INTERMEDIATE GUIDE to BASS FISHING: 3A - Carolina Rig

hello everyone and welcome back to hatcam basses intermediate guide to bass fishing presented by mystery taco box my name is jeff and in this episode we're gonna talk about one of my favorite soft plastic techniques the Carolina rig we'll talk about all the fine details like leader links beads weights what kind of baits to use where when and how to use the rig but let's begin first with an overview and basic rigging here's the Carolina rig it consists of a weighted mainline and a free swinging leader line where the bait is rigged this allows us off plastic to be fished at deeper depths along the bottom with what is effectively a weightless presentation the bait has worked horizontally as it slowly dragged along the bottom this is a simple yet highly effective technique it's also nothing new the Carolina rig has been used in various forms throughout modern bass fishing history bill dance used it to play second in the 1973 Bassmaster Classic but the rig didn't catch on until 1985 when Jack Chancellor used it to win that year's classic from there the Carolina rig exploded in popularity in the late 1980s the ingredients are pretty basic you need a weight a swivel to connect the main line to the leader a hook a bait of course and typically a bead while the majority of these Bassmasters Classic anglers are fishing shallow there is one who is not Jack Chancellor he rigs a short four inch plastic worm by pre sliding on a one ounce weight to 20 pound line then a bead and then tying the line to a barrel swivel Chancellor then ties a four foot leader line on the double hook rig worm to the other end the visual the rig has evolved since 1985 when it first burst onto the scene but how we go about setting up the rig is pretty much exactly the same begin by sliding your weight down the mainline any style weight will do and typically you'll be looking to use anywhere from a half ounce to one full ounce of weight next slide your bead down the mainline an entire swivel at the end on the other end of the swivel tie your leader line which is typically between 12 and 36 inches at the end of the leader tie the appropriate hook and then rig your soft plastic so that's the basics now let's move on to some of the fine details let's start with the weight which accounts for two of the most important benefits of this technique because of the amount of weight being dragged along the bottom more than anything the Carolina rig is an excellent tool to probe bottom structure it's also responsible for the noise generation that attracts fish will touch more on both of these things later as for what kind and how much weight you should use the most important thing is making sure you have enough weight to get your bait to the bottom quickly and to keep it there a half ounce is usually considered the minimum amount needed but at deeper depths something closer to a full ounce or even more will work better unless you're afraid of spooking finicky bass or you need to be more snag proof always err on the side of using more weight any style weight will get the job done but remember you'll be contacting all sorts of debris and cover along the bottom so choose a style that you feel will be the least likely to snag smaller more streamlined weights for example will get hung less than bulkier and heavier ones when fishing around cover and what about lead versus tungsten it's hard to argue against using tungsten if you're willing to pay the price like any other rig the higher density of tungsten will give you a more streamlined presentation also the compound is better at generating noise to attract fish and it produces better vibrations which gives you a better feel another quick tip try the two weight set up to weight sliding up and down the mainline are gonna cause much more noise which is great at attracting fish next up let's talk about the leader which is one aspect of the Carolina rig that will require some experimenting for length we can generalize that longer leaders are typically better in Clearwater or for more finicky bass in stained water or for more aggressive fish a shorter leader might be better longer leaders are less threatening and more natural to fish but disadvantages include getting hung more easily and casting and detecting bites becomes a little more challenging conversely shorter leaders help with hookup ratios and snag less but are much more threatening to a fish and what about type of line and size leader lines are typically smaller in diameter than the main line since the leaders where our bait is attached and the portion that fish will likely be focused on we want our leader line to be as finesse as possible monofilament is sometimes used as a leader but keep in mind that the bait in most Carolina rig presentations will not float off the bottom so fluorocarbon leader lines make much more sense the low stretch quality of flora will give you a better feel of the bottom and will also be better at taking in slack which helps improve hook sets plus it's relatively invisible for the main line using braid can work but sometimes the no stretch quality of braid can be too impactful on the knot which can lead to break offs at the swivel once again fluoro makes the most sense here for some of the same reasons we've already mentioned so our recommendation in this guide is a 15 to 20 pound fluorocarbon main line and at 12 to 15 pound fluorocarbon leader depending on application and conditions one of the advantages of the Carolina rig is practically any type of soft plastic won't catch fish lizards and worms are classic choices creature baits like brush hogs or a fluke style bait are also common but your choices are pretty endless like anything experiment with size and color depending on conditions last up what kind of beads should you choose keep in mind that the bead simply protects the integrity of the not from the sliding weight on the mainline so you really don't need a spend top dollar on any kind of specialized bead that you might find at a tackle shop these are usually overpriced and the better option is to buy the beads in bulk from any craft store the more uses the Carolina rig the quicker you're going to figure out that a lot of the fine details just come down to personal preference so ultimately your success with this rig is going to come from knowing when where and how to use the rig so let's talk about that next the Carolina rig can shine in many situations but it excels at probing deep water structure and cover which is the primary reason why we use it and why it catches so many fish the amount of weight being dragged along the bottom offers incredible feel and it essentially acts as an anglers eyes beneath the surface using a Carolina rig is also one of the most efficient ways to cover large areas of deep water quickly Plus this is sometimes the only practical way to get something resembling a weightless soft plastic presentation down to deep bottom-dwelling bass now where should you be throwing this rig because of the amount of weight and its overall bulkiness the Carolina rig is mainly for deep open-water fishing so you should be targeting many of the structural areas we talked about in our seasonal guide like points Creek channels flats humps and drop-offs don't be afraid to use this at shallower depths too but just make sure that the bass you're