I started spider rigging about 2 years ago with 12' poles and soon switched to 14'. Been wanting to go back to 12' due to easier handling. I've recently been using 4 poles, 2-12' on left side and 2-14' on right side to check out the difference. There is about 6' of separation between 12's and 14's. All 4 poles are rigged the same. My last 3 trips, I've caught 76% of my fish on the 14's. Why?