Thread: Spider Rigging vs Pulling Cranks

I pull earlier in the spring than most. Jan,Feb, March I mostly rig and the general consensus from my research has been most folks crank after water hits 60 degrees and fish are post spawn. At least farther south that's the way. By 55 degrees pre or post spawn I prefer to crank. Those fish aren't as schooled up, IMO, tight enough for me to keep rigging. I prefer to cover ALOT of water to find active fish. I also don't bother with bait balls altho if I go over one I usually smile big!! Also, crappies in those deeper bays don't move shallow to spawn all at the same time. So by cranking (I only pull but that is because I have so many people on my boat) I try to catch them moving up, and then the ones who have already spawned, moving back out to feed up to hit the main lake. Main problem with cranking is losing cranks. I probably lose about 50 per year. Thank you Arkie and Jenko as sponsors for me. Any questions ask away.

My thinking is pulling cranks gets a reaction bite even sometimes when the crappie are not in a feeding mood. Let's you go fast and cover lots of water if the fish are scattered. Spidering let's you concentrate on a specific area and keep baits right in front of em. If crappie are on a brushpile or stake bed, I'd rather spider rig em. If you want to pull cranks over brushpiles, have a row of several of em on a flat that doesn't change depth and make a long run buzzing the cranks just over the top of each one of the piles.

The pic of the sonar screen was from May 12 this year. I was long lining a 1/16 oz jig at 1.0 mph in 10 fow. Marking lots of fish. After an hour of long lining, I had 3 keepers. Switched to pulling cranks at 1.6 mph, 7 ft deep- same exact area. Marking same fish on graph. Couple hours later had a limit. The cranks & faster speed got a much better reaction bite than the jigs & curly tails.