targeting are in fact located along the bottom since that's where a bait will actually be and how about when to throw this rig this is for various reasons more of a from water technique it really shines when fish have retreated to deeper cooler waters in the summer the Carolina rate can also work other times of the year as well like certain points in the spring when basser and less active phases for example during a cold front and the pre spawn or during the post spawn when most bass are in recovery mode you should also consider the rig when bass begin to migrate along points in the early fall let's move on to how to use the Carolina rig you should always think of the Carolina rig is a finesse presentation but the setup itself is actually quite bulky so we want to make sure that our equipment is correct we want to be using longer rods this is a 7 foot rod but something closer to a 7 foot three inch rod might actually work better for you those longer rods are gonna help us deal with these long leaders it's gonna help us make better casts and also it's going to help perhaps most importantly make really good hook sets we also want the rod to be pretty stout to deal with those heavy weights at least a medium heavy powered rod is going to work well but if you're going to be using a heavier setup like a 2 ounce rig you might even want to go with a heavy powered rod and then we want a fast action tip we want there to be a little flex at the end of a Carolina rig rod first and foremost that's going to help with the feel of the bait which is critical with the Carolina rig help us feel along the bottom and it's also going to help us detect bites fairly well and then once again that's that fast action tip is going to help us with our casting distance and also we want to be using a high-speed reel we're mostly going to be fishing deeper water using a lot of line a lot of slack on our leader so we want to make sure that we're taking up as much line as possible with every crank of the reel that's going to help us work the bait better and then once again perhaps most importantly it's going to help us make really strong hook sets now let's talk about how to cast a Carolina rig because this can be a little bit different than your typical bass fishing setup in a typical setup we're going to be using kind of a quick whiplash motion using a lot of wrist and elbow action to make our casts but we really can't do that with a Carolina rig because we're having to deal with some extra weight and this long leader now I have a pretty long leader set up here this is close to a three foot leader I kind of wanted to exaggerate it for effect so with the Carolina rig instead of that whip lashing action you're going to be using off to the side a very slow steady pendulum motion to sort of fling the bait upward and outward much different than your normal cast first off you need to have your weight just a few inches off the tip when you want to slow steady take back we want to try to keep this leader in line and in sync with the main part of the line so a slow steady take back off to the side as we come forward we're gonna accelerate slowly and kind of fling the bait up and out just like that now we want the weight to do most of the work as far as the the distance goes so you don't want to cast a Carolina rig too hard all right so once again have that weight just a few inches off the tip make a slow study take back accelerate slowly and fling and that's how you cast a Carolina rig remember one of the big advantages of a Carolina rig is it allows us to cover large amounts of deep open-water quickly so make your cast as long as you can be sure to let that bag go all the way down to the bottom and typically for a retrieve we're gonna use a slow sweeping motion off to the side to slowly drag the bait along the bottom every time we reset we can reel up our slack and drag the bait once more your primary focus during the retrieve should be to locate those ideal bottom features hard bottom surface like gravel or pieces of cover like brush or rock and also those elevation changes like humps and drop-offs you're going to be able to feel all of those things with the Carolina rig especially if you're using more weight the more weight you have the more obvious those spots will be now once you find them you're going to want to take a mental note of where they are in the water and make multiple casts to them as you bring that bait back across them slow that bait down drastically or even to a complete stop you're going to find a lot of fish in those areas and I guarantee most of your bites will come as you feel those hard bottom services or the cover or the elevation changes hook sets are critical when catching fish on a Carolina rig it's usually a deep-water technique and what the long leaders were using there will be more slack in your line than you might think so when you feel that bite be extra careful to reel in all the slack and wait to feel the resistance of a fish on the line before you rear back we need to take in a lot of wine so it's recommended to make hook sets on this rig off to the side that will give us the longer pull to compensate for this much line put everything you have into this hook set but focus more on distributing the power over a larger area with the Carolina rig it's more about sustained power rather than the short explosive power that you use on other hook sets so we've touched on every aspect of a Carolina rig now let's talk about some common mistakes that you should look to avoid not using enough weight always use as much weight as you can get away with you want to stick your bait to the bottom and you want your weights to generate as much noise and commotion as possible not taking it enough line on a hook set make a conscious effort to reel in all slack and just when you think you're setting the hook as hard as you can put even more muscle into it you will waste a lot of bites on this rig if the hook set isn't right not rechecking not integrity when used right this rig will be bumping and grinding into all sorts of things the knots will take a beating and remember there are three different knots to this rig so check all of them regularly retrieving too quickly especially when you find those key bottom features slow the bait down these are the spots we want to pick apart thoroughly so don't speed through them [Music] so a quick recap remember this is a bottom rig so use that extra weight to locate ideal bottom surfaces the Carolina rig can be like your eyes beneath the surface which is one of its strongest features also essentially this is a finesse technique behind a heavier weight so work that bait slower once you find those ideal locations and last remember to use a long and strong hook set to make up for that weightless leader that's going to do it guys thank you so much for watching as usual I'd love to see you come back and watch some more videos to hit the subscribe button and also be sure to share this around with people that you know who might be interested in bass fishing as always special thanks to our sponsor mystery tackle box I'll see you guys next time on the intermediate guide to bass fishing [Music]

Channel: HatCamBass

Views: 811,780

Keywords: hatcambass, bass fishing, carolina rig, intermediate guide, how to

Id: rXdTk2BiTVY

Length: 16min 1sec (961 seconds)

Published: Fri May 18 2018