Carolina Rig - Tips for Assembly and Fishing

Mike Brown of Clarks Hill, SC, is a member of the PartsVu community and a bass tourney winner. He was generous with invaluable advice to help those interested in improving their bass fishing skills - this article discusses assembling and fishing with a Carolina rig.

The water temps are slowly beginning to drop, and it won’t be too long before the bass begin their fall transition to the backs of creeks. But for at least in the early fall, most fish are still living deep or over deep water. They especially like long sloping points that lead to the main river and creek channels. Various techniques and baits can be effective at the deeper depths, but one technique covers water from a few feet to deep depths. It is also extremely effective and easy to fish on the long points.

The long-standing bait of choice of savvy anglers under a variety of depths, cover, and structure is the Carolina Rig.

Assembling a Carolina Rig

First, let’s talk about the rod, reel, and line. A 7' to 8' medium/heavy rod works best, and I’ll explain why shortly. A high-speed reel is beneficial since it can take up slack quickly, and it helps to catch up with a bass that takes the bait and moves towards the angler. There are two different lines used in this technique. The main line is generally either 30# braid or 20-25# fluorocarbon. Both give you a great deal of feel when detecting a bite. The other line is the leader at the end of your main line.

At the end of the main line, slide on a 1/2 oz to 1 ½ oz weight. Either lead or brass weights are OK, but you will feel every rock and stump if you use a tungsten weight, depending on your fishing depth. Tungsten weights in these sizes are quite expensive, but I’ve only lost a very few over the years.

My faith in heavy cylinder weights increased when a tour pro friend shared that he believes these weights hang up less than the traditional bullet style weights. Behind the weight, place a clacker (to obtain an attracting clicking sound like a crawfish makes as it scurries across the bottom) and a glass or plastic bead to protect the swivel knot.

Next, attach a 1’-5’ monofilament leader. Mono floats help keep your bait off the bottom better than fluorocarbon will. The length of the leader depends on the water and cover in the area you are fishing. For weedy areas, a longer leader allows the bait to stay above the grass.

You can use a variety of hook styles for a Carolina Rig. An offset wide gap is very popular, but I have recently begun using a strait shank hook (displayed below), and I feel strongly that I get better hookups and fewer fish can throw the hook at the surface or at the boat.

As shown below, the baits vary from straight tail worms to lizards to creature baits. I have a few of my favorites shown here. I particularly like the Z Man line of baits. They truly float, enabling the bass to see them from greater distances, plus you can fish one all day as they are super durable. I’ve also shared my two favorites among the Z Man line.

Fishing the Carolina Rig

So now that you know the details of the rig, but how do you fish it?

The heavy weight and long rod allow for very long casts. Let the rig fall to the bottom and keep the weight on the bottom throughout the retrieve. You will slowly sweep the rod sideways rather than a lift and drop as you would with other techniques.

I start with the rod tip pointed towards the bait at a one o’clock position and sweep the rod sideways to about the five o’clock position, reel up the slack, then repeat. If the bass are not in an aggressive mood, I may start and stop my retrieve, hoping that the bait is right in the face of a bass, which they cannot resist, and pick up a few more bites.

The bite may range from a hard “tick" to just a heavy feeling when you begin a new sweep of the rod. My practice is if in doubt, set the hook. The hook set should always be a sideways sweep of the rod. Just like the slow sweeping retrieve, only faster, all the while reeling as quickly as possible. The free-swinging leader with a heavy weight gives the bass the advantage, so a solid sweeping hook set and constant reeling will help to ensure keeping the fish hooked until you get it to the boat. Please understand that the use of quality tackle will significantly enhance the chance of getting bites and landing the fish.

I went into depth earlier on how to assemble the rig, but several years ago, I started making my own shortcut rigs, if you will. It saves me a lot of time when I change water depths.

I hope this helps understand what goes into a Carolina Rig and how to fish it effectively.