Kentucky Afield tonight

[JRA]

Kentucky Afield television this weekend is supposed to contain a segment with David Rogers, a Georgetown tournament crappie fisherman, and Tim Farmer where they try their luck on Taylorsville Lake for mid-summer crappie. I believe it is a repeat program but, in my opinion, worth seeing again. I believe David is spider rigging.

[speckfinder]

was a good show

[CrappiePappy]

... and the one thing it told me was, well two things it told me ... one - there are still good sized Crappie in T-ville -- two - they're scattered about.

They were not really "spider rigging" ... in my grasp of the term. But, really "hovering" over a brushpile, tightlining (more or less) jig/minner rigs w/added weight. They were using pole holders, and fishing from dual seats from the front of the boat ... but, not really "trolling" along, with multiple poles out the front/back, which is what I consider to be "spider rigging".

The rigging used begs a question, to me anyway. If they weren't fishing any more than 10-12ft deep ... why the need for all the weight ?? A 1/16oz jighead will drop to that depth in a matter of seconds ... and the slower rate of fall "could" elicit a strike, moreso than a 1/4oz or more of total weight crashing down thru the water column. The bites were light, with the exception of one (according to the guys) ... so how does having that weight on the line make it easier to see the strike ? With just a jighead/minner on the end ... you'd certainly see "lift bites" more easily. And, it would seem that you would see more "sideways line movement" bites, and probably get more of them, too. Light taps or "fooling around with it" types of hits, would seem to be more easily detected without the extra weight ... since you'd only have the weight of the jig for the fish to move/lift, and a long light action rod wouldn't put out that much "pull down" resistance.
I'm not disrespecting the man, or his method ... I seriously would like to know if there's a viable reason. I heard his side of the reasoning ... but, what do you guys think

.... cp

[craigmorris74]

I was struggling with spider rigging until I saw a post by Whiskers about how he rigged his poles. At the time I had tried light jigs, but in water more than 8' or so, I had trouble keeping the bait where I wanted. I then tried 1/4 ounce jigheads, and while they kept the bait down, I don't think they behaved in a natural enough way to get strikes. When I saw Whiskers' post, I started using a 1/4 ounce egg sinker above a barrel swivel, with a light line and light jig. That got the bait down to where the fish were consistently, and I the number of bites went way up. Don't know if I'm missing side and upward strikes because of the heavy egg sinker, but I've caught 10x more fish since going to this rig in deeper water.

Since these guys weren't using the trolling motor much it seems they could have gotten away with a lighter jig, though.
Craig

[ezgo]

It would have been nice to see them crappie fish the first lake they aired there are a lot of nice fish in there if you can find them. The only thing about the first lake is it is a private lake in owen county.