Spider rigging forum?

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And another one from main board. http://www.crappie.com/crappie/main-...ider-rig-rods/

[Astrick]

I'm thinking about spider riigging?
What would be the shortest rods I could get a way with?
I know, the shallower the crappie are,
The longer the rods!
But 16 ft is to much for me!
I plan to use line counter reels,,
( my Christmas present to myself)
But I can hardly keep from breaking my 10ft rods I use to long line troll?
But I don't wanna spend $400 on rods, and then by late spring ,, and think I shoulda bought something else!

And another one from main board. http://www.crappie.com/crappie/main-...ider-rig-rods/

[CrappiePappy]

I'm thinking about spider riigging?
What would be the shortest rods I could get a way with?
I know, the shallower the crappie are,
The longer the rods!
But 16 ft is to much for me!
I plan to use line counter reels,,
( my Christmas present to myself)
But I can hardly keep from breaking my 10ft rods I use to long line troll?
But I don't wanna spend $400 on rods, and then by late spring ,, and think I shoulda bought something else!

Just my opinion, as I don't actually do the Spider Rigging technique ... but, considering what my Spider Rigging friends do :

The shortest rod you can get away with would likely be a 12' rod ... but that may also depend on what type of boat you have, layout of it, shape of the bow, and how close you can get your rod holders to the front of the boat (& still reach them without having to bend completely over to reach them). The brand/style of rod holder may also present a problem, if the rod handles aren't long enough to reach the handle end loop without the reel being in the way of the front part of the holder.

I don't understand, however, why you think you would need line counter reels to Spider Rig with ... unless you also intend to Push/Pull or longline with these same outfits. And in that case, you wouldn't be placing the rods pointing directly in front of the boat, anyway, so rods from 14' down to 6' could be used ....

as evidenced by my 4rod spread in this picture :



The left holder has a 10' rod in front & a 14' rod in back -- the right holder has a 14' rod in front & a 6' rod in back. They are all being used to "Push" jigs & cranks, with 1.5oz weights @ ~1mph (at that time).

Only true "Spider Rig" fishing I ever did was from the back of a buddy's boat, with two 10' rods and that same 6' rod pictured. He used six to eight 14' rods out the front of his boat. I got a 14' BnM PST rod and Hi-Tek rod holders with the idea of "testing out" Spider Rigging out of my own boat. When I saw that the shorter rods were not going to work as well as the 14' rod, I got two more 14' rods. They ended up being the BnM Capps/Coleman version, which are slightly less stiff than the PST (but not really that noticeable unless using a weight heavier than 1/2oz). Then everyone starts talking about "pushing" their jigs (and eventually cranks), so I hopped on that band wagon and have never really done any Spider Rigging since. But, to be quite honest (as always) I tend to use Pushing as a Plan B, or dead of the Summer technique ... and stick to casting jigs & Road Runners the majority of the time.

I wasn't sure I'd care much for using a 14' rod, but now that I have used them for a couple of years ... I don't really even think about it. They really didn't take as much effort or time to become accustomed to using as I thought they would, but using all three 14' rods (and sometimes a 4th/shorter rod) is quite enough for me to handle.