Spider Rigging and pushing questiion

This is my second season as a crappie fisherman and i purchased 6 Southern Crappie 14ft rods. My local lake is only about 22 feet deep at its deepest point with a avearge depth of 15ft. im fishing off the front of my bass boat in a spider rig fashion.I dont have any brush piles to sit over which i understand thats what spider rigging was designed for.Im having to troll sorta with my rods out front, i guess they call that pushing correct?can i catch fish this way? i going about 1.2 mph on my trolling motor.

Totally depends on what the fish want. I wouldn’t necessarily say spider rigging was designed to sit over brush piles. I think of covering water when I think of spider rigging. Again, all depends on the fish. Generally I push from .1-.7 out the front. Add weight to keep rigs down the faster you go and maybe a little more the deeper you fish.

You certainly can! Try Roadrunner or jig with "swimming" tail. Try different speeds until you see what they like. Sometimes much slower or even drifting with the wind works. If the water is clear it is more likely that they will spook from your trolling motor. The digitally controlled motors are much quieter, and some props are much quieter than others. You can also use small crankbaits. Even minnows on a minnow rig, but probably a bit slower than 1.2. Probably not as effective during the spawn, but great after. Slow "trolling" over the drops leading to spawning cover and deep cover in that area was working for me 2 weeks ago.

Yup push them but slow down

Thats all I do when I spider rig is troll with rods out the front. I like 0.4-0.7. Allows me to use a 1/2 ounce sinker in between a minnow hook (top), and a 1/8 ounce jig head (bottom), and still keep my lines near vertical.

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Originally Posted by escout

You certainly can! Try Roadrunner or jig with "swimming" tail. Try different speeds until you see what they like. Sometimes much slower or even drifting with the wind works. If the water is clear it is more likely that they will spook from your trolling motor. The digitally controlled motors are much quieter, and some props are much quieter than others. You can also use small crankbaits. Even minnows on a minnow rig, but probably a bit slower than 1.2. Probably not as effective during the spawn, but great after. Slow "trolling" over the drops leading to spawning cover and deep cover in that area was working for me 2 weeks ago.

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i am using road runner jigs that are tipped with minnows.will there be be enough action on the bait at around .5 mph?

Lift one up and see if it’s spinning


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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Originally Posted by hambandit

Lift one up and see if it’s spinning


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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lol why didnt i think of that!

I too am new to spider rigging. Purchased new 14's from Mr. Duke several weeks ago. I was extremely grateful for the time he took with me to help me get up to speed. His motive is to keep it simple. You could benefit from going to Ed's channel on Youtube (Southern Crappie Rods) and watching how he spider rigs. Good luck to you.

YouTube

[QUOTE=need2befishin;3810351]I too am new to spider rigging. Purchased new 14's from Mr. Duke several weeks ago. I was extremely grateful for the time he took with me to help me get up to speed. His motive is to keep it simple. You could benefit from going to Ed's channel on Youtube (Southern Crappie Rods) and watching how he spider rigs. Good luck to you.

yea i went to his house and bought my rods from him,ive watched all his videos and he isnt trolling just sitting over fish not moving unless ive missed them

learnt something new. All these years I always thought spider rigging was using multiple poles while moving slowly. Turns out my wife and I were spider rigging and did not know it. She always fished with several poles if we were anchored at a spot. :)

I go a lot slower than most folks when spider rigging and catch plenty of fish. Sometimes they do want it moving fast but slow works for me most of the time I usually go 0.3 or less and stop around cover. We get a lot of bites when we start to move the baits again. Just what works for me.

I’ve heard the target speed is in between .5 and 1 I prefer .5 or slower and I’ll even catch fish setting still sometimes while rigging up gear. I think 10 ft rods are easier to deal with than 12 or 14ft. But like anything it’s all preference.

The deeper and darker the water, the shorter the rod can be in my experience. I like 10's when fish are holding in anything over 15 fow