Hey Mark, I am set up with a set of 12's and 14' rods for spider rigging but for a rod you can do both with the 12 footers are the way to go. You may also want to check out the Southern Crappie Rods, they are very reasonable priced and for 20 a rod you can get the Pinnacle Limit 12'ers. Been using my Pinnacle rods for a long time and they are still going strong after a lot of fish caught with them. Grizzly Jigs use to carry them