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The Basic
Carolina Rig
The
basic Carolina Rig consists of a large slip sinker, followed by one or
more beads, followed by a swivel,
followed by a leader, followed by the hook and bait. That's a lot of
following, and for those keeping score at
home, 3 knots are required to make up a rig. It they weren't so
effective, no one would take the trouble to tie
one up. But effective they are and each component has a specific purpose
and job to do. To really master the
rig, you need to know what each component does and the role it plays in
the overall rig, (we'll get to all of that
in a minute.)
The general theory of the
Carolina rig is to present something stirring up the bottom in a big
way. Noisy and
kicking up dirt is just the thing to attract a bass, a notably curious
creature, from some distance off. Think of
it as kind of a noisy top water that happens to be on the bottom where
the fish are at. When the fish wanders
over from it's hidey hole, it will find this strange thing bumping along
the bottom, and following along, floating
behind a short distance, another curious creature seeming stalking the
first strange thing, and the second
creature is just about the right size for lunch. If you fish the
Carolina rig in clear water long enough, you're
bound to see a bass stalking the bait in a manner that reminds me of
nothing more than a kitten getting ready
to pounce on a ball of string. One of the rather odd things about the
Carolina rig is when you SEE the fish hit
the lure, it looks like a sudden viscous attack, yet you normally barely
feel the fish take the bait if you feel it
at all.
Since the Carolina rig
is a "fish caller", (a rig that attracts a fish from a
distance rather than one you have
to drop on his nose), they are noted for being able to cover a lot of
water in a little time. This is the main
attraction of the rig to the cast for cash crowd where time is money and
covering miles of water may be the
only way to pay the mortgage payment. Since it's also rather easy to
fish for so effective of lure, the guides
love the rig for insuring a novice customer gets his money's worth on a
tough bite day. The fish do have to
cooperate a little bit, but compared to other lures and presentations,
it's a pretty tough bite when you can't
catch fish on a Carolina rig.
Weights
The
heart of a Carolina Rig is it's weight. The "normal" rig uses
a large bullet slip sinker, unpegged, in the
1 oz class. The weight serves several purposes here. The obvious one is
to get the rig on the bottom. But it is
used to dig up the bottom a little as well. And don't forget it should
make some noise. Depending on your
methods, it has to keep the rig on the bottom over all types of cover
and terrain. It will also an a large effect
on how long your leader can be and what types of baits you can use. But
most important of all, it will govern
how fast you can fish the rig over the bottom.
It should be readily
apparent that "normal" is a small group of people indeed. You
can do a ton of different
things with your Carolina rig depending on the weight you select. We can
pretty much assume any reasonable
weight will get the rig on the bottom, so let's get this speed thing out
of the way in a hurry. The general rule is:
"The heavier the weight, the faster you can work it." Pretty
simple stuff, huh? In traditional Carolina rig fishing,
the Number One rule is to keep the weight on the bottom where it stirs
stuff up and attracts attention. If you
use, say, a ½ oz weight in 15 feet or so, you'll find that means you're
working pretty slow.
For really covering
water, move up to a 1 oz weight and you can stay attached and move
quickly too! A lot
of guides take the next step and use 2 or 2½ oz egg sinkers and go
trolling on the trolling motor just dragging
the rig behind. But keep in mind the mood of the fish. It doesn't matter
if you can stay connected to the
bottom and zoom along if the fish won't chase anything moving faster
than a slow crawl. Adjust your weight
with the season, down sizing in cold water to force you to slow down to
the fish's speed.
Now let's worry a
little about how well the weight digs up the bottom. Whether or not you
want the weight
to dig up the bottom is largely a function of what kind of bottom you're
fishing. The original idea was to fish the
rig over a combination of silt, mud, and small rocks. That's just about
the standard over 90% of the bottom on
a man-made reservoir. Here, kicking up a little mud trail is a pretty
good idea. Since there isn't much to hang
up on, you can fall back to the "standard" egg sinker which is
readily available in most of the larger weights,
(you always have to fight the problem of finding a big enough bullet
sinker to get the job done.) Some anglers
have taken the next step of putting a bullet sinker on backwards letting
the bottom of the sinker dig in a bit. I
recently saw a "finned" weight made so at least one of the
fins stuck in the mud and kicked it up on the
retrieve.
