Southern Style of Trolling for Stripers?

[MAKO19]

I'm reading up a lot on the N.C. fleet kicking major ass on the Stripers lately and I was curious as to their methods as compared to our methods up here in N.J. I noticed the lure of choice down there is the mojo rig either in white with chartreuse shad or chartreuse/chartreuse. I have a couple of these rigs in 16 oz. and 8 oz. I don't really like the 16 oz. and would much rather use the 8 oz. since my goal is to keep all the gear as light as possible. I usually end up using the 16 oz. mojo with a daisy chain of 4 shads above it and run this tight to the boat to keep it away from the 2 umbrella rigs I'm pulling of each corner. I'm kind of forced to use the 16 to avoid tangles. It doesn't appear a lot of N.C. boats are using umbrella rigs and just pulling the mojos. So my questions are:

What would a typical southern style striper spread look like?

What speed do you have the best success?

What is the best lure position?

Do you put out anything other than mojos?

I am always looking for new ideas and trying to implement different styles of fishing up here in my neck of the woods. So any tips/tricks would be appreciated, thanks.

[Persistence]

I fish out of Virginia Beach and the tactics are the same.

I fish a six line spread out of a 24ft Albemarle. It is as follows:

Two lines off stern rod holders. These will be tandem rigs and utilize either 60 pound braid wireline or traditional Braid. I use a heavy Mojo here of 32-36oz on the lead/short dropper then run a 12-15ft trailing line which will have a light parachute rig (3-5 oz), a spoon (21 Tony) or a Tomic plug as the trailer. My boat will only go about 2.5 to 3 knots at slowest trolling speeds so I need the heavy mojo to keep it close to the boat and near the bottom. Current can also wreack havoc at times and I bump in and out of gear as need be.

Next I run two rods out of outrodders and I usually deploy umbrella rigs or most like ladder rigs and I will have a parachute (5-8oz) as the trailing bait. These rods have mono but braid will work too.

Lastly, I run two tandem rigs off my outriggers and fish them back pretty far. The short dropper will have an 8-12oz parachute/small mogo and the trailing bait on the longer leader will usually have a 3-5oz parachute but I also will fish spoons on here as well. Just depends on what they want on any given day. Mono for these rods

If you are interested, I have a presentation I built that shows this "spread" graphically.

[MAKO19]

This is all great info. I have been pulling 1 stretch 25 150 feet down the center, 2 umbrella rigs with 8 oz. trolling weights off each corner, and a 16 oz. mojo on the center flat line area. I have been thinking of using my outriggers but the stretches pull too hard and everything else seems to be too heavy. Maybe I will add a couple 5 oz. parachutes of each rigger with a 9" shad and see what happens. I think I can tighten my clips enough to allow this to happen and 5 oz. should be enough to get down into the strike zone while trolling at 3.2 knots in 20-30 foot of water where we typically fish. I'd be interested in any other info you have. Thanks again.

[Persistence]

I'm using gunwale mounted Lee's and blacks or Rupp zip clips and these will hold a stretch 25 no problem. They also will hold a 12 oz lead parachute/9" shad with a 3-4 oz trailing chute/9" shad tandem rig no problem. If it is rough and I'm bobbing around a lot they can pull out but mostly the riggers hold them fine and I catch a lot of fish off the riggers...especially when making turns as one side the lures rise, the other side the lures drop during the turn.

I would say this...as much as we would think Stripers sit/feed on the bottom, I catch A LOT of fish suspended. That is why I fish 4 out of my 6 lines up off the bottom.

Stretches catch fish but I prefer tandem rigs as I have more hooks in the water via a tandem rig and they don't "wander around" causing tangles like a stretch would.

[MAKO19]

Thanks again for all the good info Persistence. Hopefully some more people will contribute their ideas. Trolling absolutely out produces the other methods used up this way and I can't tell you how many arguments I get in with people when I say this but it's just the facts. I get a lot of crap for trolling on my local message board. Some guys up here just don't understand.

[Persistence]

You are welcome! I like trolling whether it be for Stripers or Offshore for Tuna, Marlin, etc...

When conditions warrant, I love to stop and jig for Stripers...most winters we can get on some big schools of fish and jig but not this year (for me). I fish with eels in Dec around the Ches Bay Bridge Tunnel as it produces a bigger class of fish but I agree, trolling can be very effective and I look forward to it every year. Sucks it got so cold so fast this year. If we want fish now, you have to run south from VA Beach 25-50 miles.

[MAKO19]

Yeah man I seen it seems like the best bite is off N.C. about 45 miles South of Rudee. That is a far run but I would love to have the options of being able to make that run. We are still in the water deep water wreck fishing but our season is really getting down to the bitter end. Can't wait for Spring!

[LuckyLady]

I'm reading up a lot on the N.C. fleet kicking major ass on the Stripers lately and I was curious as to their methods as compared to our methods up here in N.J. I noticed the lure of choice down there is the mojo rig either in white with chartreuse shad or chartreuse/chartreuse. I have a couple of these rigs in 16 oz. and 8 oz. I don't really like the 16 oz. and would much rather use the 8 oz. since my goal is to keep all the gear as light as possible. I usually end up using the 16 oz. mojo with a daisy chain of 4 shads above it and run this tight to the boat to keep it away from the 2 umbrella rigs I'm pulling of each corner. I'm kind of forced to use the 16 to avoid tangles. It doesn't appear a lot of N.C. boats are using umbrella rigs and just pulling the mojos. So my questions are:

What would a typical southern style striper spread look like?

What speed do you have the best success?

What is the best lure position?

Do you put out anything other than mojos?

I am always looking for new ideas and trying to implement different styles of fishing up here in my neck of the woods. So any tips/tricks would be appreciated, thanks.

How many rods you trolling I have a pattern for 9 rods or 6 if i can find it I will upload

[Bird Dog]

Persistence gave some great advice for this area. I mainly use the mojos to act as trolling weights to get other baits down such as spoons, umbrella rigs, daisy chains, tandem rigs, etc. I rarely even catch stuff on the mojos, but they've got a hook so I'd rather use them over trolling weights. Heavier mojos are obviously closer to the boat. Can't remember the exact size but I think they're 24-32 oz for the close ones. Planer boards aren't really an option around here. There are too many boats to mess with them. Ideal speed is 1.5-3 mph. I usually put a 3-way above a stretch 25 just like I would on a mojo. Have 20' back to a storm shad off the 3-way. It's a good set-up for the smaller schoolie fish.

[LuckyLady]

How many rods you trolling I have a pattern for 9 rods or 6 if i can find it I will upload

I think this is the right one , i had a couple I was messing around with, I should have another drawing as well for a different style boat as soon as I Find it I will post it up