Spider Rig Trials - 1st Attempt

Decided to wing it this morning and give it the ole college try. Took my oldest daughter with me to our little 200 acre lake. It's a great lake for testing new things. It's got average to small crappie, huge bluegill and shellcrackers, and pathetic bass :)

Rods

• Six 14' Southern Crappie Rods, one 14' CrappieMaxx IM6, and one 12' CrappieMaxx IM6 *NOTE* CrappieMaxx had a little more backbone, but both brands performed very nicely

Rig

• 6lb Hi-Vis mono main line on spinning reels. 1 oz barrel weight followed by a glow-in-the-dark bead to a swivel. 2 foot leader of Trilene 4lb test mono in low-vis green.

Jigs

• Combination of 1/16oz Roadrunner and a couple 1/8oz painted round jighead (no spinner)

Lures

• Used my same go-to - Kalin curly tails and Southern Pro in my confidence colors - Acid Rain, John Deere, Blk/Blue/Chart
• Tries some new ones - 3 inch Bobby Garland Slab Slay'R and the 2.5 inch Scented Wiggl'R
• Crappie nibbles - the ones with the darn sparkles that I mistakenly bought and will never get again :mad:

Results:

The surface temperature was 61 degrees and it was foggy, overcast, and the occasional light drizzle. We caught 18 speck in just over two hours on all rods, including two double hook ups. Definitely more challenging landing them compared to longlining. We found them on the deepest contour, closest to the shoreline. The cool thing was we kept seeing them chase the bait schools breaking the surface. It was neat being able to turn the boat on a dime and go right to the spot and hookup. We were able to range in speed from 0.4 to 0.9, so still could cover some ground.

While I still much rather enjoy the excitement of longlining, I do plan to employ this technique more this year. Specifically on certain smaller bodies of water or in instances where I want to focus on a couple of isolated spots that I can repeatedly circle.

Lessons Learned:

• "Tactical Backwinding" - When a shallow bite occurred, < 4ft deep, found it effective to slowly backwind while maintaining pressure to be able to net and land it.
• I'm happy with the 1oz heavier weight, lets me use the speed of my choice. This was especially true to impart action on the roadrunners - 0.4 seemed the slowest speed to cause a decent spin.
• Going to have to put my rod rack holders back on the boat. 8 long rods was not fun to manage across the middle of the boat deck.
• Going to stick with single jigs. With 8 rods out I can cover the water column effectively without dealing with the tangles and stresses of a double rig.

Hope this helps someone wanting to give this method a try!

Attachment 185670

Attachment 185671

Attachment 185672

Looks like your ready for some big specks.

Great report, thanks.

Sounds like your ready to go good luck

You faired better than my attempts so far. Nice report.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tundah

• Crappie nibbles - the ones with the darn sparkles that I mistakenly bought and will never get again :mad:

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Been there, done that:Rofl
Hated the sparkly ones. My wife said it looked like I had my hands all over a stripper after I got home.
They didnt seem to catch the fish as well either.

Great report. Looks like a great time.

What brand of rod holders are those?

They are SpyderLoks from E-Z Poleholder over in the member sponsors. 3rd brand I've tried and by far my favorite.

GLAD YOU GOT OUT! 1 OZ IS ALOT OF WEIGHT! THE THING YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER ON THAT IS WHEN IT IS CHOPPY...YOUR ROD TIPS WILL REALLY REALLY BOUNCE WITH THAT MUCH WEIGHT SLINGING UP AND DOWN.... YES...DOUBLE HOOKS ARE A PAIN IN THE BUTT! I'LL DO A FEW WHEN IM FISHING MYSELF...BUT GUIDING...WHEW...14 FOOT RODS ...SOME INEXPERIENCED CUSTOMERS...= MESS !!!!! TURNING ON A DIME IS BEST ASSET ON THE PUSH!!!

Good point Golfpro, I didn't consider the wind factor. I was lucky it was a calm day, but that makes sense.

1 oz wgt pretty heavy - you should when (pushing) spider rig run in neighborhood of 1/2 oz so as you have a little angle on line in water (approx 15 -18 degree) when slowing - too much wgt will load road tip too much and create more bonce. Crappie like
a slow somewhat steady approach - up and down they won't mess with.
When you slow up this alows line to swing down, much better attrantion. move your speed from .5 - .9
nothing on a steady diet. - get into siz-zagging a little more, allows jigs to move
fast and slow by the turn of boat. Also allow you to detect at what speed they want
presentation
Excellant report and explained quite well.....
Invest in a net (not to heavy, that is can be extended to 10 -12') get a net man
to work it correctly - upon hookup bring fish to surface not out of water, lift rod tip
and fish will move toward ( do not have release or take in line) let net person get fish.
14 ft rods are excellant begining. When commin in- check to see where hook is in
mouth. In roof do not worry how to land, in side a little more finance is needed and
use the net.
6 lb for main line good - 4lb leader line is good for most lakes in Florida - do not use
4 lb at Crescent....weight of those fish will break you off.
Spider riggin, do not have to slow boat - no worries that lines will drop to bottom and
become tangled in grass /stickups etc. 8 pole spread varied drops will help hone in
water column locations. Excellant observation of spec's chasing minnows on surace.
Again great report...early darn hrs, water for surface rings.Thanks for sharing.
Believe it or not - more fish are caught between 3 & 5ft consistantly than other depths
regardless of how deep water is.

