The Umbrella Rig Catches Stripers And Blues

The original umbrella rig made its debut in the Montauk area of Long Island sometime in the 70’s.  Capt. John Sekora was the originator of these phenomenal fish catching lures.  However, in the beginning, Capt. John kept his new luressecret to keep other charter boat captains off the fish.  Other skippers quickly became frustrated with Capt. John’s secrecy because they had no idea what was responsible for the great catches of stripers, blues, and weakfish Capt. John was bringing back to the dock. Eventually, the secret of his success got out, and it was then Capt. John decided to start the Sekora Lure Company. Once the lures were available for sale a legendary fishing lure was born. 

Traditional umbrella rigsare trolled on wire line to get the lures down to controlled depths in the water column. These rigs are manufactured with 6 to 8-inch rubber surgical tubes dangling from flexible wire arms attaches to 6 to 10-inch heavy monofilament leaders.  The secret to the success of the umbrella rigis that the lure mimics a school of tightly packed, small baitfish such as sand eels or spearing.  Whenever a game fish like a striped bass comes across a school of densely packed baitfish, its instincts tell it to strike at the school, and that’s why the umbrella rig is such a prolific producer of fish.  The umbrella tackle set ups have caught all of the following species for me: striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, bluefin tuna, green bonito, Spanish mackerel, false albacore, and summer flounder.

My preference is for darker colored tubes when fishing for stripers.  On the other hand, bluefish seem to get more charged up by brighter colored tubes.  I normally will change out one of the short mono leaders to a longer 5-ft leader.  This gives the appearance of one injured baitfish having trouble keeping up with the rest of the school.  Most of the single hook ups with fish will come on this straggler lure, and it’s a great presentation to use when the fish are spread out over a large area.  However, when the fish are densely packed double and triple headers of stripers and blues commonly occur with umbrella rigs when bass are schooled up.

The rig can be tricky to get in the water without it tangling its tubes together.  When it’s time to put the umbrella rigs in the water I stand in a corner of the cockpit with the boat going forward at about 3-knots.  I place the umbrella rig into the turbulence-wake free water slightly forward of the stern, and quickly free-spool the rig down a few feet.  Once all the tubes are underwater, Iallow the wire to be pulled off the reel spool with the forward movement of the boat.  Always slightly thumb the reel spool to avoid any over runs with the reel spool.  Once the lure is at the desired depth, lock up the reel and put the rod in a holder.  It shouldn’t be long until a gamefish attacks the lure very aggressively.

Captain Tom Mikoleski is the successful fishing charter captain of the Grand Slam who sails out of Montauk, NY for trophy striped bass, doormat fluke, jumbo porgies, humpback sea bass, and monster sharks. Capt. Tom is the author of Bass Buff — A Striper Fishing Obsession Guide.