Originally Posted by
skeetbum
First, welcome to the forum. The Mississippi board has tons of info to help with your education.
I trolled 300 bandits and similar baits from 1 to 1.5 or so. I used BGJP’s in 8, 10, and 12 feet and ran four rods out each side with two foot separation. They were also set at different lengths to help from tangling so much. I believe they’ll tangle no matter how much they’re apart. I’ll just speak of the rods in the forward portion of the boat, and I ran 8 up there. Also ran some 6’rods to fill in close to the boat. I like a little flex in my rods after having stiffer rods cause fish to shake loose, many tests to this. I’ve landed cats over ten pounds so I’m sure they’ll hold up and I still have the twelves. I also feel that rods and their action for a given purpose is a very personal thing. Some folks use them for different types of fishing and trolling and that changes things a little more. Southern crappie rods are nice, they are my 6’s. Simply crappie supplied me with the 9’s I now use, doing away with the 8’s and 10’s. I moved from TN to FL and no longer troll cranks or I’d still have the other rods which were all BGJP’s. I also never used any rods over twelve as I have to be smarter than what I work with. I’ve run into schools of crappie many times with lots of rods loading up, but have also run into LMB, whitebass and catfish that hit several rods at once. The rods performed admirably. This is just input. Listen to many, do some research and make your choice to suit the way you fish. I prefer to handle any rod before I buy as standards are all over the board with no common standards.