ANOTHER
APPROACH
Mazur, Renfrew Share their Refined, Do-it-All umbrella Rig
Ian
Renfrew
Casey Smith likes to tweak his umbrella rig for any and every situation, but that’s not the only
strategy that works. Fellow Costa FLW Series northern Division pros Ian Renfrew and Larry
Mazur, who fish team tournaments together throughout new york, have done a lot of experi-
menting with umbrella rigs to come up with a homemade rig that works just about all the
time. they each used the rig to make the top five at the FLW Series event on oneida in 2016.
they’ll occasionally change blade colors or baits, or make small adjustments,
but this rig covers most northern scenarios, particularly for smallmouths. For
Southern waters, Mazur recommends upsizing swimbaits and hooks.
Compact
build – Mazur
believes the com-
pact profile of the
rig makes it a
great bait-ball
imitator.
Small swimbaits –
Matching the hatch can be
the key to success. At
Oneida the fish were feed-
ing on tiny baitfish, so they
opted for 2-inch Optimum
Baits Opti Shad swimbaits
on the outer wires and a
3.3-inch Keitech Swing
Impact Fat on the middle
wire. Mazur says a bit of
chartreuse dye on the mid-
dle bait’s tail can help fish
dial in on it.
60
Larry Mazur
Wire – They prefer .040-gauge wire rather than the light stuff. This
helps extend the life of the rig when targeting feisty smallmouths,
which often double or triple up on a rig and can really do some
damage to it. Mazur says that some anglers use light wire so that
the rig will “pulse” when twitched, but he doesn’t believe
he misses out on any bites with this setup.
Blades – No. 3
blades are small
and continue
with the com-
pact concept.
They’ll upsize to
No. 3 1/2 blades
on occasion.
Staggered jigheads –
Renfrew and Mazur
use Revenge jigheads.
The top two jigheads
(the hooks are cut off
when hooks are limit-
ed in competition)
and the middle jig-
head are lighter than
the bottom two to
help “level” the rig. At
Oneida, they used
3/16 ounce on top
and 1/4 on bottom.
Staggered wire lengths
– The inner wire is 5 inch-
es long. The outer wires
are 4 inches long, and
they’re bent out a bit past
what’s considered the
“normal” angle. This setup
helps fish dial in on the
bottom two baits and the
middle bait, which are the
three with hooks in FLW
Series competition.
FLWFISHING.COM I FEBRUARY-MARCH 2017