Carolina Rig
The carolina rig is nothing new, but it is not flashy enough to draw a lot of attention. It is so useful because of it's versatility. You not only can use it with a plastic worm, but any soft plastic, live bait and even hard plastic crankbaits and jerkbaits! There really is no other rigging method that can be adapted so easily to different cover and conditions. Let's take a look at the necessary gear to make the carolina rig work. First the rod needs to be around 7 to 7 ˝ feet with a quick tip and in the medium/heavy range. This is because your bait will be right on bottom and possibly lots of line in between you and the fish. You need good leverage and quick response in your line to set the hook. The stiff action in the rod will get the fish heading to the boat in a hurry. Next is the reel. A bait casting reel with a ratio of around around 6:1 will allow you to take up all your slack quickly once you feel the “tick” on your line. A bait caster will easily handle yards of heavy line and pull like a winch. Carolina rigging is wait, wait and then reel like heck. Obviously the line is the next issue. The line from your rod to the swivel needs to be heavy. Up to 20 pound monofilament or equivalent in braid is a good idea. Don't worry about the heavy line because you take a step down on your leader. Somewhere between 10 and 15 pound test is good for a leader. When fishing in clear water or bright conditions, use a fluorocarbon line for the leader, as it is much harder to see underwater. Generally 18 inches of leader is used for every 10 feet of water depth. From the picture you can see a bullet sinker, a barrel swivel and a worm hook. Nothing special is required on carolina rigs in this department. Your choice of soft plastic bait goes on the hook. The bullet sinker needs be only heavy enough to stay planted and a size 10 or 12 barrel swivel is all that is needed. You can get great deals on your carolina rig supplies at Fish Usa.com. Run the hook through the bait and back into itself like the Texas rig to prevent snags. Now let's go fishin. Take the carolina rig for a ride to your chosen spot (carefully chosen spot). Points without lots of tangled rocks are a good choice. Rocks tend to hang up the rig more than weeds do. As you will be fishing the bottom, you can tempt those fish that have moved off the main structure due to high pressure systems or daily migration. Simply cast out and let the rig sink to the bottom. Watch carefully as it sinks because you can get bit on the drop as well. Let it sit for a moment and sweep the rod to the side a foot or so. Reel up the slack slowly keep in contact with the bait. Your signal will be a light “tick” on the line when the bass picks up your bait. Also you may notice your line swimming away. Not much different than the Texas rig at this point. When it is time to set the hook, quickly reel up the slack and snap the rod upwards. That is it. Now for some variations. Instead of a plastic bait use live bait. You can lip hook a shiner or shad on the carolina rig and draw it right in front of a moody bass. He will have no choice at that point. Yet another artificial rig is a floating jerkbait or crankbait. With a quick jerk and pause motion you can keep the bait right in the strike zone for the whole retrieve. Adding a floating soft plastic creates a moving drop shot. Test your sinker near the shore, where you can see it on bottom, so you know there is enough weight to hold down your bait. Sometimes you won't even feel the hit and you can end up with a hook getting ingested. A
circle hook
will help insure a clean release and works great on a carolina rig.
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