Spider Rigging in March

What's up, guys? Brad Chapel back with you at the spring show 2026 up here in Missouri. And it is cold, but I got a special guest that's gonna help us fire it up. Yes, sir. Fred Rogers. Yeah. Tell us everybody where you from, what you do, Fred? Well, from Memphis, Tennessee, I'm a mailman by trade. Awesome. Yeah, been there 31 years. Uh, former military vet. Appreciate that. Yeah, also. Love fishing. Love fishing. Been taught fishing. Love been taught by some of the greatest.

What I've learned is you take a little bit from this person, you take a little bit from that person because The way everybody else is fishes might not be your way. Right. But if I take a little bit from everybody and combine it and see what parts that this person does that I like and this one does that I don't like, then I can put my own arsenal. You gonna marinate and kinda mix it like a little recipe.

We're g we're gonna talk about Fred's way today and how you normally crappie fish. Well and how it's changed. I know you're kinda like me, you've seen some changes when it comes to crappie fishing. Yes I And you've probably adapted some to it as well. Yeah. S so let's hear the Fred way. What is your normal way to go out and go crappie fishing and we're gonna highlight in the month of March. You're going out and here soon.

Yeah, it's real, so I'm I'm a troller. I'm a troller by nature. I know how the lives go. But trolling is my thing. What you like? That's what I like doing. That's what I'm very, very comfortable and very, very good at doing. So The way things have changed, a lot of things that people used to believe that they don't believe. And you figure these things out as you go. And you can always tell the people that are on the lake that hasn't figured them out yet because they're not catching anything.

You know, uh very first thing I tell people uh and you'll hear a lot of older fishermen say presentation comes first. That's not exactly true. This position. Positioning. You're fishing in a boat. That boat position has to be right. has to be right because today's crop efficient is a little bit more challenging than yesterday's. Today's crop efficient, we have to worry more about the sensitivity. These fish aren't as ag as as aggressive as they used to be.

They aren't, they're coming up to baits, they're looking at them. It's more like they're analyzing rather than attacking. So you have to offset. What's some of the things that you thought you knew, but you didn't know? Some of the things that I thought I knew about fishing long before Live Scope came out is that I thought a crappie would swim by, hit that bait, and come back to it. That's not exactly. I thought that

If that pole bounced, then okay, it's a big one. He playing with it, he's gonna come back and get it. Not exactly right. LiveScope actually showed us what's going on up under the water. Now I know when that pole bounces and then bounces again and bounces again, he's not a big fish. He's a small fish. I learned that those fish will actually come up and look at your bait. And then turn away and go around and go away. Damn.

If he don't want it. And that goes for live scoping, that goes for trolling, the whole nine yards. So The fish have adapted to us. The thing about that is that we as trollers have to adapt to them. No

Let's go through a typical setup in your boat. Okay. And in and beforehand I asked you, I said, Fred, you got live scope? He said, Oh yeah, absolutely. I'm still trolling though. Mm-hmm. So we're gonna talk about trolling with live scope and some of the things that you Have you changed up any of your setups? Are you s you you still using the standard setup you did before? What what's what's the Fred setup to go out there trolling right now?

I'm still using the same standard individual rod holders, the same standard eight pole setup. The only difference that I have made with this is to actually alternate and I can see now where my alternate depths are. In the water color. Uh I'll change I'll have one side shallow. from the left and on the right side I might have the right side a little deeper to offset. Because now I can actually see, okay, I'm seeing fish all over the water column. But I need to know which fish are active. Right.

You know. Because it does me no good if I'm in eight feet of water and I'm trolling six feet deep. And these fish aren't biting. And then I'm and still the eight feet and I'm trolling one side where I got'em up higher in the water, call'em in two and three feet of water and these fish here are active. Why? Simply maybe because the sun is out. Yeah. You know, water temperature, speed is a big deal. Always start out when you're trolling. I start out as slow as possible.

Point two, point three, especially in the spring. Because I don't want to surpass these fish that might give me a look. Fifteen minutes later, if I don't get a bite, I speed up. Bump it up a little bit. Fifteen minutes later I speed it up. After I get it up to about point six or point seven and these fish aren't biting in either water column, that's dead water. It's trying to wrap them poles up and more.

You know, for me even Spider Egg and I love Spider Igan. I kinda like you said earlier, y you know, uh I've been doing it a long wi long time as well. But one of the things that I've changed up Spider Igan uh with the aid of live scope is I've only I've cut down to one bait. Where I typically always ran a a double minnow or a double jig setup. Mm-hmm.

