Spider rigging help

[crappie addict11]

New to spider rigging and cant seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I use the eagle claw crappie rig setup with a 3/8 oz sinker at the bottom and every time I start trolling my line goes well beyond a 45 degree angle. I have an older trolling motor so its hard to adjust my speed very much, but my gps says im going from 0.7-1.2 mph. It seems like if I use a 3/4 oz sinker my poles are bent too much, or are they supposed to be? Or are there any better hook setups I should be using that are more effective? I trolled for 3 hours yesterday and only caught 3 dinks...and it was when I was sitting still baiting my hook. Any advice would be great!!!!

["G"]

Slow down to. 2 to .6 mph

[Locator79]

Your going way too fast. It will more it more difficult with the trolling motor you have, but its do-able. I like to just bump the TM along, sometimes sitting in one spot for a couple minutes, or letting the boat drift. I tie my own rigs, jig on top, sinker in middle, minnow on bottom, but that just my prefernce. The sinker wieght depends on the wind, I always try to use the lightest I can get away with. How deep are you fishing? I spider rigged yesterday, and caught 17 keepers. The fish where I fish, are in the transition phase ,and I caught the majority in 6' to 10' of water in stump fields. Your rods will have a little bend in them, thats OK, just keep them all the same distance off the water so you can see your bites better. I also this year started to use a slip float with no stop, that slides free up and down the line. The float helps me detect the bites that are light and when the fish is swimming side to side, rather than the bend of the rod bite.

[Hoosier Hog Daddy]

Not sure what kind of rods you are using, but I really like the B&M pro trollers. These are great and I think that when they designed them, the testers used up to 4 oz weights to see how they handled them. I use them for spider rigging as well as pulling cranks. Also what the others said about speed. You can also paint your tips with a florescent orange and use hi vis yellow line to better detect the subtle bites. If I remember right, the last time I fished with filletfettish, he had a plastic bead placed on the line between the last eye of the rod and the tip. I think that the idea behind that was to help detect bites, by the sound of the bead clicking against the rod? Of course, no amount of high tech gear is going to help if you are just fishing in a bad location.

HHD

[$hane Ghent]

My assumption on "SPIDER RIGGING"
I sit dead still waiting to pounce on my prey over timber or a drop off or flat channel!!
"TROLLING" I usually run .3-.8 in both aspects I like the single jig Apporach unless the wind or current is strong then I'll add an additional jig! I don't like to pull the poles down with weight I I'm Leary they could snap off if a big gar/grnel/bass latched on!

[SlabSlayer77]

It takes awhile to get the setup that works for you. What kind of rods and rod holders do you use? I've tried quite a few different rigs before settling on the Caps and Coleman style rigs. I've had the most luck with them. Ill send you a PM.

[windstone]

one of the best guides here in ms told me to get to .04 mph and then slow down. i use 1/2 oz weighs in the middle. before i got a power drive v2 i had the same problem. i would have to get my tm up to .07 or so then shut it off til it got down to 0. another thing u can do is use chains or drift soxs out the back to get your speed down if your tm can't go that slow....

[bigarm]

Ditto on the slowing down. Drift if you have to. Use TM only for direction control. Best to troll into the wind. and then you can use TM more and wind will slow you down.

[crappie addict11]

Your going way too fast. It will more it more difficult with the trolling motor you have, but its do-able. I like to just bump the TM along, sometimes sitting in one spot for a couple minutes, or letting the boat drift. I tie my own rigs, jig on top, sinker in middle, minnow on bottom, but that just my prefernce. The sinker wieght depends on the wind, I always try to use the lightest I can get away with. How deep are you fishing? I spider rigged yesterday, and caught 17 keepers. The fish where I fish, are in the transition phase ,and I caught the majority in 6' to 10' of water in stump fields. Your rods will have a little bend in them, thats OK, just keep them all the same distance off the water so you can see your bites better. I also this year started to use a slip float with no stop, that slides free up and down the line. The float helps me detect the bites that are light and when the fish is swimming side to side, rather than the bend of the rod bite.

I let the wind blow me around the other day when I went, but it didnt help it was a 20mph wind. At first tried to stay out of the wind, just because it was blowing so hard, but decided to try & use that to my advantage. I was trying to fish around 8-10 ft...in anywhere from 10-15 fow. I am using 10' rods & I made my own rod holder setup with some pvc and rod holders..seems to hold them fairly well. Thanks for all the info fellas, I'll keep reading this info and making sense of it all once I can get back on here again.

[Locator79]

I let the wind blow me around the other day when I went, but it didnt help it was a 20mph wind. At first tried to stay out of the wind, just because it was blowing so hard, but decided to try & use that to my advantage. I was trying to fish around 8-10 ft...in anywhere from 10-15 fow. I am using 10' rods & I made my own rod holder setup with some pvc and rod holders..seems to hold them fairly well. Thanks for all the info fellas, I'll keep reading this info and making sense of it all once I can get back on here again.

Invest in a drift sock, it will make fishing in the wind a lot more manageable.