slow trolling or spider rigging

[hunter@heart]

I have never really fished for crappie while trolling but I am very interested in learning how to do it and different variations. I will be getting my boat in the next few weeks and it is a Nitro fish and ski. I have a couple of questions.

I read the post on one of the forums about how to troll for crappie and found it very informational. My questions are:

1. What would be the best way to set my boat up for this method of crappie fishing. I would like a setup that is relatively easy to remove when I am not crappie fishing. I know that I will need some rod holders and rod/reel combos for trolling that I do not have. What would be some recommendations. If you have specific brands you have found work ... I would like to know. Also, does the layout of my boat (a fish and ski) affect how I will need to setup my boat.

Also, do you troll with the rods in the front of the boat or out the back of the boat.

2. What about jig types. Do you use a particular jig type (tube vs. shad or grub) to troll. I know personally when I was cast fishing during the spawn, I always used a shad pattern and when I moved to deeper water and fished vertically I always used a tube type jig. I'll be honest, I don't know why that's just how I was taught when I was growing up.

So, does it matter whether you use tube type or something else ... or is it just preference.

I basically justified my use of shad types when casting because I used the Sassy shad type and the paddle tail created good action when retrieving the jig. I felt it was better action than a plain tube jig would give.

3. What weight jig heads do you use when trolling vs. vertical jigging or casting.

4. Keep in mind my terminology on slow trolling and spider rigging may be off, so bear with me. Do you use planer boards to troll or balloons?

My distinction in my mind between spider rigging and trolling is that spider rigging is having several long rods off the front of the boat, fanned out to cover alot of area, different depths, and jig colors/sizes, etc.

Trolling would be running rods from the back of the boat, letting out an amount of line with some floation on the line (bobber, balloon, planar) and presenting the bait at different depths and covering a large area at one time.

Let me know where I am messed up. Any help would be appreciated.

When I get my boat, I would be willing to meet someone for a trip to see how it was done.

Sorry if this seems like a dumb question.

[Barnacle Bill]

Here is a good start for you. You can see how a lot of use have our boats rigged. http://www.crappie.com/gr8vb3/showth...hlight=picture
Spider rigged is just a matter of having a bunch of poles stuck out the front, the back or both. You can troll while spider rigged, drift or anchor. Hope that helps to get you started.

[Rip a Lip]

I would suggest that you watch Russ on his show Midwest Crappie. These are not just fishing shows where you watch them catch fish but usually show depths, techniques, boat set up, speed etc.

http://www.myoutdoortv.com/new/midwest-crappie-3.html

Delaware lake-This show is about spider rigging. They are fishing on a calm day so I would add to this ways to control your boat. Sometimes I fish into the wind with my trolling motor and sometimes with the wind. For fishing with the wind I use an 8 foot logging chain tied to a rope. Simply put it out the back of the boat and put enough chain on the bottom to slow your boat down to the speed you desire.

Clarks Hill slow trolling-This show is about long lining. In other word they have multiiple jigs tied to a line and slowly troll them behind the boat.

Sardis cranks-This show is about pulling crank baits using rods off the side of your boat. They do not talk about planer boards on this show but this is where I use them. Planers simply keep your lines apart and cover more water. I bought three sets of the cheapo plastic rod holders and have one on the front, middle and back of each side of the boat. You will better understand this after you watch the show. I do not use the long rods like they do on the show. I simply started using my medium heavy bass rods for this technique.

These shows should answer a lot of questions regarding different techniques. I know they helped me develop new techniques and catch a ton of Crappie.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

[tnjeff]

The way I look at it is trolling and spiderrigging are two different ways of fishing,to me spiderrigging is more about target a certain area where you know the fish to be,you move very slow with long rods or poles out the front and back.You will need a variable speed trolling motor .You can use any of the bait you like,lot of people use live minnows only.
A lot of times when people talks about trolling,I think they are talking about longline,or flatline or pulling,which I think are all the same thing,just coming from different areas or lakes,on my lake we call it longline trolling,the trolling motor is in the front of boat,and you throw you lines out the back of the boat,just as far as you can cast,place rods in holders and just set back and watch for the bite.Most of the time you will be moving faster than you would be when you are spiderriging,so you can cover a lot more of the lake.The baits I use are 1/8 roadrunners,and 1/8 hair jigs,most of the time I tip them with a live minnow or some kind of grub,I do not use no kind of planner boards or ballons,I just have not learn how,but if it help me cacth more fish I will:D

[hunter@heart]

Thanks for the information

[RogerA]

If you live in an area where there will be crappie tournaments held soon you could go watch the weigh in and look at different boats and the different ways people have rigged them out. Most of the folks at these tournaments are friendly and more than willing to show you their stuff and talk about it.

[SpeckWick]

hunter@heart, what state do you usually fish? that could go a ways to deciding which way to troll. I know here in Ohio we can only use two rods per person, so unless I have four guys in the boat, I can't really do spider rigging in it's true form. If it's two of us as it usually is, I'll push four rods off the front using 1/2 ounce or heavier sinkers tied to the bottom with two to three droppers tied up the line at 18" intervals with either jigs or minnows on each. The weight depends upon the chop or wind, or boat speed, whatever it takes to hold the lines straight down. You can use a lot of different types of jig bodies, and the jighead weight itself doesn't matter much as the amount of line you let out will determine your depth. I call this "pushing", though it may not be the exact word for it. I will also sometimes run four rods across the back and drag jigs, usually twister tails or tubes of some type but it's your choice. With this method, jig weight and boat speed determine the depth, but you can typically be able to cover more water quicker this way. I like pushing better because I don't really feel confident that the baits dragging behing the boat are at the exact depth I want them to be. Maybe I am making it more complicated than I need to, but at least with pushing I know where the jigs are. You gotta use longer rods to push, say at least 10'-16' so you don't spook the fish with the boat before the lures pass over them. You defintiely will need some good rod holders. Perotti Bilt, Titelok, Driftmaster, HiTek, depending who you ask or what you like. Hope this helps. I think I just confused myself.