Hit Fork again on Friday, and Spider Rigging is still filling the cooler. Had Friend Tyler Poppa and his Son Matthew for a day of fun fishing. Still fishing the water depth of 35-40ft, even know the surface temp raised a few degree's(54) since last Friday(52)Fish are still scatterd until the temp get around 48-50, but no better way search'em out than slow trolling. Hit 2 spots and stayed with it until the numbers were met(75) 3 man limit).

Nice! Ran around for an hour this am before we even got the lines wet. Wasted too much time at the first spot with only 5 fish so we headed to spot 2 and ran outta minnows in 2 hours. Ended up with 40. Pops is happy, back to Louisiana with 3 bags of fillets. I gotta get a counter, I'd a guessed we only had 30 or so...

Very nice Cliff, Tyler, and Matthew. I didn't do as well on Tawakoni, but still good.

ibfishing, what is a spider rig? i fished fork friday today and yesterday, did ok, but didnt have the day yall did.

nice catch!!!

TM,

here is a good pic of what Spider Rigging is...



Enlarged:



I've personally seen as many as 12 rods out on a 22ft center console

this dandy boat here:



using Bee Ready Rod holders. 4 guys, 3 rods a person. Minnows and lots of them.

Cliff is very meticulous and is a great troller and excellent overall fisherman.

IB , are you using minnowws, jigs or both at Fork? I've limited on 3-5 lb channel cat the last two weekends on spinning gear--too much fun to drag out my spider rigs, but I may have to since it looks like you're having waaaay too much fun. Let me know.

Does Fork not have alot of sandbass or do youll catch alot of thoughs along with your crappies?

Jim Good to hear from ya, Them cats are just as fun as any thing, I was trolling Saturday on Ray Hubbard and caught 4 blues on them 9ft'ers and it is a blast. Minnows have been the only thing I've tried, just more confidence and more of an opportunity to land multiple species.

Mark I have caught 1 sandbass the last 2 trips, mostly all crappie at Fork, but Ray Hubbard put 4 Hybrids, 8 Sandies, 4 Cats, 2 Big Crappie and lots of Bar Fish on Sat. Thats the difference in 2 different lakes, but any fish on long poles with 6lb test is alright by me.

Thinks for the info.Im going to have to change my way of thinking a little bit.

Paul watched Caps and Coleman troll 48 rods out of one boat with only two men running them! That would keep you busy even on slow days. I can't afford to own 48 rods and how would you like to buy those minnows when they run $15 a pound!

Sweet!

not to mention how much extra line you would have to buy...can you imagine what a 5 lb. bass would do with 48 lines in the water.

Cliff,

I'm just wondering when your gonna start Crappie guiding on Fork?

re: spider rig trolling for crappie.

please forgive this dumb question: but which direction would the boat be "trolling" with a group of rigs on the bow of the boat?

are all the baits at different depths?

how do you keep the lines from tangling?

The boat's bow is kept pointing into the wind. For most of us, the baits are at different depths to begin with...until you start landing fish consistently at the same depth...then you can move more rods to that depth.

You keep the lines from tangling by using a quality rod holder system like the Bee Ready Rod Holders and spread them from one side of the boat to the other.

In open water, when Wes and I are running all 8 rods out the front, the rod tips are about 2-3 feet apart, and the tips are about 10"-12" off the surface.

Hope this helps.