YUMbrella Rig

YUMbrella rig google image

Cheating or not cheating? Its the newest of lures and it has caused quite a stir in the fishing industry.
Umbrella rigs have been used on boats searching for those monster saltwater beasts for ages and now we have a castable 3 or 5 swim bait option for freshwater and it seems to get the bass hot and bothered!

Ever see this and wonder what it means?

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Most states outlawed this particular lure and EVERY bass tournament forbids it being used with be disqualified and forfeit of rest of bass season. Most guys and girls out there that I know dont attend weekly bass tournaments and as long as they practice catch and release I dont see a problem using it.

I am writing about the YUMbrella rig because my buddy Matt was recently at Bass Pro Shops and had picked up one for me and him to try this up coming season. I have to be honest in the beginning I thought that it shouldn't be used but now i've decided to give it a try. We both support catch, weigh, photo, and let it go on its merry way back to its home to get bigger for next year. So if this rig helps us catch more fish Why not?

He has a one year old daughter at home and im happily married so its fair to say that we might not get to fish as much or for as long as we used to. We get from mid-April to October and trust me, it flys by so we have to make every fishing trip count.

Im very curious to see how this works and the first week of april cant come soon enough! I was looking at some youtube videos and like to share them with you readers and I hope to have some videos/pictures of my success.

I highly suggest to anyone using this for first time down south to have a 7 foot medium heavy or even heavy rod with some braided line because one 5 pound bass is enough to horse in never mind two 5 pound slobs at once!

Hope to show you all my success with this YUMbrella rig soon... I hope March comes and goes!

Ill leave with some photos! :) Remember catch and release! We want our kids, kids to be able to enjoy this wonderful sport!

STRIPER-ITIS

Hey Guys,
   So it's February 26th and the snow is melting slowly... March usually gives us a snow storm or two but hopefully not much accumulation... Im ready for the warm weather to start to creep in and warm our waters!

I lay in bed at night thinking about the warmer days when our striped friends venture back up to Cape Cod and Southeastern Mass! I think about what lures I will use and what I think will work! Is my gear ready for another hard fished fishing season? I dreamed of hooking up with a surprising 600 lb tuna in the canal which is nearly impossible but C'mon it was a dream! To top off the dream the tuna had a yellow ribbon on it with a big reward for being caught...  haha

Yellow Fin Tuna

I was reading a friends blog and he had talked about "winter stripers" and his 5 year quest to get a cape cod striper in the off season when they are "suppose to all be gone". He talked about trying every lure, every method and not a single bite! In his 5th winter season he ended up catching a boat load of 12"-20" stripers! Now just like the beginning of the striper season you welcome a 20 inch striper on the end of your line! As you all might not know in Mass the stripers have to be 28 inches to keep but after a long cold winter you'll take anything!

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With all that said! I want to get my new 2013 license and try to start my 5 year hunt for my own winter striper. We have till mid-April till we can really expect to catch something worthy of a picture. I might venture down to the cape cod canal in the next week and probably get more confusing looks from passing people than normal.. haha cant hurt to try out my new poppers and see how my line casts with new braid on it... Chances are slim to none that ill be able to get a striper but the feeling about being at the  "ditch" canal making cast after cast hoping for that monster from the sea! 

It's a bone chilling 36 degrees or for my international viewers 2 celsius at the canal so its not ideal fishing weather for the fisherman or for the fish.

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I have many things to do before its time to load up the gear and start the annual quest for a monster striper or what I like to call " striped hippos". I've been dressing treble hooks with buck tails and feathers. Once I master the process ill put up a post with step by step instructions so if any of you want to dress up old hooks or add to new fishing plugs.

Till next time guys! I hope to have a Do It Yourself post so you can get ready for the up coming fishing season

Dave

Top Water Largemouth!

           

From Here

Hey everyone,

      My last post I talked about my new found love for saltwater fishing. I want to talk freshwater fishing since I have much more experience in fresh. I have a 10 foot jon boat to put into places where there is no boat ramp. I have caught a boat load of fish and even my PB. I also have 12 foot v hull aluminum boat that I converted to a bass boat with casting deck and nice swivel seats.