Noise is another
important component of Carolina rigs. Here we're talking material more
than size and
shape. Most sinkers are made of cheap, easily available, and easily
molded lead. The trouble with lead
weights is they are soft and don't make much noise when you hit them
with anything. Better suited to our
noise purpose is Brass or maybe Stainless Steel. Since brass is much
cheaper than stainless steel, it is the
common material used for Carolina rig sinkers. Take a glass bead, tap it
on a brass weight, and you get a
distinct ticking noise. Move the brass weight across a rough bottom with
a glass bead trailing it, and you can
make quite a racket. Although the scientists steadfastly refuse to
confirm it, most experienced fishermen will
swear to you this ticking sound of brass and glass is remarkably similar
to the noise made by a crawdad
crawling across the bottom. There is a down side to the harder material.
First, since it is hard, it can crack or
break the bead after repeated use which will cut even your heavy braided
line in a heartbeat. Second, since
it's hard, it will take an edge and keep it better than soft lead, so
again you can be fishing with a knife edge
next to your line. When selecting a brass sinker, at least make sure
they have rounded off all of the edges
to prevent line nicks. It will cost a little more, but worth it in time
and frustration saved.
Now all of this has
been great and simple as long as you want to fish the 90% of the bottom
covered in
mud and small rocks. But what if you fish in a shallow weedy natural
lake, or prefer the 10% of the bottom
containing heavy cover and all of the fish? Houston, we have a problem.
That same wonderful weight that has
kept you attached to the bottom is very like to keep you there,
permanently. Carolina rig weights have a
remarkable talent for hanging up on anything available on the bottom.
Put two piece of chunk rock side by
side surrounded by an acre of mud, and most Carolina rig fishermen will
tell you they can find it ,hang up on it,
and break off within 3 casts. So, when faced with heavy vegetation,
wood, or rock, do you have to put the rig
away? Not at all! The same smaller sinkers used for Texas rigs will
climb over the cover on a Carolina rig. The
penalty, of course, is you're staying attached to the bottom, which may
or may not be a problem, and that you
have to fish much slower, again, not necessarily a problem. Fortunately,
when fishing heavy cover most of the
time you want a slow thorough presentation anyway and you're likely to
be fishing an isolated spot rather than
an entire area. We'll talk about ways to fish faster and cover more area
in heavy cover later, but for now, you
get the general idea.
So about the only
thing left here is casting the rig. Casting a Carolina with a long
leader is a challenge
under the best of conditions. Frustration is the most common reaction to
anything less best conditions.
When you're dealing with leader lengths of up to 7' or so, getting it
over the side of the boat can seem like
success. Actually getting a long leader more than, say, 5 feet or so
away from the boat without wrapping it
around itself, the motor, your tackle box, your own or your partner's
head, or all of the above, may qualify as
an art form.
One of the major
contributors to casting one of these rigs is the weight. Too light of
weight will cause
wrapping around everything because the weight will separate from the
swivel give you a 15' leader swinging in
all directions at once. Too heavy of weight can cause the rig to spin on
the drop, so you'll get the rig away
from the boat, but find your bait at your rod tip while the sinker is
still on the bottom, and of course wrapped
around itself a couple of hundred times. There are no fixed rules in
this game, and experience is the only
teacher. It's actually pretty easy to figure out you're not using enough
weight when the bait hits the water 20'
away from the sinker. Too much weight is another thing since casting
into the wind, or just poor casting
technique can cause the same effect. If you're staying tangled most of
the time, at least consider dropping
down the weight a little. Might save your nerves if not your life,
depending on who you drew as a partner.
