I'm interested in learning more about spider rigging with a bobber in high wind conditions. What do you use for bait and how big of weight do you use??
Thanks in advance!!!!
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I'm interested in learning more about spider rigging with a bobber in high wind conditions. What do you use for bait and how big of weight do you use??
Thanks in advance!!!!
I use jigs tipped with minnows spider rigging most of the time. I use 1/2 weight most of the time but fishing deeper than 12 ft go to 3/4. Use to use big slip floats on a set of poles I kept rigged just for rough days. Now I just keep a set of bigger styrofoam clip on floats in the boat. The kind that have a clip on each end. I just clip one end on at the depth I want to fish then put enough slack in the line that pole can't lift float out of the water when it bounces up. That way when fishing deep I can just reel in line and when float hits tip of pole you can wind line through that one clip until you can land fish. Then just reset when you put it back out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cray
Do your baits float back closer to the boat since there is slack in the line? I'm assuming the baits don't stay right under the rod tips??
I do that all the time in high wave action. Ikeep mine baits almost right below the rod tips. Keep just enough line out that when you hit the peak of the wave, the cork doesn't come out of the water.
It's real easy to keep the float in the water if you're barely moving. At speed most if not all the slack will come out but I have found the float still rides the waves better than a pole without a float jumping up and down.
What size, type of float?
What's a bobber
I've been using bobbers for a looong time. I've shown it to lots of friends when the wind is blowing, but especially when the lake is rolling big swells. I've seen the wind blow hard and the lake wasn't rolling or bouncing. I only use them when the waves get big and jerk the baits up and down hard.Quote:
Originally Posted by ToddB
I use a float the right size for the weight I'm using so that it's barely buoyant in the swells. That lets the fish pull it down easy without feeling the float., and You can SEE it better when it goes down. If you use to big of a float, the fish tend to drag back on the line without pulling it down and since you're moving forward with the wind, you miss or lose lots of fish. You can't look at your rod tips when using a float, you must watch the floats.
I attach a float at the depth I want to fish, and let out enough line from the rod tip to the float as to drag the float and not let the rod tip pull it up and down in the water. I usually let out enough line to match the wave height plus just a little. The key is for the rod to Drag the float over the swells. It keeps the bait in the strike zone much longer. I use a clip on float and only clip it on the bottom hook of the float.
I've won several tourneys doing this and Rees Guide used this technique that I showed him awhile back to win a tourney on Enid this year when his trolling motor went out.
Fish any baits you want. All you're doing is keeping that bait in the strike zone longer with the bobber. It's more about the Right Size float for the weight size.
BRM
Works like a charm, know guys that do it on slick days
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I use slip floats all the time, watch the floats, if you see any moment pick up your pole. Works great when matched with your weight. Fish straight down with line almost tight. Side ways bites are easily seen. Works in all types of water and waves or no waves. We lose a lot of bites on those slow days, when crappie are not aggressive. Remember the slightest movement, they are on.
I have used floats that were weighted where they just barely float. And just let the boat float along in stiff breezes. It is real good when fishing shallow in the spring when your bait is hitting the bottom in swells
And you can use them pushing double minnow rigs, jigs, etc??
Any one you prefer? Round ones, cigar shaped, or does that matter?
I use a oblong cork that snaps on at both ends, use it pushing minners, pulling jigs and pulling cranks. If I have to go to 3 or more ozs due to the waves and wind speed I clip 2 together.
I guess it's something you need to try and see what u like best. I'm not a cork fishermen. If I was fishing a tourney tomorrow I'd hope for 20 mph winds. In my opinion there are very few unkept secrets to catching crappie. So if corks were the answer I would see them. And I don't. Not to say I haven't seen them on occasion but when I do see them I scratch my head. I look at it as a math problem. I like to figure the amount of time my poles are actually fishing in the waves, figure how many bites I can get compared to when it was calm, and compare that to how many I can catch on a cork. Truth is, I can only catch 1 on a cork to 5 without a cork(it's hard watching 8 corks when I can feel four rods and watch four pole tips). So with that said, I'm trying to find water my poles will be fishing 20% of the time in order to beat the cork method. fishing is either odds or luck, I don't trust luck. Btw, none of us should ever be out there in those swells unless we have to. I enjoy finding calm water and trying my luck there...u just never know!
I guess I shoulda said trying my odds and not my luck ��
I like the pear shaped or the egg shaped corks the best to up my ODDS when I can't find the right fish in calm water. It isn't foolproof and doesn't always work, but keeping the bait in the right strike zone in productive water certainly ups your odds of catching fish when they're not very aggressive. Bait in the strike zone 50-60% of the time is much better than 20% of the time when it does work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jwater
[emoji476]
BTW, I use round corks also. It just depends on the weight they'll hold up.
