The Carolina Rig

Chances are you have at least heard of the Carolina Rig. If not, you have been missing out on one easy technique to catching your limit almost every time. Top anglers have used this little secret to win many a Bass tournament. Best of all, it is very simple to set up and implement. As with every rig and technique, all anglers have their preference-you will want to tweak this given different situations. Feel free to experiment with the different aspects of this rig.

I will try to keep this simple, and not too long-one could go on for pages about each aspect of this rig and the theories behind it. I will stick with the most basic set-up. You will need fishing line, a swivel, a bead, 3 feet of leader line, and your hook.

Starting with the main line coming from your reel, slide on the weight(3/8 oz.bullet weight will be sufficient in most cases)-You also can use an egg weight, depending on what type of cover you are going through. The bead will go on next-either glass or plastic will be fine. Some anglers feel the clicking noise this generates helps attract fish. Others just want the fish to pay attention to the bait, and only use the bead in conjunction with an egg weight. In this case, it is just to protect the knot from coming in contact with the sliding weight. After the bead is on, tie on a small barrel swivel- this will prevent the weight from sliding any closer to your bait. We then tie on a length of leader line to this. This can generally range from about 18-36". This will depend on how you are using this rig , and where the fish are at. A fishfinder(sonar) comes in pretty handy for determining where the fish are at, as well as how far off the bottom they seem to be staying. Now we just need to tie the hook on and we're all set.

Next time I will discuss the various methods of fishing this rig. Trust me, you are not going to want to miss this. This simple rig has helped me put countless Bass on the end of my line.