Beads and
Swivels
There's
really not too much to say about the swivels. Use a good ball bearing
barrel swivel and you should
have pretty good luck. I prefer small swivels since I fish grass a lot
and the smaller size hangs up less. Even
a tiny swivel can be rated at 35 lbs or there abouts, so breaking a
swivel really isn't a problem. I'd stay away
from snap swivels if I could, since any snap significantly weakens the
link.
One rather neat set up
I saw was from a draw partner. He had a whole tray of preset rigs ready
to go. He'd
taken a thin wire with a swivel on end, threaded on a couple of beads
and his sinker, then closed it off with a
tie loop on the leading end. We were fishing some heavy wood that day,
and he lost a couple of rigs. He just
grabbed a new one, tied if off to his main line, tied his leader to the
other end, and was ready to go. It still took
3 knots to get ready, but he said the beads and weight would slide much
easier on the wire and he didn't have
to worry about the weight or beads nicking his line. It made some sense,
(not enough to get me to start doing
it), and he did catch several fish on the rig. If nothing else it gives
you something to do on a cold winter's night.
Beads are only
slightly more complicated. You have to select a color, size, finish,
number, and material.
Most dedicated Carolina rig fishermen go with glass beads for the extra
noise. For as popular as they are,
you'll be surprised how hard it is to find glass beads in the tackle
store. For some reason, tackle stores carry
every shape, size, and color of plastic beads, but very few glass beads.
I have chosen to do what I do with
most difficult problems, delegate it to my wife. She loads me up with
all of the glass beads I can ever use on
a single trip to an arts and crafts store, and at a cost so low it's
embarrassing. In the modern age of metric
measurements, you'll probably have to select your beads by the
millimeter, (mm.) An 8 mm bead is about
right for heavy cover, giving you plenty of noise in a small package. A
10 mm is about the size of the head of
a plastic worm, so is another good choice for general use.
Most people trying to
attract anything, especially things underwater, will choose red as their
primary color.
But you can color coordinate with your bait, boat, rod, or the shirt
you're wearing that day if you choose. I
haven't seen too much difference although I'm positive some do. You can
get beads either with a smooth
round finish or a facet cut kind of like a gem stone. Some believe the
facet cut reflects better in clear water
and will use nothing else. I'm a smooth kind of guy and think the smooth
beads take a bit more pounding
without chipping. If you opt for the plastic beads, then either way
won't make much difference, but you won't
make much noise either making even using beads a rather moot point.
Now we come to the
only real debate, how many beads to use. For compact brass and
glass types,
anything more than one is overkill and takes a chance at breaking a bead
and needlessly cutting your line.
Since I've had bad luck in heavy cover using brass, I prefer 2 beads
pounding together following my lead
sinker. You want more noise? Add more beads. I've seen people use as
many as 7 beads on their rigs and
swear the fish won't hit just 6. I personally think this is getting
carried away a bit, but a lot of people think the
same of my 2 beads. Experiment and have fun with it. After all, beads
are pretty cheap compared to anything
else we use.
You really don't even
have to use beads at all. One of the original purposes of the bead was
to protect the
knot from getting cut by the sinker. I can think of several other ways
to accomplish the same purpose. But
assuming you are after noise, then there are a bunch of products
designed to give it to you. One system
consisted of a standard bead and a small donut shaped disk for the bead
to bounce against (this undoubtedly
started as recycling some type of industrial waste, but that's another
story.) It did make quite a racket before
the disk cut your line. Another product was a hollow plastic rattle
chamber to either augment the beads or just
replace them. You get the general idea here. Anything that makes a noise
when bounced off the bottom has
or will be tried. I still haven't found anything I like better than the
standard bead, but that doesn't mean you
won't. Now you have new things to look for on your next trip to the
tackle shop.
Lines, Leaders
and Knots
Always a point of
discussion is how long of leader to use and how to attach it. Everyone
thinks they have
the only answer, and I guess I'm no exception. But at least we'll
discuss what the others think.