Nothing like a topwater assault on a fake plastic frog that is slowly skipped over thick vegetation and lily pads. It doesn't matter who you talk to they all have their way or method to catching a big slob on a frog or any other topwater bait. I've had great success with the frog below which comes in 3 sizes but i use the 3/4 oz big boys! no little bass will bite this but you would be surprised at how small they are and how big the frog is.

Kopper Live Target Frogs  from Here

I've had good success with fresh water! I havent got over the 5# hump yet but some frisky 4#ers In a boat off the beaten path of people and kids that fish with worms and bobbers that fish an area to death and keep or hurt fish so it makes it harder to fish freshwater from the shore. Here are some pics of some of the slobs that have been caught and released unharmed:

3# slob on lipless crank

3.42# kvd sexy shad

a couple bass including lunker smallie at bass tourney

4# slob topwater frog in secret location

    I usually use 40-65# braid for topwater setups when I have to haul a slob from deep in the weeds. Mono/Fluoro 12-15# for spinner baits,lipless crank baits and jerk baits. My favorite lipless crank pictured below. I can assure you that it has teeth marks and dings than in this picture because it was new at time of photo. Well worth the $6.00 in 5/8 oz i think.

KVD lipless sexy shad

  Well the ponds and lakes are still frozen up here so I will have to wait till the ice is out. Once they get going and warmed up and hungry, let the fun begin! Good luck this up coming season everyone

My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it.  ~Koos Brandt

Striper plug building. Worth it?

Hey guys,

As you fishermen know, lures for saltwater can get pricey especially if you start looking at Gibbs, After hours, Mikes custom plugs and Danny plugs  $20-50 each!  If you have ever fished off a beach or jetty, you know you're one cast away from a line snap or bail malfunction (highly suggest a reel with manual bail).

I can't count all the plugs I have lost to the deep blue sea! Shit happens reel/rod error or even human error. So I stumbled acrossed lure kits that you have to assemble and add paint, sealer and hooks. Saltys lure kits makes affordable easy to assemble wooden striper plugs for under $8.00. Most lures you buy you have to replace cheap hooks or add split rings anyway so why spend the money?

Before:

After:

I wouldn't say I am an artist but I think I can buy some paint and sealant and make some cool looking plugs for 15 bucks or so. I recently looked into a beginner paint air gun and they are only like $25 and then buy some paints and I should be able to do some lures. I found some pics on google, so you can see before and after results above.They do sell their lures for $23-30 each but I think I can do a decent job for like $15 each.

Maybe I'm sounding cheap but I'm also from the northeast and stripers leave the area from Nov-April so I have time to kill. You can only oil up the reels, look into new lures so many times, if I have time to kill why not save money and be creative?

I've heard that its so gratifying to catch a fish on a lure you built and painted. I look forward to that feeling.
I plan on buying a couple kits of various styles soon and post how they were to build,  paint and if i'd recommend them to you guys to kill time and save money.

My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it.  ~Koos Brandt

Here I go...

Hey fellow bloggers!
   This is my first blog / post so bear with me. My wife is a hourly blogger and kept telling me I should make a blog about my love for fishing! Honestly I think she just doesn't want to hear me talk about fishing spots , hook sizes, reviews on reels/rods etc. and that if I type it on my blog she won't have to listen. She will still get an ear full ;) 

So I think I should start my first post with my success of last year and then we can talk about the up coming year fresh and salt. Two months to go till we can fish again here and I've toyed with building lures, researching reels/rods and what the pros use and when do they use it.

My goal this year is a 40 pound striper ( onshore, not in a boat)  my personal best is a 44 1/2 inch 28.1 lb. striper and a 4.26 lb. largemouth bass. I look to improve both numbers in 2013!!!

Let me share some pictures so you see I'm not full of typical fisherman lies, before we talk about gear, secret fishing holes, techniques and of course our stories of the one that got away! ( I have a story already to tell, it must have been a loch ness monster)

Pops and I with canal cow

24,25 and 28 lb cow from canal  3 days in a row.... 

Dighton Rock 11 lb 30 inch keeper (first of year)

25 lb canal cow in Oct 2012

My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it.  ~Koos Brandt