"John H" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 05 May 2005 21:09:21 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:


"John H" wrote in message
. ..
Got a late start this morning 'cause dummy me forgot to call the marina
and have
the boat put in the water. Oh well.

Left Deale, MD, about 8 AM, got out to marker #83 and put the lines out.
We ran
4 tandem parachute rigs and two umbrellas. After about two hours of
nothing, my
good friend OldFart decided we needed to check and clean the lures. Sure
enough,
most were dirty.

Put everything back in the water and within about 15 minutes had our
first
strike of the day. Rich (Gimp) pulled in a 40 1/2 "er, which set a new
boat
record for the Poco Loco. It was caught on a bucktail with a 9" Bass
Assassin
attached. (We had lost one of the parachute rigs on a log or something a
little
earlier. Actually, we lost an umbrella at about the same time, on the
same
log I
expect.)

About a half hour later, around noon, the line sings again and OldFart
pulled in
a 38"er. Just those two about filled the cooler! The second one was
caught
on
one of OldFart's hand made bucktails with a 6" sassy shad (white). Both
of
these
were caught almost directly east of North Beach in about 42 feet of
water,
trolling at about 3.2 mph.

The weather was perfect, the company was spectacular, and the cooler was
pretty
full. We played around another hour or so and called it a day. What a
great day
it was.

Cool report.

Do you guys troll plugs, too? Or just plastic-tipped jigs?

What depth do you figure the jigs are running at? The reason I ask, is
that
we use Mann's Stretch 25's and 30's to troll for gag grouper on the
near-shore reefs/wrecks in November through April. The Stretch 25's and
30's are designed to dive to 25' and 30', respectively, without the
assistance of a planer or a downrigger when trolling approximately 5mph.
If
you use powerpro line (or similar), the lures will run down 30-45'.

I wonder if the same lures would work well on stripers up by you?


Yes, Mann Stretch 18s thru 30's are used in the bay, and some folks have
caught
fish with them. I've caught only tangles 'cause the damn things go every
which
way.

I used to think the same thing, but you need to tune them (bend the ring on
top) if they're not tracking straight. Also, when you have two of them out,
put the shallower Stretch 18 or 25 out to about 150-200 feet, and the deeper
running Stretch 30 out to 75-100 feet.


We had six lines out today with weights going from only the lure to an
additional 12 oz. The hope is to cover the spectrum. We caught one up high
and
the other down deep today. I'm hoping the lures are all running from about
8'
down to about 30'. Of course, can't tell that for sure. I use braided line
on
all my trolling rods.