Thread: Spider rigging...

Too many poles, to much headache. My advice: stick to one pole, maybe two! I hate tangled lines, that is why I have never done this. I get stressed if I have more than 3 poles out let alone 7 or more!

If you must know Caleb here is a good article. Their are a lot of benifits to slow trolling, it's just not for me. It would work well for you though fishing in the river arms.
http://www.crappie.com/articles/spider.htm

I run 6 or 8 poles across the front and partner can run that many across the back of the boat. pole butts are next to each other, tops are 2 to 4 foot apart. slow troll and slow turns, or you'll have a mess.
I running 14 and 16 foot telescopic rods with johnson century reels. 30# powerpro line with a bobber stopper and a snap swivel.
rigs are 14# mono line. hooks are 2 to 6 per line, 1 to 2 foot apart with 2 or 3 oz sinker at bottom. mono is looped at top and bottom. change out the sinker on one end and catch the snap on the other.
with the 6 hook 1 foot rig, I have a hook at 1 foot thru 6 foot deep. the bobber stopper is moved up the line to increase the depth. great when running through a school of crappie. but the whites, yellows and gar can make a big mess in a heartbeat. so have plenty of rigs made up for quick change out.

Originally Posted by J.T. Crappie Guide

Too many poles, to much headache. My advice: stick to one pole, maybe two! I hate tangled lines, that is why I have never done this. I get stressed if I have more than 3 poles out let alone 7 or more!

Shoot I can barely tie my shoelaces sometimes as early as I am out there....I will stick to two-pole fishing, 3 if they are slow.....however, I am curious still to know what all it involves....I would like to be an "expert" in crappie by about 2010.....right about the time I plan on retiring and fishing all day (HAHA!) Boy, wouldn't that be nice.

Caleb

Originally Posted by J.T. Crappie Guide

If you must know Caleb here is a good article. Their are a lot of benifits to slow trolling, it's just not for me. It would work well for you though fishing in the river arms.
http://www.crappie.com/articles/spider.htm

Interesting, they should call it the Web-weaving method. Unless you are seasoned in this or have more then one person to tend to this amount of poles, I do not feel like this would be anything but a HUGE mess. You know if I can get on the fish, I normally have trouble keeping up with two polls...can you imagine having them hit on all 6-8 polls at once? WOW! I'll stick to two-pole fishing....great article though, thanks.

Caleb

Originally Posted by canebreaker

I run 6 or 8 poles across the front and partner can run that many across the back of the boat. pole butts are next to each other, tops are 2 to 4 foot apart. slow troll and slow turns, or you'll have a mess.
I running 14 and 16 foot telescopic rods with johnson century reels. 30# powerpro line with a bobber stopper and a snap swivel.
rigs are 14# mono line. hooks are 2 to 6 per line, 1 to 2 foot apart with 2 or 3 oz sinker at bottom. mono is looped at top and bottom. change out the sinker on one end and catch the snap on the other.
with the 6 hook 1 foot rig, I have a hook at 1 foot thru 6 foot deep. the bobber stopper is moved up the line to increase the depth. great when running through a school of crappie. but the whites, yellows and gar can make a big mess in a heartbeat. so have plenty of rigs made up for quick change out.

Holy cow! That sounds like a TON of work, hahaha. I fully understand what you are saying, and it makes sense, especially the bobber stoppers b/c I can see how you would need to adjust depths once you find the fish. What is the most you (or you and partner combined) have hooked into all at once? I have used 4 rods off the side of a pontoon with rod holders and caught 3 at once, and by the time I was dropping a minnow back in on the first poll the 4th poll was already active too.....it was incredible, but then the white bass pretty much schooled through and took over the area, feeding frenzy.

Originally Posted by J.T. Crappie Guide

Too many poles, to much headache. My advice: stick to one pole, maybe two! I hate tangled lines, that is why I have never done this. I get stressed if I have more than 3 poles out let alone 7 or more!

I see folks with 4 to 8 poles out, and hook one foul runner that raps up the other lines.
They spend the next hour cutting and retying.
Two poles is all I can handle without getting in a tizzy.

Randy