BRM
I don't like a weighted cork either, I want to see the cork lay over on a lift bite. I fished the worst conditions I have ever fished in, actually fished not just run down the lake in, and had it not been for the corks we would have been skunked. We had a trolling motor half deployed that never moved after it quit, no way I was planing off in 3 and 4 foot rollers and taking a chance of tearing a 3k trolling motor off the boat. Waves were bad enough that we were taking water over the bow at a fast idle with the bow raised fairly well and the corks did the job. Any other day than tourney day and a dead trolling motor I would not have been there, knew the fish were there, been on them for weeks. Nothing wrong with a cork but to each their own, its not my go to tactic but I sure don't mind fishing with them.
When the wind is blowing that hard, the best cork to use is the one out of a wine bottle. Pop it out with a cork screw, then toss it in the trash. Laugh at those guys bobbing up and down out there and drown away your sorrows!
Seriously though, these guys are leading you right. There's many ways to skin that windy cat and it is certainly another good technique to have in your arsenal. I need to work on doing it some myself.
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I like the idea since I have a lighter boat, happily purchased from BRM, thank you Bill, always appreciate your tips and advice, and about an 8 mph wind, fishing up front by myself, causes my poles/ baits to bounce up and down more than I would like. I've been told regarding boat control, my boat sits a little higher in the water causing me to rock more than the heavier boats.
Couple of well placed sand bags will help too, heck my Basscat has 300 pounds of lead under a deck extension and the Straps has close to 400 pounds of batteries and charger under the deck extension.
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Most good tourney guys don't mind "Thinking Outside The Box", and "Going For It" on a tough day!!! Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. If it does work you look like a smart cookie because you Figured It Out, and if it doesn't work, you at least gave it ALL you had. Never hurts to use a new tactic. You've got to "Leave It ALL On The Water" when trying to win. To most, winning is filling the live well, and whatever that takes, Go For It. You have nothing to lose by Trying.
BRM
This is thinking outside the box. Go buy you an Etch A Sketch, a Rubber Band, and hang on. PMA!!! https://youtu.be/pQ5leb5j-4M
This applies to ALL fishing, not just bass.
BRM
Bill, I'm just giving my opinion. Which has become a waist of time nowadays here. For me, I'd rather feel the bite than see it. I will agree the cork method makes sense...but I can't hold the cork in my hand. As u well know, it's all about confidence. Those fish don't care what kinda pole you have or who you bought minnows from. So I fish with and what I think is best. It gives me confidence. Like I said in my post, u need to try it and see what you like best. Good luck
I agree with you. Confidence is the key. I have the same confidence with the corks at certain times. It's my Hail Mary if things are tough and the swells are killing my spot.Quote:
Originally Posted by bird down
No one can say one word about your success, and I know "For A Fact" that you think outside the box!!!!! The proof is in the pudding. My comments were related to MY experience, and was Not directed to yours. I have the utmost respect for your fishing and hunting ability my friend, and the rig you showed me how to tie is all I use now.[emoji8][emoji23][emoji23]
PMA!!!!!!!
BRM
I don't consider your opinion a waste of time at all, I appreciate your comments. Just because I do something different or have a different opinion doesn't take away from yours.Quote:
Originally Posted by bird down
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigRiverMarine
I appreciate everybody's comments, have respect for all y'all, glad to hear anything new because lord knows I need the help.
I just want to know one more thing, what's the secret rig he showed you that you tie all the time!!! Lol !!
Lol. over the years I'm seeing it more and more. Maybe I shoulda gotta patent.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jwater
Floats also work in hot weather and dead still water also. Or middle of the winter time. Been using the cigar floats for years for this. Rig up a 4 hook Reelfoot rig and sinker just big enough. That it makes the float neutral in the water. Fishing 4 minnows on the rig at ReelFoot or Pickwick in the heat or the summer or cold winter water. Has let me catch lots of big fish. In both conditions, I push the baits forward until they swing back about the boat. Then stop dead still, let the baits go back straight down under the rod tip. Even when a fish is not hungry, they will eat the bait when its dead still like this.
Think of it this way. You just finished a big meal. Stuffed and can't eat a bite. But someone gives you a piece of your favorite pie. You can't stand a bite of it. But its not long until you have to try a taste. Same way with the fish. Guy tough me to fish this way on Reelfoot years ago. We always had dual stabilizers on one side of the boat. And dragging a chain to keep the boat from moving froward or sideways. We would be fighting a fire drill with 8 or more fish on at one time. While people around us. Could not catch a fish. :Rofl :fish
Also I never like to see a bobber go down. As the big fish 99% of the time pick the bait up. Thus the bobber sitting neutral in the water. Allows you to see that bobber lay on its side and set the hook on the big fish.
Also this is a bobber. Attachment 271841 rotfl