Thanks Harold, you have steered me right before! I will....reluctantly...downsize the weights on the next go around. I guess my thought process was leaning towards keeping the lines vertical while still be able to hit the gas pedal a bit because I honestly have no clue where to target them using this method so I basically tried to use my longlining tactics modified here to go after the contour lines - plus I was using roadrunners so had to keep them spinning. I get so jealous reading the electronics forums and other states where there are these beautiful pictures of brush piles and sunken trees in 30+ foot of water that you can just hover over.

While I have noticed a semblance of "schooling" by the black crappie down here, it is usually during the summer off of a deep point at the thermocline. Even then, I may only get a couple hookups and the spot becomes dry.

As for the net, we got a nice extendable one, 8' I think. If anyone saw my daughter and I on the first couple attempts it was probably quite comical...we were all over the place trying to land em! Good point on the hook location. I noticed more hookups on the roof of the jaw than otherwise.

I think my plan next time is to drop the roadrunners/curly tails and go with basic jig heads and slow the presentation down a little. Gonna use more bobby garlands and some zip jigs.

My 2nd attempt will probably be this Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning with my nephew. Not sure what lake yet, maybe Johns Lake, Teneroc, or Kissimmee...

What water temperature you think I could start finding them in the shallows, less than 5 feet? In that instance, I would essentially have the sinker just below the surface and only the leader depth would be used. Sounds challenging, but fun to stalk em shallow!

Down here water temp needs to be 65 - 68 before some serious movement.
Check your filets for roe / darkness of males / did you catch more males than
females and at what depth were males/location (weed line - edge drop off -etc
Were you 200 yrds from shore -with your electronics what contour were you on,
At or near sand bar etc.
Is underside of male scuffed and show signs of making a bed ?
Colder water and mixed cold fronts will slow them down - you slow accordigly.
Next time out - when you take the hit and landem, STOP, SIT STILL FOR COUPLE
MINUTES, your looking for fish not road race. - turn on point of mark or hit and
come back through slowly - usually where there is one mostly likely there will be two
or three (same size) Don't worry about losing the fish on first time or two - record
in mind everything you can when it happened - temp-depth- speed-color- jig type
pole position number on rod bar (we discussed this before) Take a notebook and pen

Spider rigging is more about location - presentation - not reaction strike as when
long lining.
When you read just about every article by the "big guns" the guys at the pay window,
time in, time out are the Spider riggers...Caps Colemen - Ron Gant - Sam Heaton -
FCC guys -Darryl Cole - Sam Adams - George Parker - John Peyton -Tommy Kinsler -John Hill -Don Collins -Denny Tittle -

wow looks like fish on every pole there bent over pretty good! new at this myself seen 813 on name. im a seffner guy myself........please dont hold that against me,lol gonna chase tht around cresent on sat.

Hey guys....keep it simple. Lot of good information been given here but my best advice is keep it simple and enjoy yourself. Let the pros worry about all that technical stuff.:biggrin

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Originally Posted by Speckanator

Hey guys....keep it simple. Lot of good information been given here but my best advice is keep it simple and enjoy yourself. Let the pros worry about all that technical stuff.:biggrin

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Good point there! I've tried every rig imaginable over the last number of years....with 8-10 rods for pushing..i go with a 10lb main line...1/2 oz trolling sinker and a 6 lb floro leader with gold Aberdeen hook or jig ....I always tip them with a minner! single hooks are a WHOLE LOT easier to deal with than doubles! We fish alot of trash piles...and your gonna get hung up!!! If it was clear sailing...doubles aint bad! ...still a pain to transport on your rods though...

I enjoy the intricacies and technical side of it just as much. I find discussing the endless variables really helps the learning process so I can find my own style. It's all fun to me, guess I'm a nerd like that [emoji1]

thanks for great pics

Thanks everyone for some great information. Thanks for sharing.

All good info and I learned some too. I will add that keeping the road runners spinning isn't as important as you might think. Flash is just as important as spin and creates a vibration also, though not near as much. A good example; I met a man who lives on Lake Murray near Columbia, SC that striper fishes there a lot. First thing he does is tie on a 1/4oz white RR on 2 separate rods, and these go in the rear rod holders. While he casts and does whatever in the front of the boat these in the back are along for the ride. The end result is that 60% of his fish come from the back of the boat. Sometimes less produces more. As Speckanator said, keep it simple. Learn all you can from all you can and form your own approach, you'll probably teach us all something when it's all said and done. Mistakes are kinda fun......when you look back at them.

Thank Skeet! That is great info on the roadrunners cause I sure do have a lot of them and it will be nice to keep the confidence using both methods, not to mention convenient. I can't wait to get out there this weekend for Round 2 and I think I know exactly where I want to go and find some bigger ones. So much fun diving into this!

Good job guys, thanks for sharing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skeetbum

All good info and I learned some too. I will add that keeping the road runners spinning isn't as important as you might think. Flash is just as important as spin and creates a vibration also, though not near as much. A good example; I met a man who lives on Lake Murray near Columbia, SC that striper fishes there a lot. First thing he does is tie on a 1/4oz white RR on 2 separate rods, and these go in the rear rod holders. While he casts and does whatever in the front of the boat these in the back are along for the ride. The end result is that 60% of his fish come from the back of the boat. Sometimes less produces more. As Speckanator said, keep it simple. Learn all you can from all you can and form your own approach, you'll probably teach us all something when it's all said and done. Mistakes are kinda fun......when you look back at them.

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And I use them too Slab, but in the warmer months. Haven't drug anything around for a few months but it isn't far off. I don't go without 2 mistakes in the box.