Thread: Spider Rigging Depth

Would not think many would be that specific . Rod tips at 6 inches off water I add or subtract line based on fish showing up on graph .I would use 1/2-1 oz. weight at that depth . Cray will weigh in as he is most helpful in these type questions .

Depends on how much weight you are pushing. You can check this by looking at your weight at .8 mph put your TM sonar on 2d and your weight where you can see it on sonar. As a rule I usually use 1 1/2 oz for. 8 to 1 mph and 2oz over 1 mph.

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I have some 1/2 oz C&C rigs tied with both #2 hooks and 1/16 jigs and some 1oz C&C plus KY rigs.

I was thinking about adding 10% to the line out to account for bait rise. So to fish 15'... let out like 17'.

I have 10lb line on my reels but after reading more, I wish I would have used 8.... water clarity is not an issue but drag from the slightly larger diameter line may be.

If using 1/2 at .8 your going to get an awful lot of lift, I’d say with 15 line out you be lucky to get down to 10. Another thing is the more line you pay out the more drag your going to have so more lift. It may go down another foot or so but it’s going to trail back even more. You finally get to a point quickly that because of the drag you gain no depth just more line out letting hooks trail further back. I normally fish 1/2 at .2 to .5 in 8/10 or less. If going below 10/15 at that speed going to 3/4. If anything over .7 I’m going straight to 1 oz. no matter the depth. Then I’m going to watch my lines and if it seems I’m getting much over 15 degree layback I’m going to 1 1/2 to 2 oz. I prefere to have my line as straight down from rod tip as I can get it. I like my tip about 12 inches from surface that way I can better detect those light sideways bites that don’t pull rod tip down. Lots of people like 6 inches and to me that’s great in slick water and if they are pulling pole straight down. But you will miss a lot of light bites you never knew you had. And if you have them to height then you have bow in line and to me makes harder to set hook. That part you just have to play with and find what suits you best. This is just what I have figured out over 20 something years that works for me. Others have their way and it works for them. Take some of what we all tell you and try it. Find what you like the best. Main thing on answering your question though, more speed, more depth requires more weight.

At that speed I would think you'd need about 25ft of line out with 1oz weight.

IMHO ... 0.8mph is Pushing speed, not Spider Rigging speed.

I don't use any weight/speed rule, but I do use a line angle of around 45deg (right triangle calculation) and multiply the length of line out by 0.6 for quick "in my head" depth calculations. I can figure that for every 5ft of line out, my weight will be 3ft deep ... or fine tune the depth by multiplying the length of line by 0.6 ---- so if I want the weight at 9ft I'd let out 15ft of line, or 20ft of line to get to 12ft deep. But say I need the weight/bait running at 17ft deep ... I'd let out ~ 29ft of line (29x0.6=17.4)

I'm running 20lb mono & 30lb braid main lines connected to my weights (1oz) and a 1/16oz jig on a 2-3ft leader line (6# test) and Push at around 1mph. That's when I use the "5' out = 3' down" on a 45deg angle line calculation. Rod tips are generally about 1ft above the surface.

I'm headed to central FL tomorrow to do some spider rigging on a chain of lakes I have bass fished for years. I have seen crappie suspended this time of year over deep open water and with the cold January they have had so far, I'm expecting to find them there again.

In the original question, I mentioned .8 but that does seem fast for deep winter crappie.

In your opinion, if I see fish in the 12-'18' range, a good starting spread would 1oz C&C rigs with a mix of double minnow rigs and tipped 1/16th jigs try .5 mph and go down from there?

Originally Posted by fltcrew21

I'm headed to central FL tomorrow to do some spider rigging on a chain of lakes I have bass fished for years. I have seen crappie suspended this time of year over deep open water and with the cold January they have had so far, I'm expecting to find them there again.

In the original question, I mentioned .8 but that does seem fast for deep winter crappie.

In your opinion, if I see fish in the 12-'18' range, a good starting spread would 1oz C&C rigs with a mix of double minnow rigs and tipped 1/16th jigs try .5 mph and go down from there?

If I was seeing them at that depth I would start like that and slow down from there. In that water temp they might not be real aggressive but then could be. If you slow down from that try one pole with lighter weight.

Originally Posted by Cray

If I was seeing them at that depth I would start like that and slow down from there. In that water temp they might not be real aggressive but then could be. If you slow down from that try one pole with lighter weight.

You mean just vertical fish for them with like KY rig and minnows.... maybe use spot lock, sit down and hold a single rod?