Thank you for you and your families service. However, I think your pride is turning into arrogance. Serving in the military is good if that's what you choose to do but it doesn't entitle you to any additional voice in public matters. Your opinion counts just as much as everyone elses.

"My name is Chris and I'm a spider rigger." If I remember right I think I caught 1 limit this winter while spider rigging . I guess I need more practice. I'm glad I wasn't fishing commercially or I would have gone broke.

Wow.....this topic is hotter than that divorcee gal that came to the ice cream social drunk!!!!!!! Whooooweeee!!!!!!

What about that family of bank fishermen who have 8 or 12 rods out with corks. Are they real fishermen, who are spider rigging?

Was that Limit on Lake Fork?

Hmmm, where to start? Sorry, I missed out on the early part of this discussion, I was out cleaning my limit of crappie...

CCC, I can tell you I don't spider rig...I am not smart enough to keep up with that many poles at one time, plus I am too old to endure that amount of pain on a days fishing. The most rods I can keep up with is three, on a slow day, and I can't do that very well. I can do better with two rods, as long as it is an occasional bite type day. But when the action gets heated put one rod in my hand, and I can catch my limit as quick as most can.

Spider rigging, in my opinion is much ado about nothing...Yes its true, after many years of practice and training, some may get good enough to hammer a limit, regularly. But then so do I. Every time I see someone spider rigging, I pull up along side and ask how they are doing, how deep they fishing, and how long they have been there. Most of these guys share info, because they are like the rest of us and into crappie fishing. Either the fish are biting or they are not, and for the most part I find they typically don't catch many more fish than I do on a particular day with my one or two rods in the water. What they can do is cover more ground and catch suspended crappie that most one-pole fishermen don't seek. However, if you see a spider rigger catching suspended fish, then by all means drift fish the area yourself, you can catch a limit with two poles almost as fast as they can, because you don't have as many poles to contend with...

Now about that 12 pack of beer...I only drink water when I am crappie fishing because when I drink beer, I can't catch a crappie to save my life...besides, give me two beers and I will be sacked out on the deck taking a nap! I might drink a beer after I get home, if I am not too tired to want one. But hey, I don't gripe when folks drink beer while I'm crappie fishing, just leaves more crappie for me!!

Actually, I have a larger problem with folks who catch crappie and sell them to the fish markets, they do more harm to our fish populations than spider riggers do IMHO. This is slightly off topic, but I was once told by my great uncle "son you can catch all the spawning crappie you want and you ain't gonna hurt the population, because they are panfish and breed like roaches"

But hey CCC, I appreciate the rant, and the chance to chime in...Man, I just love this forum...

do what makes you happy as long as its with in the limits of the law and dont give 2 fracks what people think.

Sounds like you should tie on a spider rig to me

the last thing we need is the government telling us how to catch our fish, and how many rods we can use to do it. just put limit on how many fish we can keep and let us decide the ethical methods we want to use.

How exactly do you rig a spider? Through the lips? Dorsal maybe?? I'm lost...

Well probably as much as you have!!!!!!! If 18 months as a crewchief doorgunner on a UH-1B helicopter in Viet Nam, is up to your definition of doing something for your country! Then maybe I can throw in, being eaten up with Agent Orange poisoning. So you might want to climb down off " Your High Horse".

Personally I like to feel the thump which is why I don't spider rig or leave a rod on the deck of my boat. To me half the fun is feeling the bite and the other half is eating them. I don't care how anyone catches them as long as it's legal, but for me spider rigging is just something i'm not interested in.