Spider Rigging In Ohio

[Jawjacker12]

Does anyone know if spider rigging for crappie is legal in ohio? I know that you can have 2 poles, but I am not real clear on spider rigging. Any help would be appreciated.

[snowcone]

ok i will show my stupid side   what is it   this rigging with spiders?

[slabslayer]

First of all, spider rigging is a crappie technique where you spread multiple poles across the front of your boat.  The rods are various lengths, so your trolling path is 20-30 feet wide without planer boards.  It's deadly on crappie.  I do it frequently in spring and again in late fall.  Ohio was looking into allowing more rods for this technique, but far as I know, nothing's passed yet.  I'll take 3 other guys with me so we can spider rig 8 rods.  My setup is 2 8-foot rods closest to the boat's bow, then 2 10-footers, 2 12-footers and finally 2 14-footers.  They're like a mirror image on each side of the boat mounted in 2 special spider rig rod holders on my boat.  The shortest rods are in the middle and the longest are on the outside.  I'll post a pic later of what spider riggging looks like when I'm back home.

[davidhoheisel]

They are now throwing the rig for bass. They call it the Alabama rig and it has 5 hooks on it and in ohio you can only have 3 hooks so you have to cut off two of the wires or take the hook off of 2 of them and ad a decoy somehow.

Hope this helps

[slabslayer]

The Alabama rig and Spider rigging are actually differennt.  Spider rigging uses multiple rods of varying lengths with only 1 or 2 hooks per line.  It's a trolling technique.  The Alabama rig is a casting technique with 3-5 baits, usually shad swimbaits, on one main "lure."  It looks like a spinnerbait head with wires coming out the back of it that fan out.  I have a couple, I'll try to post a pic soon, going to Monster Jam tonight, so I'll post it asap.

[Jawjacker12]

Yeah I usually take 2 or 3 buddies but then we always fight over who is going to set in the front of the boat. It is a deadly technique when fishing for crappies.

[slabslayer]

I take the seat out of the front of my boat and we take turns bringing in the fish.  Many times we have 2 or 3 rods go at once, so everyone's busy.  When you hit a school it's usually fast action.  My trolling motor's remote control.  I can steer anywhere in the boat, or I can set it to autopilot and no one steers, so we really don't need the front seat.  If no action, we sit in the back and eat and drink and wonder what other lures we should try!

[snowcone]

wow im glad i asked, that is pretty cool but now i feel like just 2 rods is lame  heheheh    oh well the feeling is the same when you catch something....

[slabslayer]

Here are the pics.  The top one is the spider rig, the bottom is the Alabama rig.

[MDBuckeye]

I was thinking about trying this out this season.  What kind of rods are you using for this slabslayer?

[HardWater Junkie]

I agree that 2 rods is lame. I can understand for bank fishing but when your trolling there should be a special law for when you are trolling. You would still have to limit it as some guys would have 50 lines in the water but I feel if you are trolling each person should be able to have 4 rods in the water with a 8 rod boat limit with out planner boards or a 16 line limit with planners on Erie and and 12 on inland lakes. They would also have to limit how far out you can run planners on the inland lakes has they are smaller and you dont want guys taking up the whole lake impeding on other boats.

[slabslayer]

I agree on the rod limits.  There should be special regulations for trollers to allow them more lines. 

The rods I use for spider rigging are B & M Crappie poles that vary in length.  I use 2 each of the following lengths: 8, 10, 12, and 14 feet.  I use a lightwieght spinning reel on these rods.

For the Alabama rig I use a  G Loomis swimbait rod and an Abu Garcia Revo Winch reel with a large diameter spool.

Hope that helps, I wasn't sure which rods you meant, so I gave you both!