I'm a Palomar knot
fanatic. I use the Palomar knot for just about everything, including my
Carolina rigs,
(OK, so I'll use an improved cinch sometimes, so shoot me.) One thing to
keep in mind here is you have to
tie the leader to the swivel BEFORE you tie it to the main line, (can't
make the over loop, try it.) This knot is
strong, easy to tie, quick, and simple. The Palomar works on braided
line, (except Kevlar), and can be retied
at night better than any I've tried. Well, if the truth be known, I
don't see as well as I use to under great
lighting, but that just proves the point. I also love this knot because
it's small and takes abuse well.
My partner just can't
see the wisdom I've been trying to show him. He still relies on an
improved cinch knot.
He says he can tie it by feel at night, (he'd have to, his eyes are as
bad as mine), and it's just as quick as the
Palomar, (not if I have my glasses.) He actually uses a Palomar on his
main line, (wisdom at last), but insists
on attaching his swivel first, (you have to forgive him, he's from
Texas.) He kind of likes the idea that the cinch
will break a little quicker than a Palomar, and claims he saves a lot in
sinkers, swivels, and beads when the
leader breaks before the main line.
The one thing we do
agree on is the main line. If ever an application was tailored made for
braided line, a
Carolina rig is it! Now, for those scoring at home, you already know I
use braid on most everything, but even
those that use braid for only one application will grudgingly concede
braid is great for Carolinas. When you
go to set the hook on a Carolina, you've got not only the normal slack
in the line, but have to account for the
leader as well. If the fish happens to be headed towards the boat, you
may have to move the sinker twice the
leader length before you ever get to the hook setting part, (quite
dramatic with a 7' leader.)
In addition to that,
the sinker you're moving isn't a non-factor like a 3/16th Texas rig,
we're talkin' an ounce
or two to move through the water. If you add all this up, why anyone
would still want to add the stretch of
monofilament to the equation is beyond me. And even when you get to the
fish, there is still the matter of
driving a hook through a jaw that will slay a Philistine. The added
sensitivity of braid helps in detecting those
mush bites and helps keep the sinker on the bottom. And even if you
mistakenly believe that braid results in
shy fish and fewer bites, here you have the option of a mono leader.
What could be better?
A quick knot note on
braid. The Palomar knot works great on all Spectra based lines, but
leaves much to
be desired with Stren Kevlar. It turns out Kevlar resists compression
better than Spectra so a Palomar has
trouble binding properly. Either use a doubled up Trilene Knot, (the
best knot for Kevlar much to the delight
of Berkley and horror of Dupont), or use a drop of their Knot Glue. I'm
almost a fan of the Knot Glue for any
Carolina since the hardened shell helps protect the knot from getting
beat up by the beads.
As far as the leader
is concerned, I always prefer a mono leader. There are several reasons
for this, (there
had better be for me to carry a spool of mono in the tackle box.) First,
I still think the complete lack of
memory of braided line affects the action of some baits, including the
ones I prefer to use on Carolinas.
Second, even I have to admit it looks more natural in the water with a
clear leader than with a faded out braid.
Third, the mono acts as sort of a shock leader on the hook set and no
longer than the leader is, the stretch
doesn't amount to much. Fourth, if I get the bait hung up, the leader
will break before the main line, saving my
weight rig and some retying.
My partner, on the
other hand, refuses to use mono. He claims he likes the extra strength
and sensitivity
of a full braid set up plus gets an even better hook set. He says he
gets just as many bites on braid, and
because he puts a weaker knot on the trailing eye of the swivel he
doesn't loose any more rigs than I do.
Now on the
controversial subject of leader length. There are a couple of theories
about leader length. It kind
of depends on what you think the bait does on the end of the leader.
The basic theory says
you want to use a bait that floats, so the longer the leader, the higher
the bait floats
behind it. If you believe in this, then you want a long leader for
aggressive fish setting high over the cover.
You'll shorten your leader slightly in as the water cools to keep the
bait a little closer to the bottom as you
slow down your presentation. For spring and fall fishing, you may want a
6' - 7' leader for fishing grass, and
only drop down to a 4' - 5' leader in cold water. The guys that hold to
this view will always select a large
floating bait like an Air Lizard and will use a small thin wire hook to
keep it floating high in the water column.
