I'm looking for everyone's opinion, experience, or observations in this as it really has me stumped!

Normally, when I start working with an idea, a theory, or a different or new way of doing things, I can often make it work. This however is NOT a new way of doing something.

I would love to see Don's experience and opinion in this matter (you will see in a minute why).

Know that I have talked in length before about the differences between how we fish for crappies in the North vice how it is done in the South. They are much more successfull in regards to spider rigging than we are. I "used" to think that our clear water and fish being boat wary played a factor in our limited success however, two things I have found seem to point to something else.

The first thing is that, over the last 4 months, I've had great success slow trolling (.4mph) jigs and minnows or hooks, sinkers, and minnows for crappies. Oftentimes this is right next to the boat, right in front of the boat, or right behind the boat. This really isn't trolling as much as it is controlling a drift per say. I've had no problems catching crappies to within a couple of feet of the surface of the water! So, then why would we still have issues spider rigging?

Over the last couple of years I've played with something and had absolutily ZERO success with. I tried it again the other night with the same results! While I was fishing, I had a thought. What I was doing was very similar to how you would setup a rod for spider rigging!!!!!

Many of us have used this before. Think of a perch rig. A bell weight on the bottom, a hook up above the weight, and then maybe another above that. This is also how a lot of spider rig rods are setup. Based on the speed they are pushing will determine the size weight they use in order to keep the line verticle as they move forward.

So, I've tried EVERYTHING I can think of in order to make this work. Depth isn't an issue as I can be catching crappies right next to the same rod. I put a bell sinker on the bottom with the perfect amount of weight to keep the line verticle. I've tied hair jigs, flies, floating jigs, and regular hooks above my weight. I've tied them direct to the main line with a polymar knot, I've tied them free moving with a loop knot. I've used a caps and coleman type system. I've Used leaders off the main line. Heck, I've even used crappie rigs (similar to perch rigs). All of them have yielded me a grand total of ZERO fish!

I guess the question might be: Why am I trying to utilize this technique when other ones work so effective? The answer is that I would like to have my line as verticle as possible (while slow trolling) in order to PIN my rods in different locations without the feer of tangles. It also allows me to have more hooks on one line.

Understand that the minute I take off this rig, tie on a hook to my main line and then pinch on a split shot to get me mostly verticle, I can catch crappie like nobody's business.

Why doesn't the bell sinker work? Is it because the minnow is allowed to move freely behind the sinker in my normal setup? Is it because the fish cannot sense the main line in this setup or the weight of the rig? Does it look more natural to them? I don't know the answer to the questions but it has me baffled. I did it the other night for 2 hours with the same results. MAYBE, just MAYBE, this is the reason why we don't have as much success spider rigging. Maybe the black crappies don't like this setup. The weight, they feel something not natural with the bait and spit it out before we ever see it? OR, maybe it is because crappie feed UP! With my normal setup, that bait behind the weight can move freely thus allowing them to swim upwards until the splitshot stops them. With the drop shot setup, the minute they have the bait in their mouth, they try to swim up and cannot more the weight!!

Maybe the answer is longer leaders off the main line? I'm not done giving up on this yet but, I think I'm on to something in terms of feeding upward. For my next test I might change my leads out to be the normal length I use from a split shot to the hook. Maybe that is the key.

Anyone else play around with this? Have any ideas about it? Thoughts or theories? I'm all ears.