Spider Rig Wrecker

[unknown 5]

I thought I post post this picture of a channel catfish I caught today while drop shotting for crappie. I caught him on a 12 foot crappie pole, 6 pound test line, #2 aberdeen gold crappie hooks, with small (the bait shop didn't have medium) minnows, in about 13" of water, trolling at less than .5 MPH. Here in Illinois, we are only allowed 3 poles trolling and the lake I was fishing in only allows 2 poles. I am very glad the other pole line was 12' on the other side of my 5' wide boat. Can you imagion what a "bad boy" channel like this could do to several "super sensitive" $50 crappie poles spider rigged? I would guess he could bust at least 2-3 poles before you could get him under control (if you could). I am very lucky and got him up to the boat and netted before he really knew what was going on. I do catfish a good deal and have catfish rigs with 20# test line and the rig to handle big cats, so I know how to land a nice cat. But I was just plain lucky to land him on my 12' "Super Sensitive" crappie pole. No damage done and I managed to catch a nice mess ofcrappie on the same rig. This is the second time I have caught a nice channel on a crappie rig this year. How do some of you "pro" crappie fishermen keep from hooking into some of these "rig busters"?

[Roberta]

Don't know about the pros, but I know I've caught my biggest channel cats fishing for crappie and usually on a tiny jig tipped with a minnow. I start retrieving, think I've hit a snag and then realize there's some movement on the other end. I don't eat the big ones, but it sure is fun to catch them. Nice fish you got there. - Roberta

[LBM]

Redtick

I don't have a answer for your question since we can't fish with more than three poles here in Kansas.
I have been trying to relay what a hoot it is play with those channel on the long crappie poles. I get dual usage out of my 12 ft poles by targeting the channel too. Don't think I would or could fish this way if I were fishing around heavy cover. The only problem I have is getting them turned and away from the anchor chain under the fishfeeder. Once turned and away it is just open water.
It is amazing how well a large fish can handled with light line and a long limber pole if you can keep the critter from wrapping you up in something.

Nice catch. Just watch it that you don't get addicted to going after those cats with the long limber poles :D

[DENNIS BOWERS]

Good lookin catfish.Bet he was a handfull on your crappie outfit!!Good Fishin To Ya!! Dennis

[rango]

we catch 5-7 pound class channel cats (AKA "thugs") pretty often on our night setups fishing with minnows. sometimes they can create a huge mess when they get wrapped around a half dozen other lines before you can get the rigs out of the water.
a 3-4 lb green carp will also wreck havoc on a night setup.

[unknown 5]

I think Rango understood what I was trying to say.

LBM, we can only troll with 3 poles per person in Illinois and the lake I was on only allows 2.

As for catting with 12" crappie poles, I have regular catfish rigs with 20# line on them when I am seriously catfishing. Crappie make great catfish bait where legal. I like to fish for cats that are used to eating crappie sometimes.

Dennis, I hope the photo editing software works out for you. I made the catfish picture smaller and lowered the DPI with my Infranview software so that it would load up on the computers quickly.

[rango]

if anyone wants to put out a catfish rig while we are nightstalking, well cut up the first couple crappie we catch and use em for cut bait. catfish love em. brim works good to.