Carolina Rigging

Tighten up the life vests, strap down the fishing rods, and hit that throttle - boogity, boogity, boogity - it's bassin' time!

For months bassers all over the upper Midwest have waited impatiently for sheets of ice to retreat from their frozen lake impoundments and yield to warmer waters of more pleasing climate. For months, I have waited too. Frantic and frenzied, we all trek toward our favorite fishing outfitter, Bass Pro being mine. There we grasp at the early springtime specials and make the same mistake of purchasing the latest and greatest 'guaranteed to catch' lures. But, in the back of my mind I know what I'll be throwing come opening day - the tried and true Carolina rig.

A Carolina rig may seem time consuming to tie, and setting a hook into a fish difficult at times, but the rewards can be outstanding. Recently, I was able to introduce a good friend and fishing partner to the Carolina rig. His bassin' game hasn't been the same since.

When we hit the water on the unusually warm opening bass day, I headed just a handful of feet from the flooded boat landing of Prior Lake. There, I settled the boat down in front of a retaining wall that is normally well of the shores of the southern metro lake. The hum of my trolling motor was drowned out by the constant hullabaloo of water pumps draining wet basements.

As my back swing went overhead awaiting the perfect overhand cast, my fishing buddy looked at me a little sideways. He had never seen a Carolina rig before, and couldn't believe I was throwing something so ridiculous looking. "Nice boat, nice rod, nice reel...what the hell is he doing throwing that thing" he must have wondered to himself. Saddling up in the back of the boat, my partner for the day started to gingerly cast his crankbait toward the flooded stone.

Tap, tap, tap - BAM! Fish-on! The very first cast of the day landed my first fish. As for my fishing partner's crankbait - well, it caught it share of weeds and was finally laid to rest in the depths of a beat up tackle box as I was landing my seventh bass. The Carolina rig I had learned about just weeks earlier was proving as useful in the upper Midwest as is had in Missouri impoundments. It was then that I found myself showing my fishing partner how to tie a Carolina rig.

A Carolina rig is comprised of 3-4 main components, a weight, swivel, and hook. Rigged weedless, some sort of plastic worm, lizard, or thingamajig is on the end of the hook.

The weights for Carolina rigging come in all different shapes and sizes, as you can see in the picture to the left. Some fishermen prefer a led or steel weight because of their small size to weight ratio. Brass weight are generally bulkier than their led and steel cousins, but they give off a much more pronounced vibration in the water, catering to the lateral line of a bass. Most of my rigs have a 1/4oz to 1/2oz brass weight on them. I vary the weight based on the type of cover I'm fishing and the depth. If I'm fishing deep or need to cut through thick weeds, a heavier weight will get me to the bottom of the lake the fastest, but I always want to use the lightest weight I can get away with. The lighter the weight, the more I'm able to sense a fish on the end of my line.

The weight is the first thing to go on your line. Next, you'll want something to keep that weight from sliding down to your hook. Accomplish this by tying a snap-swivel, plain old ordinary swivel, or a snap to the tag end of your line. If tied correctly, you should be able to slide your weight all the way to the tip of your rod, but it should never be able to come off the line - the swivel or snap prevents it from sliding off. I've found that a swivel without a snap makes my Carolina rigs easiest to tie, and avoids the most tangles. Nothing is more frustrating than getting your line wrapped around a snap with every cast, and there's a lot of line to get tangled.

On the empty end of the swivel, you'll be tying about 18-24" of open-ended line. This will lead to your hook. I like to use a line that's about 2-4lbs lighter test than my main line. This way, if I get hung up on timber or a rock and start tugging, I know that the tag line will snap before the main line, saving me an expensive brass weight. All I will be out is a cheap plastic worm and hook.

The hook used in a Carolina rig should be a wide gap hook. I've used everything from a 1/0 to a 3/0 in Minnesota. The further south I go, the bigger my hook gets. Eric Pentz, crew chief for the Fishwrench.com #73 hobby stock car, would tell you to use a 5/0 hook always - no questions asked. I find that to be a little too much, but it does keep the smaller fish at bay, giving you a larger catch overall. In any case, I would start with a smaller hook and work your way up. If this is your first time finesse fishing, it's going to take some work and patience to get used to the feel of marshmallow-mouth tapping at a plastic worm. Smaller bass, with their tenacity for chasing a Carolina rig, make for great practice until you're comfortable with a finesse fishing type of bite.

In the early season, pre-spawn to early summer, I use a 4" Centipede made by Zoom, although recently I've had my eye on Yum lures. Other "do-nothing" worms will work as well, but I've had the most consistency with the Centipede. As the season progresses, I'll increase the size of the worm, being at 6-8" by mid summer, and as much as 10" snakes, in the fall.

Regardless of the time of year you're fishing, the key concept with a Carolina rig is to maintain contact between your weight and the bottom of the lake. By having 18-24" of tag line behind your weight, the worm is able to come up a good 6-10" off the bottom. This will keep it in the strike zone of a predator bass, and then longer it's in the strike zone, the more likely you are to get a strike.

Uncommon to the basser that has not finesses fished before is the type of bite felt when a bass goes after a worm. Bass are known for pounding crankbaits and top-waters with viciousness that almost rips a rod right out of your hands. But when hitting on a Carolina rig, the bass becomes the Jeckyl and Hyde of fish.

Every Christmas and Easter morning I wake up to "tap, tap, tap". When I don't move, or roll away, I feel it again - "tap, tap, tap". The more I try to ignore it, the more tapping I feel - "tap, tap, tap…tap, tap, tap". Finally, I'm startled awake from my slumber and there sits my son - "It's me!" Like a child trying to wake you up to tell you it's Christmas morning, bass have perfected the tap, tap, tap. The first few times it's felt by the novice bass fisherman, it's passed-over as just contact with the bottom of the lake, or a tug from a weed. The taps, however, keep coming. Try to set the hook now, and all you'll end up with is a wad full of line around your reel, and possibly a brass weight between your teeth. Wait - be patient. Now wait some more. Eventually, your line will start to move away from you - the fish has picked up your lure. As soon as he starts swimming away with it, set the hook - BAM! Fish on! One fisherman wrote the taps always come in threes. The first is the fish opening its big mouth, the second is the fish sucking the lure in, and the third is the fish trying to swallow it. There is not biting in the process. Bite, suck, swallow - tap, tap, tap.

Once you've mastered the hook-set timing of the Carolina rig, you're almost guaranteed bass each and every time you get on the boat. When it seems a lake is lifeless, and there isn't a fish to be caught, I know I can always fall back on Carolina rigging. It's been a proven success time and again.

Bob Wood

To get your Zoom gear mentioned in this article, visit Bass Pro Shops by using the link below.