East Coast Trick
 

When fishing the east coast with menhaden some guys will stuff a lead weight down into the stomack of the bait. Now it sinks down deep like a droper rig with out all the extra line and exposed weight. Next time I am out I am going to try it with a small green back. Anybody got any input to this idea?

Sounds interesting. Problems could be numerous though. You could loose a lot of sinkers that way. Seals could eat your mackerel and get lead poisoning giving the seal huggers more ammo against fishermen. How about yt or wsb busting you off getting stuck eating that sinker as well.

I dont know how it works on the east coast, maybe they use tungsten sinkers?

Don't know about a dead mac on the bottom, however if you were to de-bone the mackeral,that is, take out backbone with a device called a "de-boner" the mac will be very flimsey and while slow trolling it should look alive. If you cut stomach area and insert weight then sew up it would probably be at least near the bottom. At least it works from a boat! When waters warm and macs are scarce a good time to take a de-boned frozen mac out of the freezer, maybe an edge in catching summer yellows.

I have trouble keeping a greenback alive and active normally but adding lead to his belly is sure to kill him off fast. When not trolling you can hook the bait in other areas than the nose to induce it to swim to greater depths.

I have some 2 oz steel weights eco friendly.:wsb:

us east coasters aint vary smart so but the only time i've tried that it was dead and kinda just trolled it didnt track straight but it catches striper up this far up the riiver

Really? By the way any dead bait that is not di-boned will not track straight.

There is a co. that sells pre rigged frozen baits,they ship in dry ice.very expensive.I have heard of 'cuda rigged with wire and slow trolled for big makos in tourney's(just thrown in to get this thread off track i guess)

If you want to get a trolled bait a bit deeper without useing lead, pin it just back of the head even with the top of the gill plate. Put the hook just below the skin, too deep and you will kill the bait. Done properly the bait will swim deeper than a nose hooked bait and will live much longer. You do need to troll a bit slower.