Uh, I've cut down just to a single. Now I'm like you, I like setting them at different depths, but once I kinda figure out, hey, I've keyed in on that. that upper water or the the fish on the bottom, I can do it with less bait. Right. And if you're using live bait, that's that's more money you saving. Right. So if once I can kinda key in, all right, I don't need as many baits because I can key in faster to that depth range. Right.

I another thing that I thought was really neat, uh, years past you we would all be out spider rigging a a b area and everybody would be like, Hold up your pole and tell me what I you at and literally I mean everybody would think I'm at the third eye. Yeah. You come up three eyes I at the bottom hook at the third eye and we're like, Oh man, I had that one a little bit too low or I got a little bit Yeah.

Now we kinda see h heck there's fish from the top to the bottom uh and what you gotta figure out, like Fred said, is where is that fish more likely gonna bite? What water column is he in? Yes. Compared to Hey, hold it up. I gotta gay make sure that I've got everyone sitting that two inches below the second islet. Uhhuh. A and I was I mean, I was like everybody else. We paid attention to that that one pole what I lit at as that. Mm-hmm. Uh I kinda changed up with that. I know that. Yeah. Um but

What poles are you using to spider rig and and I know there's so many different cropping poles out there and there's so many different uses for every one of them and there's a lot of great poles but I mean I started out trolling with I think it was the Croppy Max bade by Bass Pro. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then I met Warren Cotton. Oh yeah. He said you fishing with the wrong pole. Ha ha ha. And he introduced me to B and M. Uh-huh. I started out with fourteen footer.

Graduated and went on the 16 footers. Actually tested the prototypes for the eighteen, new eighteen footers that they have out this year. That's my go-to part. That 18-footer, uh, just like how we you were talking about being able to see the distance on live scope, I took him to Pickwick. with one of my uh club members uh of my fishing club. I let him use my sixteens and I use all eights. It's a two and a half foot reach distance in trolling. made a big difference. I was catching three to one.

And he was like, I need to try the A ten. I said not today. Day. Uh, the new 18-foot BGJP is my go-to pole. Have you drawn the twenty yet? I have not tried to put 20 trolling. I've tried it singlepoling. I like it. Has great backbone. I mean, not many poles you can get you can flip up three pounds. You know. But that pole is so strong on the back end. He bringing him in. But when it comes to trolling, that new eighteen foot BGJP.

I I wouldn't trade it. And if you if you listening to this, if you're seeing this, uh come to Grizzly Jig this weekend. We'll be here till Sunday. Come get you some. Come get you get'em year round too. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, right. But I want I wanna get I want'em to sell out.

Like you know, I I think the twenty foot and and we look back and I tested some eighteens years ago spider rigging, especially during the spawn and those fish, you know, getting up shallow and uh I'm spider rigging in that two to six foot of water. Mhm.

And those fish get spooky, especially with boat pressure. You get an area that has a lot of boats, mm-hmm man, you can get them longer poles, you're gonna catch more fish. There's no doubt in my mind. I would like to spider rig a twenty foot. Mm-hmm. I w I think Yeah. Especially those shallow fish. Yeah. Those twenties would be absolutely deadly. You know what? Oh yeah, they'd be deadly. But the problem wouldn't be if the fish would be biting. It'll be if the fish are men.

That's not experienced can catch'em. And I'm gonna give you guys as are inexperienced fishermen a little tip and trick and I shouldn't do this, but I'm gonna give it to you. Nobody's listening to that. I know. If you're fish in shallow, shallow water, loosen your drag. Yeah. Your biggest problem when you're missing fish in shallow, shallow water is you have your drag too tight. You're snatching the hook up out of his mouth. You gotta loosen that drag enough where it can You got it.

I I think another key when you think long pose man, how hard is that to handle and once you get dialed into a sixteen or eighteen like I said, I haven't done it with twenties. I'm gonna spider rig with some twenties this spring. Okay.'Cause I think just man One of the things is having that loose drag and then feeding that fish back to it. So typically you're gonna set the hook and hold him and then peel that drag out. Yeah. Peel that drag out till you Sliding back

And and I like using a long net as well. I think that's especially long poles, you need a long net. Exactly. And uh a BG J P's uh a soft tip pole, plenty of backbone but Uh I I I I wish they would have come out with it twenty years ago when Everybody lives d w before laughs everybody was spider rigging. Yeah. And you imagine have twenty foot poles. back then You'd win some money. Nah, big time.

I think they would be and you're saying, Man, I I'm not gonna get into uh live scoping and and doing that open water fish but I'm gonna get into sp I'm gonna keep up spider rigging and I'm gonna use live scope. Use that twenty footer. I would I would r man, if I was gonna do nothing but trolling, I would s I would definitely invest in some twenty footers. Oh yeah. Yeah. I think they're gonna be uh It's gonna be a high item. Has come back.

