Carolina Rig

[Lals]

I have very little experience with this technique. I would like to give this a good try next year. Anyone have any advice on rod, line, structure, lures, etc. that you find successful?

Just trying to pass some time until next season... Man that is a long way off.

[Basschaser]

Check out You Tube. Tons of good information on this and almost any other technique you might want to learn.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Carolina rigging can be one of the best ways to find and fish off shore structure. For the rod, longer is usually better. 7' MH can do the job, but longer can help. I use a 7'6" flipping stick when I actually carolina rig, I do a modified carolina rig I call a stupid rig and often throw it on a 7'MH. But my rig uses a smaller weight that is pegged and a shorter leader so, the 7' rod works fine, when using a longer leader and heavier rod, the longer flipping stick works best for me. Line, go with something heavy and has good abrasion, many use braid to floro leader. 50lb braid works well. I also use just 20 floro as main and leader, and 17-25 mono too. if just getting started, go with the 50 lb braid.. as for the meat(lure) anything goes, tubes are my fave, but lizzards, beavers, creature baits all work.

have fun!

[RK]

Hiya -

I don't fish C-rigs nearly as much as I used to - football jigs have kind of replaced them in some of the situations I used to fish them in - but I used to fish them a lot, and still do on occasion. I had one day this past season where C-rigs were 'it' for smallies, and when it's on, it's on with them.

Particulars: Kind of the classic C-rig spots are hard bottom points, etc.

For smallies I like them on deep rocks, especially if it's an edge where rock meets sand or something at the edge of a break. C-rigs are kind of funny because they sinker is loud and you can fish them fairly fast so it's sort of power fishing, but the actual lure is pretty subtle, so it can get fussy fish to bite. It's also one of the few presentations that can pull smallies down if they're up off the bottom. Smallies are curious, and the noise attracts them.

For largemouths they are good on rock or gravel spots for sure, but they're kind of underrated for weedlines or areas with sparse weeds and a lot of space between clumps. For weedlines, you really have to know how the weed edge lays out, so I'll sometimes mark the edge of it with marker buoys. Then cast to all the little points and pockets. Sometimes works better to fish the edge 'inside out' by sitting over the weeds and casting out past the edge. They're nice because you can fish them fairly quickly along an edge, but stop them on 'the spot' and almost dead stick them. Good cold front baits that way, especially going inside out on an inside turn. This works great unless there's a lot of crud on the bottom, so the sinker gets loaded with crud. I do use a bullet sinker rather than a barrel sinker around weeds though.

Rods/Reels/Line - Actually, a garden variety flipping stick works about as well as anything for C-rigs. I use the same rod I use for football jigs, which is a 7'6" Mag-Medium Powell flipping stick. It has a lot of backbone, but a fast fairly light tip. If not a flipping stick, then something at least 7 feet long since you're making long casts and need to pick up a lot of line on a sweep hookset. I like a highs peed reel for the same reason. For the main line I like fluorocarbon - 16#, since that's what I have on the rod I use. For leaders, either fluoro, or, if I want the bait to fall slower or am using a floating plastic, mono.

Weights and hooks - Tungsten has kind of replaced brass for me, although I still have brass weights I just haven't used up yet. Tungsten is smaller and louder and more sensitive. I use 1/2 oz weights in depths from 10 to 15 feet or so, and 3/4 oz deeper than that. I use glass beads, and a light wire wide gap hook. Rather than rig up c-rigs on the spot, which is a pain, I use a pre-made rig with the sinker, bead and swivel on a short piece of single strand leader wire. If I'm around really jagged rocks or especially Zebra mussels, I take a short (3") piece of clear plastic tubing, slide it up the main line, tie to the wire, then slide the tubing down over the line tie. Really saves the knot from grinding on the rocks. A trick I learned from a guy who fishes Erie and St Clair, which is loaded with Zebes.

Baits - anything, really. Senkos, beavers, straight tailed worms, French fry worms, craws, tubes. Lizards are kind of the classic, but I think in clear water they can be a little too busy and I do better on subtler plastics. For smallies, it's hard to beat a tube, and I often float them by using a light wire hook and stuffing a piece of styrofoam up in the tube. The little disposable foam ear plugs work for this too. For some reason smallies drill the things. They hit them at 100 mph.

[Larson15]

All great info above. I throw C-Rigs a lot and use a 7'3" heavy rod with 20lb seaguar invizx. Like RK said I pre-make my rigs with 1/2 and 3/4 oz weights with a beed and clacker. My go to bait is a baby brush hog.

The stupid rig that Deitz is referring to is another rig that is always on my deck. A lot of people call this rig a mojo rig. It flat out catches fish. I use a 1/8-1/4 oz weight for this with a ring fry. I fish it from shallow to deep and every where in between.

[delmuts]

I've also modified DD's stupid rig. Works great around shallow rocks and light weeds, especially awesome for newbie fisherman( most times fishing from shore). Usually on a spinning rig.(but works well on a spincasting rig also ) I'll tie a light wire hook( usually a 1/0) and some kind of a small bait,( finese worms, small lizards, or small tubes) then about 12-18 in. above the hook i'll crimp on a split shot.( just big enough to keep things on the bottom)Let them drag it back, and wait. Suddenly they will realize they have a fish on. The smiles and squeals are great.

[Lals]

Thanks guys for some really great input. Basschaser, thanks for the tip about YouTube -- you can spend a lot of time getting "knowledge" from that source. I look forward to giving this a good try next year including the Mojo/Stupid rig.

I hope everyone get's all the fishing stuff you want for Christmas -- well maybe the top 3 things. I know for me the list never ends.....