Thread: Advice from Ky, Barkley lake fisherman

Being set that far back I wouldn't go with anything shorter than a 14' rod if you're gonna spider rig. For pulling cranks I don't think rod length is that important. Your gonna get some hulls slap with that boat and you wanna get those baits out away from the boat ahen you're spider rig'n.

As far as reels go, I'm a fan of the small, low profile bait casters. When using the longer rods I can thumb the spool and let extra line out as needed to land the fish. I pick them up cheap on Ebay. I'm a little OCD when it comes to my setup so I don't mix and match rods or reels.

I can usually find the Shakespeare Axioms for between $13 and $18. You just need something to hold line.

I prefer 14 ft poles when fishing shallow water for crappie (8 ft or less) but find that 12 ft works great for deeper water fishing. I recently sold my Ranger bass boat that I crappie fished out of for years and have been looking at the War Eagle Predator as a replacement. I am going back to an aluminum boat this time for a number of reasons, but largely because of the progress made in hull design and layout of some aluminum models. The Predator, in my opinion, has the layout for the crappie fisherman down to a science. Hope you will let us know how you like yours. I know several tournament fishermen who are either using it or going to it. From what I have seen of the Predator's layout, I don't believe you will have any problem using 12ft poles in deeper water. Folks who are telling you that the 14's are heavier are right. I have a set of 14 ft Wally Marshall's (for tournament fishing) but also own a set of 12 ft B&M Pro-Trollers that are my go-to rods. I really like them. I agree with the advice on small Baitcasting reels. Quantam makes a Bill Dance model reel that is small and low profile. I bought enough from Louie at Grizzly Jig at a really great price and put them on all my rods. They are extremely light but have a high retrieve ration of 5:1 which makes them ideal for spider-rigging. I load them with 20-25lb Power Pro Hi-Vis (Yellow) line and use about a 6 ft leader of 6 lb P-line Flourocarbon.

Thx for all the replays. Whiskers, send me a pm with contact information when you have a few days free. I will like for you to guide me a day or two so I will be headed in the right direction. I am only an hour from the Kentucky Lake. kyfishman, if you come to kentucky lake pm me and i will bring the boat if you want to fish out of one before getting one. I can not supply good spots to go but can provide the boat, gas, and food.

I will be headed to grizzly jig Monday to get tackle. Thx again to everyone for their input.

Very sweet looking rig. I switched from 12' to 14' for spider rigging. A little more to handle but in my opinion a lot better, gets the baits father away from the trolling motor. Get a good rod transport rack for them and go out and kick some crappie but. Just my .02.

I've fished 12 ft for years. No problems here