These guys love a stop and go type retrieve, giving the bait a chance to
work for them. The action they expect
is the bait to float up at rest and dart towards the bottom when they
pull on the rig, ( a very natural looking
presentation for something trying to escape.)
The other side of this
argument is that few baits actually float. Those that do float will only
do so until you
start pulling through heavy cover, at which time the sinker will work
itself under something and the leader will
pull the bait to the bottom as it passes by. Those that hold with this
view don't bother selecting air filled or
other extra soft baits in an attempt to float a 4/0 hook. They prefer a
more steady retrieve figuring the bait is
bumping along the bottom anyway and if they pause it will pretty much
just lay there. Since they expect the
bait to follow the weight, you get more action if the bait is trailing
closer. For this school you run a short leader
for active fish, something in the 2' range, and cover a lot of water
with a compact rig. In cold water, you can
kill some of the action by adding length and letting the bait do it's
own thing even if the sinker is climbing up
and down in the cover. This means the two schools can at least agree on
a 4' - 5' leader from late fall through
early spring.
Being from Florida
where shallow grass is a way of life, I'm probably more in the bottom
bumper class. I've
drug through enough grass beds to know I can dig up the bottom with any
bait I tie on. Since grass is mostly
what I fish, I don't bother much with floating baits around home. But
put me on a reservoir with a fairly clean
bottom or maybe an eel grass bed, and I'm a floatin' fool.
The Business End
If you
listen to Bassmaster, you'd think the only thing you can tie on the end
of a Carolina rig is a lizard.
A lizard does make a good choice, just because they're so big compared
to the same length of worm and
therefore are pretty easy to get to float a 4/0 hook. But you can
Carolina rig just about every bait in the box
in one form of the other, and so folks get it a darn good try.
For hooks, there is a
trade off between being light enough to allow a floating bait and being
big and strong
enough to get the job done around cover. If you're in the bottom bumping
school, floating doesn't matter and
you can use a 4/0 wide gap if you'd like. For floaters, a 3/0 or even
2/0 thin wire will get the bait off the bottom
quicker. Either way, get the sharpest hooks you can find. We've already
talked about trying to set the hook on
a Carolina, and you can't assume it's a done deal when you get the bite.
The best hooks will save frustration
and lost fish any time, but especially if you're fishing a Carolina.
Other than lizards,
just about every soft plastic you've ever seen has been on the end of
someone's
Carolina, and probably with success. Naturally, most folks fish worms
just like with Texas Rigs. For cold front
conditions, often the same worm that the fish hit on a Texas rig any
other day will still work if you switch to a
Carolina. Swimming tails, curl tails, paddle tails, or straight tails,
they all work well on this rig. One of my
personal favorites is a Slug-O on a Carolina. Works like a dream and has
an action not many deep fish have
ever seen. Finesse worms were just made for Carolinas. Jack's Do Nothin'
Worm is the perfect example of a
small worm that wonderfully on a Carolina. I've boated a couple of tons
of fish on Bass Assassin's Charmers
night fishing in clear water. If you think it will work, try it, it
probably will.
But it's always fun to
do something different. One idea is to forget the weight, swivel, and
bead, and just tie
on a rattling jig instead, then tie the leader to the hook. For
aggressive fish, it works like a champ and you
can occasionally double up doing it. Another idea is to Carolina rig a
hard jerk bait or crankbait. If you keep
your leader medium length so you can throw it, you can tear them up on a
deep bite showing them something
they've never seen below 7'. Bill Dance has made a couple of shows on
using pork strips on a Carolina rig,
pointing out that even 30 years ago they were just made for each other.
