Water Temp and Spider Rigging

What is the lowest water temperature any of you would try spider rigging in. What baits would you recommend?

lowest temp of lake water not frozen enough to damage boat

I'd recommend jigs tipped with minnows ... type of jig tie or plastics used is personal choice, but I would go with a small stinger shad style plastics on the jighead & tipped with a minnow at the slowest speed possible & still control boat direction/movement. In that cold water environment, the fish will not be aggressive biters (or bait chasers), so you'd want to go slow & even stop occasionally to give the fish a chance to take the bait. You would also likely have to watch rod tips/lines very closely, as the bite may be very lite/subtle.

Then again, they may hit it just as readily & hard as they would in warmer waters. I've had them hit a 1/16oz tube jig swam over a fallen tree, in high 30's - low 40's water temps, and the thump was just as pronounced as when I was fishing in >70deg water. There was obviously a school of them hanging out over that tree top, so competition for food may have played a role in the thump being that pronounced.

I’ve fished a multitude of times in sub 40° water. Obviously I would prefer warmer, but you can still catch them. Boat control/speed is critical 99% of the time, but there are outliers. I fished in 40.1-41° water recently and was getting a bunch of light bites and fish not taking the jig long enough to get a good hookset, and slowly started increasing the speed in a 1/10th increments until they started hitting it hard enough to get a good hookset at .5. Some of them were burying the rod to the first joint and others were knocking the rod sideways in the rod holder they were running off with it so hard, acting like the water was 50-60°. IMO, regardless of the water temp, if you can go, go. I look more at the wind direction and speed than I do anything when deciding if I’m going to fish, since I much prefer to drift with the wind if at all possible.


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Agree. Bobby Garland baby shad tipped with minner and I usually find them in deeper water when it's that cold.