Last week Gary, Mike, Larry and I made a trip south to Mississippi for early spring crappie. We fished Sardis Lake, Enid Lake, and Lake Grenada.  Gary and I rigged our boats up for spider rigging which is the preferred way of fishing for the southern fishermen.  Spider rigging consists of rigging the front of your boat with six rod holders and using six long, very limber fourteen foot rods.  Mike and I fished together all six days and spider rigged for two and a half of those days.  The rest of the time we used our walleye skills with crank baits, planner boards and line counter reels.  Spider rigging is a two person undertaking.  Mike was up front with the rods.  I was in the back running the trolling motor, baiting hooks and netting fish.  We used a double hook set up tipped with minnows.  That gave us twelve bates in the water.  One needs to fish in shallower water trolling very slowly about .4 mph.  This is not practical on windy days.  We were able to make it work and landed some very nice fish.  Mike really liked landing 15 inch crappies on a fourteen foot rod.  The rest of our time was spent in open water averaging about 15 ft deep.  We were pulling six rods with number 5, 6, and 7 flicker shads 5 to 7 feet deep at 1.5mph.  This allowed us to cover more water and handle the wind.  Almost all other boats were in the shallow water.  We had success every day in deeper water catching crappies up to 16 inches.  We found it interesting that we landed 4 strippers for every crappie.   Mike and I had multiple doubles and triples with the strippers.  Gary and Larry had the same. This was a great trip with good friends.  I am looking forward to going south to Mississippi again.

Tracy Hayward