What Are U Using????????

[sam1]

What length rods do you use to slow troll or spider rig out the front of your boat?Does your rods have guides on them and reels?Or do you use poles that you just tie your line to the tip?If you use POLES WITH JUST TIPS,do you control depth with float?which is better?newbie needs help.All advice appreciated.
thanks

[Barnacle Bill]

I use assorted lengths so I can stagger them. Just recently I started using rods with small spinning reels on them and so far I like them better. Depth can still be controlled with a slip bobber. I have this dream of catching a new world record and wouldn't have been able to play him without a reel with some drag. Well, I can dream can't I? LOL BTW, I'm not throwing away my old collapsable "cane pole" type just in case. They make for good spares.

[Darryl Morris]

Use 10-16' graphite rods (most of mine are 12') with any reel you like. The reel is mainly just a line holder, but as Bill said, you might want something with some drag to it. Slow trolling or spider rigging out the front of the boat requires considerable weight (up to 3/4oz.) to keep the line down as you troll forward slowly. Go to the Fishing Articles link below and check out trolling techniques for more details. I most often tightline or fish over brushpiles using a basic slip float / bobber stop rig. However, if I choose to do some slow trolling, I just add 3/8oz. of weight leaving the float on. Of course the weight will sink the float when it hits the bobber stop, but just reel it up to the surface of the water and use it as a strike indicator as normal. When the float goes deeper in the water or disappears, you've got a crappie (or something - bass, catfish, drum, waleye, stump, lol).

[CrappiePappy]

I, personally, wouldn't recommend tying a line on "just" the tip eye of a pole. Should the tip break - you lose "everything" !!! You should probably run that line thru the tip eye and wrap it around the rod blank a few times ... at least to the halfway point of the rod length. Then tie it off, there, and tape it down (if you don't trust your knot, or don't want the line to slip forward). You can still tie the line around the tip eye, then, but - if your tip should break, you'll still have the tip, hook/line/sinker (or jig), and the fish (hopefully).
I don't do much "longpole" fishing - but, when I did, I used a 12ft collapsable and Cortland Dacron line ... then tied on a "hand snelled" section of mono line with the hook/sinker on that. I attached a slip float on the Dacron portion, since I was only fishing about 1.5-2ft deep (minnows among the buckbrush at Barkley Lake).
When using a "limited" length setup, like that, I highly recommend having a net handy !! I lost a possible 3lb Crappie - twice in two days, at the same spot - by trying to "hoist" the fish into the boat with the pole. :rolleyes:
For "spider rigging" or "longlining" .... generally, a series of varied length poles are used, and reels are attached. (so, yes, you would want poles with guides) You just have more versatility and control with rod/reel setups, than with just a rod. .........luck2ya .........cp