But by far the most
outrageous thing I've seen was a few years ago in a tournament. When my
draw
partner's turn came, he left the rather nice largemouth bite I had going
and headed for a bluff down to about
40' of water. He took a standard Carolina rig, tied a small float to
about a 6' leader, and tied a couple a small
white hair jigs about 1/3 and 2/3 up the leader. He'd throw this mess on
one end of the cliff, take the trolling
motor and move about 30 yards down the face, trailing line all the way,
the stop and retrieve. Instead of just a
steady retrieve, he'd pull about 6 or 8', then stop and lower his rod
tip. This let the float take the jigs another
5' or so off the bottom. About the third time he lower his tip, he set
up on a 4 lb smallmouth. I watched,
(fishless), for the next couple of hours as he caught fish after fish,
including a couple of doubles, until he had
a nice 18 pound stringer of smallmouths! That was good enough for him to
take 2nd, (my largemouths had me
around 18th), and to turn my amusement into amazement. I should warn you
that I tried the same rig then and
several other times and remember getting 2 bites and have yet to land my
first fish. But, never the less, it
worked extremely well for him. Point being you can use a Carolina Rig
limited only by your imagination.
Fishing the
Carolina Rig
When
you head out for Carolina fishing, take a rig that will get this big job
done. For a rod, a 7' broom
handle comes to mind. You've got a ton of line to take up, and a long
stiff stick helps like nothing else can.
A lot of people now use flippin' or pitchin' sticks to get these big
awkward rigs in the water and out. Match this
heavy weight rod with a heavy weight reel. You're going to be throwing
quite a bit of weight so a rugged reel
will help in any case and the extra leverage of a large spool can't
hurt. I personally use a 6 ½' Loomis 785
(broom stick strength) matched with a Shimano Calcutta reel. Being a big
boy and having never learned the
art of casting with two hands, I prefer the shorter rod, but can easily
see why most go to the 7' model or
longer.
The most popular way
to fish a Carolina is just a slow steady retrieve constantly bumping off
the bottom.
This will let you cover miles of water in a day and has to rank up there
as the quickest way to bump the
bottom with any bait. You'll be surprised at how few times you actually
feel the fish bite. Most times, it will
just have a "mushy" feeling, very similar to getting caught in
the grass. Experience will let you tell the
difference, but the easy quick way is just to reel down slight will a
touch of pressure. Fish move, grass
doesn't. If you feel the least little difference in the amount of
pressure when you reel down, it's time to set
the hook. After all, the jerk's free.
A close second is the
Stop and Go retrieve, which you do exactly what it says, stop and go.
This retrieve
has the advantage of letting the floating bait float up in the water
column a little and hover. The better you're
bait floats, the better you'll like this retrieve. The penalty of course
is that you cover less water since it takes
time to stop. Usually, I prefer to go with a constant retrieve, and when
that doesn't work, then I fall back to the
stop and go. Only move the bait a few feet, always with your rod like a
Texas rig, not with the reel like the
constant retrieve. Regardless of how far you've moved the bait, always
stop when you hit something. If you
don't get bit, then stop again when you pull over or through it. A lot
of times your sinker will disturb a bottom
hugging fish and cause him to move a few feet. He'll nail the floater on
his way back to where he was a few
seconds later.
For those paying close
attention, you'll note that both steady and the stop and go retrieve
rely on a floating
bait and maybe a fairly clean bottom. But what about those thick grass
beds I was talking about? Well, if you
have a bait that doesn't float, that doesn't mean you don't want to get
it off the bottom. It's back to the old
jerkin' retrieve like fishing a bit aggressive Texas rig. I actually
break this movement into three parts.
First I pull very
slightly a couple of inches just to see if a fish is already involved.
After feeling for the fish
and deciding there's not one there, (you'd be amazed at how many hits
come a that slight motion), then it's
time for a big jerk. I about always get the sinker a couple of feet off
the bottom, and sometimes try for 4' or so.
The bait will follow the same path pretty closely. At the very top of
the arch, I add the third part which is to very
slightly lower my rod tip then snap it back just to clack the beads
together a bit. A lot of hits will come at the
top of the arch as well. For this type of fishing, I prefer a straight
tailed worm or Slug-O. The straight tail will let
the bait glide better underwater and will normally cause it to die off
to one side or the other. This gives a very
natural looking fall that I've had tremendous success with over the
years. On about a 3' leader, it will take the
bait around 7 to 10 seconds to drift back to the bottom, (don't you love
clear water where you can learn these
things), and that's about how long I'll wait between jerks.
