Geared Up Publications

Spring trophy striped bass on light tackle? You bet!

            IT’S HERE – SPRING TROPHY SEASON IS ON! That means it’s time to break out the heavy rods, umbrella rigs, daisy chains, and… wait a sec – what if you enjoy light tackle angling? What if you don’t want to troll with the traditional gear that makes a 36” striper feel like a tire on the other end of your line? Then it’s time to gear up for the “The LTT.”

Spread It Light

            Although on first glance it may seem impossible, with a little work you can run a full spread of light-tackle lines at all the different depths and distances of a traditional trolling spread. Working with 15 to 20-pound class gear spinning rigs and/or conventionals the toughest challenge is running deep lines—try putting a pound of lead on a 20-lb spinner, and something’s going to break. So let’s attack the toughest issue first; solve this problem by rigging downrigger cannonballs to 50’ to 70’ of line, and running them off your boat’s stern cleats. Use a single release clip on the ball at first, and run a regular-sized parachute/9” plastic shad tandem rig from it. As you get accustomed to bringing in and lowering the cannonballs, you can start “stacking” lines by attaching additional ones to the cannonball line with rubber bands. Set them to run 30’ to 40’ behind the ball, and use your most capable rods and reels for the cannonball lines—although they catch fewer fish then the shallower lines we’ll set in a few moments, they often account for the largest fish you’ll catch.

The next batch of lines we’ll add in are the easiest to deal with: two can run directly off the tip, with the rods placed in aft gunwale rodholders. Since the rods will bear the weight from the rigs on these lines directly, you’ll want to set them up with lures that are as light as possible and set them as far back behind the boat as possible. Swimming plugs, like Stretch 15+ or jumbo-sized Rat-L-Traps, are good choices for these positions. Once they’re deployed, move on to a second pair of gunwale holders or, if possible, leaning post rodholders. Rig ‘em up with single or double parachutes or bucktails rigged with shad bodies, but keep them smaller than the norm (two to five ounces in total, instead of 10 or 12) since these will also be running directly from the rod tips.

The Plane Truth