines were tangled due to this octopus looking lure. Needless to say, we took the rig off and threatened Dale within an inch of his life if he brought the weird looking contraption out of the cabin during the remainder of the trip.

Little did I know at that time that the umbrella rig would be the hottest lure to hit the Chesapeake Bay in decades. The umbrella rig has gained its place in every sportfishermen’s list of proven baits for the Chesapeake Bay. This lure has been used for many years by anglers in several states to our north for bluefish. When the umbrella rig was brought to Maryland it had a surgical hose or bucktail as bait with 8 to 12 smaller tube hoses as an attractor. Unfortunately, these smaller attractor hoses had hooks on each hose making it illegal to fish in Maryland waters. Maryland laws states that you are only allowed two hooks per line.

Umbrella rigs are available at many of the major tackle shops or boating supply stores. You can get them already rigged but they often have too many hooks if they come prepackaged to the store. I’ve found it best to buy the bare rig and outfit it with your own lures. They are easy to rig and you have your own imagination on how they should be rigged. Generally, we use large sassy shads as attractors on each arm. You can attach these shads by snap swivels to each part of the arm and run an 18 to 20 inch leader from the center point for your main line. You can either use a bucktail or parachute or a large spoon as your bait. However, if you use a Crippled Alewive or Tony as your bait, you should use a ball bearing swivel at the end of your leader line and attach it to the middle of the rig.

I like to use 6 inch shads and attach them to the swivel by opening the swivel and using the wire portion just like a hook and thread the wire into the shad and then back out leaving enough wire exposed to resnap the swivel. I also like to use the same color combination throughout the rig. If I’m going to use all chartreuse shads, I like to use a green and yellow Crippled Alewive or a chartreuse parachute.

These rigs are very hard to fish and retrieve due to the tremendous amount of drag they create while pulling them through the water. I would suggest that you use a 3/0 or better yet a 4/0 class rod to fish these rigs. Although they can be fished with wire line with no weights, I would recommend adding 6 to 8 ounces of weight and fishing them back 100 fee or more. Another little secret that I would like to pass on is how to place them in the water. Hold the entire rig horizontally above the water and drop it in and feed out the leader line as quickly as possible. DO NOT slowly leader the line out this may cause the rig to come to the surface twist and become tangled.

The easiest way to store or carry your umbrella rigs on and off the boat is to place it in a 16-inch pizza box. If you have several rigs you may want to purchase an umbrella rig carrying case which cost around $20. Please give me a call if you are interested in an umbrella rig carrying case.

Try fishing an umbrella rig this spring season especially during the MSSA Spring Tournament. It’s a "Hot Lick".

Good Luck and Good Fishing!


Article by Rich Novotny Captain of "Oh Thank Heaven" and Executive Director of the Maryland Saltwater Sportsmen's Association  

                                                                BILL WITH A 45LB 45" STRIPER

                                              CAUGHT ON AN UMBRELLA RIG 

                                        WITH A SINGLE BIG EYE BUCKTAIL and a

                                                       WHITE 9" SHAD 

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