You really don't even
have to get the weight to the bottom. There is a whole form of light
weights on light
gear with tiny baits that are Carolina rigs. They are known as Slit Shot
rigs, (from the use of split shot for the
weight), but there is some much different about those we probably need
to wait for another day for that one.
Just keep in mind that the theories are pretty much the same with split
shots and Carolinas. And even with a
bigger weight and bait, if you're going to be swimming a worm over the
bottom, a Carolina rig has much to
offer over the traditional Texas rig swimmer.
My wife has taught me
a couple of extreme retrieves with Carolinas. As with most of our wives,
she's not
too big into this fishing thing, but will consent to accompany me on the
rare occasion. And like most of our
wives, she takes delight in the fact that she out fishes me more often
than not.
The first retrieve she
taught me was on the Kissimmee chain at the mouth of the Dead River
running
between Cypress and Kissimmee. It's one of those lovely little out flows
where the fish gang up to feed in the
current and attracts almost as many fishermen as fish. Since the fish
were not actively schooling to the point
they'd eat the motor off the back of the boat, she got bored after an
hour or so. As I struggled to keep the boat
into the current, fight the cross wind, and fish at the same time on one
leg, she just threw out there and let it
set,….and set, ….and set. If she had of had the foresight to have
brought a book, I'm sure she would have
been on the 3rd chapter.
Now comes the part
where the 6 lb 4 oz fish takes one look at her bait flappin' in the
current and decides to
run to the other end of the lake with it. After all the screaming, first
at trying to land the fish then at me to get
her back up river to where "her" fish were at, I was seriously
wondering if I should take the fish back to weigh
in and if I could possibly leave her there. About 15 minutes later,
right in the middle of the lecture I was giving
about fishing "flukes" and how she ought to at least move the
bait every few minutes in case some floating
grass matted up on her line was when the 8 lb 9 oz fish annihilated her
still motionless bait. Yeah, you
guessed it. First place, Big Bass and Second Big Bass for the day. I
probably would have been all right had
not, in a moment of temporary insanity about 3 hours later, right after
the comment that I should pay more
attention to her since any idiot could catch fish, I had the poor
judgment to agree.
About a year after the
apology, I took my wife to night tournament on Clermont as a stand in
for my regular
partner, where she taught me the second retrieve. The wind was howling
that afternoon The 20 mph wind and
white caps were not fully appreciated with my open water grass pattern.
After a couple of hours of fighting the
wind, standing on one leg trying to undo the backlashes, and putting up
with the incessant whine coming from
the rear deck, (even though she had boated a couple of 3-lbers draggin'
the rig behind the trolling motor), I'd
had enough. I motored off to a calm feeding flat known for a lot of
small fish to dry out and get some peace
and quiet. My wife pouted in the passenger seat for about 20 minutes
over some insult I given her, (I think it
was "Fine, we'll move then"), while I conclusively proved
there wasn't any fish here either.
Then she preceded to
pick up her rod, throw out her Carolina, and shake the rod violently. I
was almost as
amused by her ridiculous display with the rod as I was with the fish she
caught doing it. It was a keeper
though, but the one she caught the next cast wasn't. The fourth fish she
caught measured, and it took about
15 fish in 20 minutes for her to finish out the limit. It was small, but
respectable at least compared to the one
dink I caught. When I asked just what in the hell she was doing, she
calmly explained she was trying to
make the worm look just like those withering red worms that her Oscars
in the aquarium at home so readily
attacked. It seemed rather pointless to debate that Oscars weren't bass
or that these fish didn't have to wait
for the lid to open for food to drop in. She caught about 40 fish that
night, all without her weight coming within
10' of the bottom. I don't know if the worm was whipping side ways, up
and down, or turning circles. But what
ever it did, it worked. I learned a couple of things that night. Fish
can catch even the fastest moving lure if it
wants to. Sometimes a faster lure works better than a slower one, even
on suspended fish that are shut
down. A Carolina rig can be fished in a number of surprising ways. And
no matter what you do you'll never
win an argument with your wife.
