Jump to content

Invention of Umbrella Rig

Rate this topic


BrianBM

Recommended Posts

There's a piece in The Fisherman today about Sekora lures, now under new ownership. The writer attributes the invention of the umbrella to the late Capt. Sekora. However, I've also read that the lure was used in Massachusetts well before it appeared on Long Island; a Capt. Gus Potts is sometimes given as the inventor. Ditch, anybody ... anyone know?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mully,

 

I remember seeing them in the 60's in Montauk and Cuttyhunk. The only name I remember associated with them is John Sekora.

Gus Potts was a contemporary of Sekora in Montauk and a great striper fisherman in his own right.

 

Back in the late 50's and early 60's they would wire line troll under the Light, the Elbow and Pollack Rip with a large single tube lure. I believe Sekora was experimenting since at times they would get a run of small bait, like sandeels. It turned out to be deadly. Due to the multiple hook ups alot of captains only had 1 or 2 armed hooks and the rest teasers. Can you imagine trying to crank in 4-6 gorilla bluefish in the fall or a couple of cow bass. Ugh!

 

Al

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember them early 60's as a kid trolling them out of a dory with my fathers friend Frenchy. It was nothing more than a flounder spreader with three tubes strung on mono, ( the old man called the tubes (Norwegian eels). The first time we saw the smaller versions and bright colored surge tubes was on the old Viking Starlite. Capt. Paul's buddy rigged one on a dropper way above the clam bait at Coxes Ledge. He had a huge pollack every other drop while most of us had none.

Those were the days.

Shag

"Ban Pre-shredded Cheese, Make America Grate Again"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to KEN SCHULTZ'S FISHING ENCYCLOPEDIA..."It started as the brainchild of a veteran Montauk, NY, skipper, who got the idea for trolling a school of lures while visiting his commercial fishing relatives in Nova Scotia and watching them troll with strips of beer cans rigged off metal bar."

 

I really wouldn't know...can't cast them from the beach LOL

 

Bern

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to Montauk with "Coot" Hall in 62 or 63 to the Tourney in the end of June...Went to Darenburgs Tackle Shop and saw this wierd rig hanging from the ceiling. He told me it was a killer rig in the rips...I bought a half dozen and went home to Cuttyhunk. FIRST time in those waters....

Went out through Canapitsit and went left towards Nashawena....Put rig out about forty feet and got banged. Three at a time....

Hid the rig and only used it when no other boats in sight for about two weeks...Murdered them....then, had to pass the secret to Charlie Tilton and Wally Ketchum who I shared building with. Wally said he had a client that used a single bar with three worms...I didn't like such a big rig with so many hooks...Cut the arms off used as a single bar...Made our own from Control Cable wire....That Fall every one was using them, fishing days unbelivable slaughter of bass...All big....best I heard of was A. P. Tilton with three over fifty at one time....We put longer leaders on so you could gaff one fish at a time...

should be outlawed to one hook rig...maybe four teasers and one hook rig in the middle.

 

 

------------------

Capt. Chet

Nor-Easter Charters

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Capt. Chet,

 

You are making me dream about times long ago with Capt. Bob Smith. Smitty hated the rig. However, after a while he would use one with the single armed hook in the middle. I remember working it through Quick's Hole during an overcast morning and we really did a number on big fish.

 

Al

Link to comment
Share on other sites

chet,

you're much older than me, smile.gif so you go back a bit further with the rig. i first saw one on a friends boat in the mid-60's. i was only a kid, but the sight of such a rig....left me slack-jawed.

i first started using one in 1971 along the elizabeths. as chet describes, it was slaughter. multiple, large fish hook-ups were common, even in a small boat.

my biggest was a three banger, all in the mid-20 pound range, taken on a spot called honey hole along naushon.

during the height of the summer, i used to fish the small umbrella, in quicks. i'd tip each worm with a bit of seaworms, and fish about 80 yds of wire. three, four, and even five fish hook-ups were common, but all the fish were smaller then.

a guy from buzzards bay, named ken reardon, made a beautiful 6 arm, 13 hook rig, in two sizes. they were deadly.

 

 

The Sultan of Sluggo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By weird coincidence, I was browsing idly through Veverka's "Innovative Saltwater Flies" while watching The Matrix on HBO just now (wonderful fight scene in the subway platform with Agent Smith, isn't it?) and found, in the pages on fly tier Bill Catherwood, mention that some people consider him the inventor of the umbrella rig. He also states that in his basement he has an umbrella rig that is almost a hundred years old. Maybe this is something that's been invented more than once.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 years later...

Do any still use this rig?

 

Al G:

Fished with Bob Smith ("Smitty") in the 60's and never used it on the Pig's, Quick's, Devils Bridge, and off the islands (Nashon/Nashawena).

 

I finally used it in the 60's/70's trolling with wire in the mouth of the Merrimack, Plum Island- but hated it, although it took many fish.

 

Chet:

How's the Cuttyhunk book coming?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to register here in order to participate.

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


×
×
  • Create New...