Spider Trolling

[Random guy]

OK in MN we are only allowed one line, although when fishing a group has anyone Spider Trolled with cane poles. I played around with it last year a little but would like to try this a little harder this year. On a lake such as Upper Red what a way to cover water.

Any thoughts?

[vermilionfox]

Jon,

I have spider trolled at Kentucky Lake, but not with cane poles as we used light spinning gear. I'm sure that there really is no difference. My ex-F-I-L and I would run a 14 rod set-up. The depths would vary in a spread of about 1 foot. We were fishing known attractors (cribs) so depth was well known. We alwasy used Mister Twister type tails. The rig imitated a a school of "minnows" pretty well. We always caught nice fish. But we only used the rig at known attractors. It is a great way to thoroughly cover an area.

Any open water trolling we did was with two rods apiece trolling a Wiggle Wart, usually over channel edge stump fields. That was a mixed bag, crappies, smallies, LM, sauger, blues and channels.

[markkstanley]

Done it when I lived in North Carolina. We used 10 to 16 light spinning rods but cane poles will do it just as well. Rod lengths varied from 6ft to 12ft to get the lures spread out. We trolled open water with them looking for suspended fish. Should work on URL but just imagine the mess a snotrocket will create with all those lines in the water. No pike down south so no fear of tangled lines.

[Random guy]

Those snot rockets know my boat, it scares them.

Good point Mark, Red lake snot rockets run 40", that could get messy.

[markkstanley]

Here's the picture - you get a crappie on the cane pole 40" pike grabs it takes a run, heads under the boat and you have at least 3 poles to grab NOW! - I can see the dance. Still spider rigging is so effective for open water crappies you have to go with it.

[Random guy]

I talked to a old timer that fished with cane poles 100% of the time. When asked about the big pike he looked at me as any oldtimer with wisdom looks at a young pup and said "Just throw it in". They would throw the cane pole over board and chase that around until the fish played out. Now I do not know the legality or how it would be viewed but it does make sense. My luck I would buy the only sinking cane poles on the market.

[MuskyBug85]

when my father was a kid thats just what they would do when they hooked a good rocket. he said they run for about 10 mins and then you see your rod float up. he said it was a blast to follow and watch what they did.

[B@ssmaster]

My father tells similar stories of his dad and his uncle teaching him to fish pike that way. Said the pole worked just like a huge pencil bobber. He said when the fish tired out a bit and the pole came up, they gently unhooked the line from the cane pole and then connected to a baitcaster to finish the fight. Must have been interesting....

[CRAKSHOT]

Anybody ever try those mini-umbrella rigs for trolling for crappie?I was reading about it,looks like it would work pretty good.

[markkstanley]

They do but not legal up here. You aren't matching the hatch when trolling those you are creating the hatch. Imagine all that pink and red in the water if Jon were drag the umbrella rigs on URL.