It's gonna be a high I and then you could turn around and use it for live scoping if you want to. Exactly. One thing I that I've really learned is I never really thought that Crappie was as spooky as they are. Mm. Man, you flinch wrong sometimes these fish move and you're like Yeah. What what's the problem here? And suddenly you're like Well, I a lot of these fish since live scope has come now. have been called. And they've been through back. Mm-hmm.

And it's kinda like anything else, like humans. I mean, you adapt to situations. Is there only so many times that I'm gonna let you hook me and I'm not gonna start looking for the hook. Right. You know. And so a lot of these fish have been hooked. One thing that I do, especially when I'm doing plastic, I I love to tip with a crappie nibble or cropping magnet. Uh Slayer Bite. Yeah, the slab bite and I just cover the hook, the tip of the hook.

Uh uh'cause I know my hooks that will drive it through. I just don't want them to see that tip. If they don't see that tip, I stand a better chance of catching fish. Especially in areas like Insardis, Enid, Grenada, these fish have been hooked so many times. And because they're 12 and a half, 13 inch fish, they've been let go. Because somebody's trophy hunting. Somebody's looking for a 13, 14 inch fish. Well, I'm trolling. If he d over twelve he calling in the box. So I'm not a trophy hunter.

You know, I'm fishing. I'm out there to enjoy myself. If I if I happen to catch a 15, 16 or 3 pounder, I'm happy. But if I come home with all 12 and I have 13-inch fish, I'm just as happy. It's not gonna make a difference to me because I love the game of trolling. I love teaching it, I love showing it. So you have to be able to adapt. Now that you know that these fish are getting used to seeing hook, cover the tip. I tell my clients all the time I like

see the bait and he'll turn around and swim off and I'm like, All right, that's a smart fish. We we've got to go find some dumb fish today. Yeah. Because they are they've gotten educated. Yes. And you know, and it's from the boat pressure, from being hooked before, whatever it might be. They say, Hey

My brother uh Tom over there just got yanked out'cause he went for that little thing. Stay away from it. Yeah. I I think they've gotten educated uh one form or fashion, from a hook or n you know, what have you, but uh I I I'm looking for dumbfish a lot of days. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well s and and then in the springtime, you know, one thing about it, the females are feet.

So they're gonna be a lot more aggressive but after spring is over That's when your first start be like, uh uh, I already got hooked this spring game. I know. The males are more aggressive because they don't want anything traveling over their beach. Uh so they're gonna come up and hit and snatch at anything.

Tell me about the real fisherman deal. Real Fisherman Club started back in 2016. Started out with Ten years. Six, seven guys, uh, three of my buddies and their dads and myself. And we actually had our very first tournament with the seven of us on Grenada Lake. And one of the singers won. You know, and and we just started and We evolved, we started fishing differently, and we started growing. And now I think we're 35 minutes strong. Uh I am one of the past presidents.

Uh we're always getting invites to come uh to different lakes, to different places. Uh we we we have an open invitation to the Crappie Compound where most of you see us on Facebook and our videos thanks to Mr. Les and uh Miss Lois Smith. And we we're uh we're not a money club. We're a fun club. I like fun clubs too. The the personal reason for our club was to make

fishermen better. In other words, if I have knowledge And I've ran across plenty of fishermen in my They're not willing to share their knowledge with you if they don't. They won't tell you nothing about what they're using. They won't tell you about the lakes. They won't tell you where to go. They won't tell you how to fish. My club isn't like that.

Everybody in here needs to know the same thing. Everybody in here needs to be on the same level. Whether you use it as better as the person that taught you, that's up to you. But everybody here needs to be on the same level. So it's all about knowledge. It's all about helping youth. It's all about if I come out on the lake and Brad, you're out there and you're struggling, you say, man, I don't know where to go.

me out that's it or you see a member of my club yeah and they s and you say hey man you know Fred Raw yeah yeah man look I'm having a hard time he's gonna tell you where to go He's gonna tell you, hey, you need to have this color right here. And if you ain't got none, he's gonna put something in your hand. I like it. That's what we do.

