Thread: Spider rigging with telescopic rods

I wouldn't worry with the 16's unless your trolling really shallow where you need space to keep from spooking fish. Those West points will troll fine in all those lengths. All I use are 10ft'ers.

I use telescoping to tournament fish and do pretty good. One mod we made is simple electrical tape around the joints after extending for the day and I have a rod holder on left side for transporting extended.

I've been using HT telescoping poles for around 20 years. I don't have trouble with them breaking and I can break them down and put them in my rod box. I installed a set of CreekSlick's Transport Racks and I have no problems when I don't break them down. Keeps me from getting tangled.

As far as 16 foot, I don't use them. 14 is plenty long for me. Telescopic?? I don't mind using them. I've considered buy some Ozark's, but I'm catching fish with my "cheap" poles. Why fix what ain't broke??

never having used the telescopic poles I'm no help there. What I can speak of is the versatility of some of the poles already mentioned. I use the BGJP by BnM. I troll cranks, spider rig and jig with mine. I'm told they arent rated for more than 2oz of weight. The pro series trollers are rated for 5 or so. The west points are all fiberglass unlike the graphite of the others. I don't know what the MFG says they will handle but I know it will be more than the BGJP. 4 west point 12 footers are at our wal mart for just over $100. All this being said and keeping a budget in mind, the west point 12's would be my choice. Why the bother about the weight? Pushing cranks and the maneuverability associated with pushing over pulling jigs or cranks. Long lining takes forever to turn around and pushing turns are so much shorter. Pushing and pulling is just one of the next progressions you will come to and this is just looking ahead to what's next. Spider rigging, single pole, long line, or pushing. You just can't get any better a start for the money to my way of thinking. Good luck and keep us posted.

We use the 16' Shooting Stars to power troll up to an 8oz. weight up to 11/4mph. They work really well. Low cost and sturdy. We take the butt cap off, pull the rubber stopper out and put a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe in there to fit our rod holders. We Gorilla Glue our joints together and never break them down. We also cut 1' off the tip, break it off short, and glue it back in. Makes em handle the big weight better. You can use them to slow troll also with smaller weights. Back in the day at Sardis, we'd use the 8oz weight on the bottom and put 5 baits up the main line about 1' apart. Needless to say, We Killed Em with 10 poles out and 5 baits per pole. The Shooting Stars can handle all that and lots of times we'd lift 2-3 fish at a time with them.

BTW---That was legal back then. Still is in some places in AR.

I use 16 ft BnM pst's I made up my mind to go with good rods and in the off chance that I didn't like spider rigging I could sell them here and recouped my money

And it was the best thing I could have done

I now have 16's and 14's and 2 10 footers

My advice is get the good rods and if you don't like spider rigging just sell them here

Oh I now have 150 crank baits also lol

If you lived close to Batesville, AR, I'd give you a set of 16' poles that I cut the tip off. Complete with not so great Shakespeare reels.

I'm offended by some of these opinions......I spider rig 8 poles and like alot of folks can't afford to shell out $400 for poles and another $200 for reels. I don't think that makes anyone "cheap". I use six 12' uncle bucks telescoping poles and two 16' (very front) with grizzly $6.95 optimax reels. They might not have the action, but they're an easy store and work just fine. Fish bites= pole goes down!! As far as durable...some of mine are 5 years old and still landing fish.