Variations on a
Theme
There are
a number of closely related rigs to the Carolina that are really just
variations. We've already
mentioned split shotting and Mojo rigs. There are several products on
the market that are a quick fix for those
not willing to take the time to tie a Carolina up. One of the better
ideas was an oblong bead with a cleat
pattern. Called Speed Beads the idea is to be able to attach a bead to
your line when you have a Texas Rig
on without having to retie. The line weaves its way through the bead
which then offers enough resistance to
prevent your sinker from pushing the bead back towards the bait, at
least on a fairly clean bottom. This
actually works rather well if you're using braided line, (I still don't
like the crinkles it puts in monofilament),
and if you only have one rod with you. And a Carolina is a dynamite come
back lure for a fish missed on a
Texas Rig. A couple of problems is the bead isn't really that speedy for
a come back, and most of the guys I
know serious enough to be using braid and wanting both rigs have at
least two rods and already have a proper
Carolina tied up. But it's an option.
Another old variation
is the 3 way rig. This actually started at before the Carolina rigs as a
live bait rig. This
uses a 3 eyed swivel with the bait on one leader and a bell sinker on a
second, longer leader. This rig serves
to keep the bait up in the water column and with proper selection of
leader, all you'll ever loose is the sinker if
you hit a snag. This rig works great around grass and heavy timber. Bill
Dance with his Pork-O lures brought
this rig back into vogue with a little national TV exposure. It is a
great solution to a number of problems in
keeping a lure just over thick grass.
Jim Porter over in
Palm Bay has a variation that combines a 3-way with a Carolina. In this
case he uses a
walking sinker made popular by the walleye fishermen. Instead of putting
a weight in line, he just ties directly
to the swivel then uses a rubber band to attach the sinker to the
leading eye. For fishing rocks or other heavy
cover, the advantages are obvious. Instead of breaking off the entire
rig when you hit a snag, you can just bust
off the sinker and tie another one on in seconds. It's still an open
case if the fish notice the weight or it makes
a significant difference in the bite, but early reports from Jim show
promise and it's worth the room in the
tackle box for a couple of rubber bands and sinkers.
If you're a braided
line fan like I am, then the Carolina idea will solve some action
problems with jerk and
crank baits. I've come to the conclusion I don't like the action of
either jerk baits or crank baits on straight
braided line. I now use either Fusion or Fireline for most of those
applications, but before I tried that, and for
several application even now, I tie up the swivel and leader just like a
Carolina without the weight or beads.
This restores the action the monofilament gave to my baits while giving
the low stretch, abrasion resistance,
and sensitivity of braid. The swivel even acts like a tiny sinker giving
my soft jerk baits a little quicker drop on
the pause. It's a nice compromise between braid and mono with all of the
benefits of both with few of the draw
backs of either.
Still one more that
leaps to mind is to forget the swivel. Leading beads in front of worms
are as old as
worms themselves and still work today. Several of the guys in this area
use a light weight and a couple of
beads in front of a worm for flipping Kissimmee grass. Adds a ton of
noise with few added hang ups in
relatively sparse cover. Just put it on the bottom and shake. All you
need now is one of those little metal
propellers and you're ready for any situation.
Carolina rigs are as
fun as they are effective. There is no wrong way to fish one, and
several very good ways
to do it right. They can catch fish regardless of the experience level
of the fishermen, but in the hands of a pro
can catch fish when few other options will work. They can target big
fish or numbers of fish by just changing
bait or weight size. If you're not fishing Carolina rigs now, give them
a try. You'll quickly find they earned their
reputation and wear it well. They work at depths where few other
presentations are possible and will work
shallow as well.
Until next time, Stay Safe and Have Fun,
Paul |
