Bruce; if we are going to throw shad color into the discussion, there is a lot to cover. On the Charter; I mainly stuck with white and chartruse. This is because these are tried and true colors. The last thing I wanted customers to say on the way home was, "Did you see they had some purple shads out in the spread? I knew we weren't going to catch anything on those lures."
Now that's not to say I didn't have some twotone green (green with a darker green back) or even some white shads with a blue back
, but I didn't get "crazy".
During the PSCR season, or after we caught our limit of fish and we were just doing C/R, I had some "sparkle" shads recommended by Charlie Schneider (they were clear with mylar impregnated into the shad), and they caught fish as well.
I really can't say if fish are striking because the lure is in the proper "place" or if it's because of the shad color. In other words, if fish are shallow (catching off the boards), it doesn't matter what is on my deep umbrella's
Of course the opposite is also true, if fish are hitting my deeper boat rods, they don't seem to care what is on the boards
On my personal boat, I tend to have at least one "fun" lure out in the spread. Last year I was trying to poke fun at Mike (garlien) because he is such a Rattle Trap guy. I put a "Tomic" lure (the only thing I had onboard to mimic a rattle trap) on one of the umbrellas, and damn if it didn't catch a nice fish.
All of this is speculation. While fishing is supposed to be fun, we all have a tendancy to take it too seriously (especially when the bite is off).
Capt. Drew Payne, of the Worm, will be giving a seminar this Wed night at the Annapolis MSSA chapter. He is planning to speak for over an hour on all aspects of spring trolling
I plan to attend and pick up a couple tips. I'm sure he will go over this in his presentation.
Why not have several CBA's attend, have a few beers, and see what Drew has to say? See you all Wed. night
5th (Marty)