When my wife fishes she is a devout bobber watcher. Yesterday I was able to get her to go spider rigging with me. She hasn't fished in many years & I really wanted to show her how fun fishing this way can be.
I got her involved with setting the boat up at the ramp and explained the general idea. As we took off across the water the wind was rough but not as bad as it has been. I took it easy on the ride to a protective cove in the little tin boat & made sure any spray come my way instead of hers. My goal was to do whatever it took to make this an enjoyable experience for her.

There are several brush piles in the cove but there is one in particular that usually holds a crappie and a bass or two. My thinking was better to at least catch a bass quick to get her attention than start out exploring. I got the 8 rods set out & asked if she wanted to fish or watch me first. She said she wanted to watch first so she would know what to do. In about 2 minutes the first rod tip was snatched under water by a bass. Within minutes we had caught several more bass. By now she was watching the poles like a hawk from the back seat of the jon boat.

The first time she yelled, "#4!" I didn't know what the heck she was talking about as I pulled in a crappie. What she was telling me was rod number 4 had a bite. Soon it was #1, #7 etc. The problem I saw with her method was she was counting the rods from right to left & I was counting them left to right. Once I realized this I asked her to simply say left or right. She compromised by yelling out, "Right 3" or "left 8" and so on. I again asked her to just yell out left or right due to my slow mathematical skills compounded by an additional equation to the issue. I said I was glad I didn't have 11 or more poles out otherwise I'd have to take my shoes off to use her method.

I never could get her to sit up front with the poles. She was content to sit in the back. She retired from 24 years active duty 18 years ago & I believe sitting back there shouting direction, encouragement and counseling when I would occasionally be too slow to figure out which rod she was talking about brought some of the NCO to the forefront once again.

We caught a lot of bass and 15 crappie. I thought she would be hooked on spider rigging for sure. While she enjoyed her day she said she would still prefer to watch a bobber. She said she enjoyed the thrill of watching the minnow get nervous as seen by the bobber acting erratically just before going under. She said she would like to go again but asked if I could set her up with a single pole with bobber for her to watch. My answer was a strong, "You bet!"