We try to help everybody because everybody out there at at some point or another needs to help help. You know what I mean? But and we're m trying to make sure that we're not that type of club. We wanna be Helpful. We want to be honest. No, we just try to keep it real. I like it. Uh you know, uh I think that's so fun.

to get out there with your buddies and you know, you get a little brag and right as well. Oh yeah. And and say, Hey, I'm the realest of the boot uh bunch here, I'd be honest with ya. And that's part of the fun. But The big thing is networking together. Oh yeah. You know, and like you said, I have so many buddies of mine uh that I've met way before the crappie connection and and during the crappie connection time. But

Hey yeah, I go out and say, Uh you know what, I'm gonna go to this like I I know Fred's up there, let him kinda give me the lowdown. Give me some starting a air, you know, some reference points and you know, the networking of smaller fish clubs is so great for guys that are really wanting to get into crappie fishing. For me was the Magnolia Crappie Club. Mm. I got into crappie fishing and I'm like, All right, how do you become a better fishman?

You've got to fish with those guys that are good fishermen. Mm-hmm. You know, a and you start fishing with those better fishermen. Yeah. And then all of a sudden you're like, Hey, that guy's he's helping me out now. He's kinda taking you under the wing and Uh i it's such a powerful tool these different fishermen clubs like you got. Oh yeah. I mean we every we have two tournaments a year, a spring and a fall. Yeah. And we try to make sure that every year you fish with somebody different. Awesome.

So you learn their style and they learn yours. And not only that, but you learn how to be a team player. Yeah. You you know what I'm saying? We go We go everywhere from uh Pickwick. All the way down to Eagle Lake. I've seen you guys out here. Yeah. And and we're fish you know, and we fish tournaments at all these. We Uh our fall tournament, I can't say, but it's at Lake Egg, so I'll tell you when we get out there. Okay. And uh because d last year was our first year there.

And this lake has some enormous fish. Nice. And we just went a little late compared to 'Cause they are it's so far down south that their spawn is a little earlier than ever. So we j when we got there we barely missed the spawn, but we caught some great

Fish. Well how can somebody get involved with the real fishermen? Who do they need to contact? Uh kinda give us some of the the nuts and bolts, how did somebody get want to get involved with you? The Real Fisherman Club is not a hard club to join. I do s uh you probably smoke more than cigarettes in a month. Not you, but an average person probably smoke more in cigarettes in a month than what I do's would cost you. Uhhuh. Uh

We also we have what we call a bone a benevolent fund because if anybody passes away we wanna be able to, you know, offer some to the family. Um But to get involved with the Real Fisherman Club is easy. All you gotta do is contact one of us or if you if you don't know none of them, you can contact me and I can point you and get you to the right person. You got one, you gotta meet the members of the club. Two, you gotta have your own boat. OK Those are our two requirements.

And once you meet the members and they vote you in and approve you part of the club. U in. UN. I like it. Uh, you wanna give out your phone number for people to call you? You wanna go that far email? You know what? He preferred uh Fred Rogers, phone number 901 949 7847. My advise advice is to text me first because I got the spam block. Yeah, that's great too.

So it'll probably send you the spam. So if you text me, tell me who you are, that you're interested in being part of the Real Fishman Club, I promise you I will get back with you immediately. Um I mean we have members all the way from Chicago and all the way down to Eagle Lake. So we got members all over the place. Nothing with our club is mandatory because we respect the fact that. We have people in the club that work and we have members in the club that are retired.

Go fishing, we would like for somebody young to be there with them in case something happens. Yeah. You know, sa safety is is about having somebody with you because last year we actually had a guy that His motor went out, his trolling motor went out and the man picked up and they got stranded. Where what light was that? On sait. Oof. And the water was Going to be done. And the water was low, but luckily he was in one of those big lawn boats. Mm. Yeah.

And we made a phone call and'cause I was at work that day and we had three boats on the water just like that. And they went and got'em. And that's awesome. And then they went the next day to get the boat because the water level was going down. But they got the boat out the next day. That's always scary on the water. Yeah. But like I said, we got we got guys all over the place that are willing to do whatever it takes.

Yeah. That's why we always try to make sure we take care of our seniors. We have a group site on Group Me to let the people know that. Okay, I'm going fishing today. So if anything happens to you, I know what lake you're on, I know what boat ramp you launch from. If I need to get in contact with your wife. To let her know I know where you're at, we going to get you. We do that. So we're like a family.

I love it. I love it. Well, appreciate everybody for the time today. Make sure you hit that like button, subscribe, comment. Hey, we love those comments every week. Look at every single one of them. I try to respond to them all, but

Uh, join me on Tuesday night as well on YouTube, Facebook, seven o'clock central central standard time. I'm gonna have Fred on there one night. We'll talk more about the real fishermen, but uh it's at seven central on Facebook and YouTube as well. The next time you got Brad Chapo here, I got For Ed Rogers. Rogers. So in the day I got time. Doing a diagonal thing. But here I'll rest my soul.