Some kayak spider rigging advice

[the reel ess]

My buddy is an accomplished crappie fisherman. I asked him for some advice and went 'trolling" down rigs with jigs on Saturday. I basically paddeled very slowly with what amounts to a C-rig with 1/2 oz. bullet weight and a 1/16 oz. jig on 2 rods. I caught 16 and kept 12. So now I'm thinking I'd like about 4 rod holders that fit into the tracks on my Perception Pescador Pro kayak. Any recommendations would be appreciated. I'll use spinning combos for this. Thanks.

[casts_by_fly]

The yak attack omegas would be great for this. Very adjustable, built well.  I have two that have done various things for me over the past two seasons. If you have front tracks left and right, two at the rear and two at the fronts of the tracks should spread you out just fine if you’re only fishing four.  

[the reel ess]

2 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

The yak attack omegas would be great for this. Very adjustable, built well.  I have two that have done various things for me over the past two seasons. If you have front tracks left and right, two at the rear and two at the fronts of the tracks should spread you out just fine if you’re only fishing four.  

I do have tracks each side.

[Firstoutfisher]

I know its probably not what you want to hear but maybe looking into local machine shops and see if you can have a couple custom made. I don't feel like there would be any off the shelf options that will be ideal for what you are wanting to do. This is something I have never even thought about but this post has my gears turning now. 

[the reel ess]

5 minutes ago, Firstoutfisher said:

I know its probably not what you want to hear but maybe looking into local machine shops and see if you can have a couple custom made. I don't feel like there would be any off the shelf options that will be ideal for what you are wanting to do. This is something I have never even thought about but this post has my gears turning now. 

I think I can find a solution off the shelf.

[Bankc]

How do you plan on paddling with four rods hanging off your kayak?  To me, that would be an issue I'd want to work out first.  For instance, if you put two in front of you and two behind you, it would seem to me that you'd always have at least two lines in your way.  Or maybe not.  I haven't tried it myself, so I can't say how it would work in practice.  You could go with four rods in front of you and paddle backwards.  Or you could go with four rods behind you, but you wouldn't be able to keep an eye on them.  You could do four rods to the side and let the kayak drift (mine always wants to drift sideways in the wind anyway).  

 

That's a picture of the rod holder setup I made.  Originally it had four holders, and they fanned out for trolling.  It might be something you could consider.  Later I switched it to hold 6 rods straight up to make it easier to navigate around trees.  But you can see all of the extra holes from the first rig setup.  Also, the aluminum reinforcements aren't required.  I put them in place when I had my trolling motor attached to it.  I've since mounted the motor off the stern and cut off the side mounting plate.

 

But if you just want an off the shelf one and you've already got how it's going to work figured out, I would think anything from Yak Attack or Rail Blazer would work fine.  I've never used either, but I've researched both a bit, and they both seem to be well regarded.  And just being made of cheap plastic, I'm sure none would stand up to much force (and neither would your mounting rails), but we're talking crappie here, so I doubt that would ever be an issue.  

[Deleted account]

Let's not discourage spider rigging from a yak, I want to see that video, and maybe I can get a new sweater or scarf out of it...  

[flyfisher]

20 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

The yak attack omegas would be great for this. Very adjustable, built well.  I have two that have done various things for me over the past two seasons. If you have front tracks left and right, two at the rear and two at the fronts of the tracks should spread you out just fine if you’re only fishing four.  

i would say omega and omega pros in tandem along with a sidearm track mount.  I use this system for 2 omega pro & 2 omega rod holders on my kayak.

[casts_by_fly]

3 hours ago, flyfisher said:

i would say omega and omega pros in tandem along with a sidearm track mount.  I use this system for 2 omega pro & 2 omega rod holders on my kayak.

 

exactly.  I actually meant the pros (that come with the extra arm).  I don't use the extra arm for what I'm doing but for this purpose it would be good.

 

4 hours ago, Bankc said:

How do you plan on paddling with four rods hanging off your kayak?  To me, that would be an issue I'd want to work out first.  For instance, if you put two in front of you and two behind you, it would seem to me that you'd always have at least two lines in your way.  Or maybe not.  I haven't tried it myself, so I can't say how it would work in practice.  You could go with four rods in front of you and paddle backwards.  Or you could go with four rods behind you, but you wouldn't be able to keep an eye on them.  You could do four rods to the side and let the kayak drift (mine always wants to drift sideways in the wind anyway).  

 

That's a picture of the rod holder setup I made.  Originally it had four holders, and they fanned out for trolling.  It might be something you could consider.  Later I switched it to hold 6 rods straight up to make it easier to navigate around trees.  But you can see all of the extra holes from the first rig setup.  Also, the aluminum reinforcements aren't required.  I put them in place when I had my trolling motor attached to it.  I've since mounted the motor off the stern and cut off the side mounting plate.

 

But if you just want an off the shelf one and you've already got how it's going to work figured out, I would think anything from Yak Attack or Rail Blazer would work fine.  I've never used either, but I've researched both a bit, and they both seem to be well regarded.  And just being made of cheap plastic, I'm sure none would stand up to much force (and neither would your mounting rails), but we're talking crappie here, so I doubt that would ever be an issue.  

 

So the solution for me, is that you put two omega pros on the front of the tracks facing forwards.  You're talking about 7' rods or so (or longer if they are crappie rods) and that would be plenty of distance from the tip of the rod to where the paddle would need to be.  The front of the track is far enough forward that you're not reaching that far up when paddling.

 

the rear two would be omega pros either directly on the rear rail and facing backwards, almost parallel to the boat or close to it.  That would keep tangling to a minimum with the other rod on that side  It should also keep that rod low enough that you're paddling over top of it.  If that doesn't work, then add a might mount on each side of the boat next to the seat to mount the omega on.  That would place the omega behind where you're paddling.

 

If you need to get the holder further out from the boat the sidearm helps there.  There are also options to to raise up the rod holding bit to be higher off the deck, though I don't know if Yak Attack do them or only other manufacturers.  Guys who troll for salmon typically have a raised up setup (and also beefed up).

 

 

[the reel ess]

6 hours ago, Bankc said:

How do you plan on paddling with four rods hanging off your kayak? 

I already did it with two, with the butts tucked under the stadium seat. It's not hard to paddle because trolling for crappie is a low speed affair. I used a C-rig with a 1/2 oz. bullet weight above a 1/16th oz. jig. That kept the line mostly vertical. I dropped to the bottom, then reeled up 3 turns of the crank. Then I just slowly paddled. The cool thing about down rigs is, if you get a fish, you can easily go right back over that spot. But if you're pulling lines you have to keep moving.

 

I plan on something like this. But I wanted to know if anyone had experience with it.

 

[the reel ess]

As you wish.