Tightlining/Spider rig depth control?

[Ranger690]

I went out yesterday for my first attempt at running 4, 12' rods out the front of the boat. I ran some corks out the back while trying this out. I did catch one fish on a orange head/black grubb. My question is, how do you set your depths out front? This is all new so I have several questions.

1. How far off of the water do you keep your rod tips?

2. I know you can check length of line out by holding rod straight up and letting weight down to handle (12' in this case). But my rod tips were about 4' above the water, so if I wanted to fish one at 15', I would have to let out 15+4=19. Do you guys mark your rods or line? I was wondering about a bright colored bobber stop tied on as a marker? I need some ideas.

This crappie stuff is going to be very interesting. I am very excited about learning it.

thanks,
Dayton

[chaunc]

Use the bobber stops. They work great. I use the orange on the deep pole and green on the shallow. We can only use 2 poles at a time here in Pa. Set yours at diffrent depths out of the front of your boat and use the colors to help you.

[ShilohRed]

I'm just getting started also. But have my 16 ft poles and 10 ft poles marked every foot with tape. Picked up 5 rolls that have red blue green white and orange. have the depth on each color. And the same color in each spot on each rod.
Also I keep my rod tips about 6" above the water.
And have 4 hooks per rod spaced 1 ft apart.
Pete

[whizkids]

I like to keep my rod tips about 12" off the water. If there is a lot of boat wake your rod tips may hit the water.


I mark my rods at 1 ft and 3 ft from the reel. I can pull of line as needed.

I also know how many ft. 1 turn of the reel handle will reel in. This way If I start at 12 ft. I can lower or raise my bait and never remove the pole from the holder.


It is a good idea to have some idea of the depth the crappie may be holding at before you start fishing. Talk to people or run the area and see what depth you mark bait or fish.


If you are using 4 poles I would start by staggering the poles at 1 ft or 2 ft depth intervals. Then by winding up a little line or letting out a little you can keep changing depths untill you find a depth at which you are catching fish.


Remember if you use spinning reels and pull off line with the drag engaged the line will stretch. Depending on the lb. test and drag tension. My six lb. test will stretch 10 inches on a 3 ft pull. Before I figured that out I wasn't fishing as deep as I thought. I had to pull off 46" to get 36 inches with no stretch.

The other way is to drop the lure to the bottom and using reel turns raise the bait x number of turns ( ft.) off the bottom. Therer are times fish will relate to
depth from the bottom rather than depth from the top.

It is never to late to have a second childhood.

[dave]

i use 10ft slow trollers,so i let the line down the lenght of the pole depending on the depth of the fish.i pull the extra line of by drag like whizkid does but i measure it by the length of my arm.as for the tips off of the water on windy days or when i`m power trolling i site mind about 4 inches off the water and on calm days 10 inches it`s going to take some screw ups before you get it right.just wait until you hang that big blue on the out side pole and he goes to the other side taking all 4 lines.

[jigdragger]

A good way to keep up with your depth is always go to the bottom and come up.