Windy sleeting and my first day spider rigging

And I slayed em on the petit jean river flowing into blue mountain. I caught them in 20 ft of water 10 to 14 ft deep. I have taken all the knowledge I learned from Don and applied it to today's trip. Theres no better way to beat the spider rig learning curve than to learn from one of the best! I have some funny moments from today I'd like to share but its late so I'll save em for later. Thanks to the fabulous people on this site who's knowledge and experience have motivated me to fish hard this year and stay after them. Before crappie.com I woulda caught 4 maybe 5 today and after I have a nice limit to fillet! Gotta catch some shut eye and get after them again tomorrow. Thanks again to all! Attachment 119729 also it was my first time using yoyo's which produced 6 channel cat and only 1 crappie (blue mountain cypress bite not on). On top of all that I had 9 juggs out and caught that 13 pound blue in the picture. Filling up the freezer one fish at a time!

Thanks for meeting me in Russellville on short notice Don those 4 14 ft ozark rods were working awesome today! And thanks to creek slick my wife said the rod holders were on the porch when she got home today. And thanks to Dennis for helping me get lined out on where to purchase Cumberland rod holders. I plan on ordering those when I get home!

WTG
Congrads
DP

Now for the funny stuff...I was fishing 20 fow in the morning and caught 6 to 10 fish then they move up and were suspended in about 10 fow. The first dink I caught I set the hook and launched him about 20 ft into the air. I'm sure he was wondering what kind of an amateur was fishing outta that boat 20 ft below him. Also the only time I got hung up was when my buddies came to see how I was doing. No sooner than they started talking to me i lost focus and had 2 poles bow over on a brush pile that I always fish when I am jiggin. I learned that even if your buddies are talking to you you have to continue to watch you poles. The last haha moment I had was due to the fact I am currently using under trigger reels and about 5 times when I got a bite I'd grab my rod to set the hook and I would hit the trigger so instead of setting a hook I was giving slack! Luckily I have 4 quantum reels on order from grizzly so that won't be an issue anymore. Oh yeah one more thing I think I had about 20 dead minnows on my deck when i got done. I didn't want to take my eyes off the rod tips so if one fell he stayed where he fell! No time to try and pick up a slimmy minnow off a deck! Anyway hope you guys enjoy laughing with me as i learn to navigate this trolling rig!

Haha, sounds like you are off to a good start! Congrats.


C.J.

you hanging out with some good guy to keep you in line

Thanks for sharing that with us, Geagle. I'm getting set up to spider rig soon and I appreciate all this info! :ThumbsUp I'm sure I'll do all that and more during the learning curve. Thanks for the report, and the pics, man!

Sounds like a good day. I've never spider rigged but have been looking at rods so I can get into it.

Great catch....and job on learning that spider rigging thing. I have a farm out at Ione on west 23 and get to fish up there occasionally. Did you put in at the new Hise Hill ramp and come down...or go out of Ashley Creek and head up.....We wore them out for a while just out of Ashley Creek in November and December.....I am hoping to fish for a week up there as soon as the Legislature goes home....until then I look out of my office at the gold dome and dream of the thump........hope you get to whack them again soon.

I put in at the new hise ramp and went down river. I hope you get a chance to he out here during spawn I like to fish the cypress by wave land that time if year!

Great story man , I remember my first trip and it was all I could do to keep up with 4 poles , I couldn't imagine at the time trying to fish with 8, but you'll get the hang of if , thanks for the post!!


You can take the boy out of the country but you can't take country out of the boy

good stuff

If you stay on that river/lake combo your in a good place, it's got plenty of fish to be had. As for the jugs, I make my own out of that monster swimming noodle that I cut into ingots of say 14" and usually run 2 hooks off each one with a weight about coffee can size on the bottom baited with a fair size perch, colorful bluegill preferably. Now in the summer I'll plan to bass fish all night on a full moon night and before dark set all my jugs, when daylight gets there and I've had my fun with the basses I go pickup my jugs for freezer meat without spending the 2 trips to the lake, just something I do. When you've found crappie on deep brush you can do the same thing while using your light to draw the crappie in all night for a mess of cats and crappie if all works out.

Good catch, congrats.