Carolina Rigging 101

Bubba, fishing a C-rig and be very hard to do or very easy to do and most of fishing it comes in the form of focus. These are rigs that are not fished at a designated target. They are fished across flats Drops and Long tapering point 90% of the time. Like I said the one most important thing about this rig is you have to remain focused on this rig every second your line is in the water. In 90% of the cases the bite is very soft and in many cases you won't even feel it at all. You just get this feeling that a fish has got your bait. I know that most anglers fish very long leaders some as long as three feet. I seldom fish a leader over 18 inches long and when the fish are on a C-Rig I am probably one of the more successful anglers with it around here. More and more anglers are going to shorter leaders. The next most important part about C-rig fishing is the assembly of the rig itself. While many anglers are still using those big bulky egg sinkers I got away from those 15 years ago and went to the Black Brass cylinder type almost MoJo style sinkers 3/8th to 1/2 oz( with these newer reels big weights ane not necessary) and two black Glass(not plastic) glass beads and I use a ball bearing swivel but do to cost I know most anglers use barrel or crane swivels. I will use 17lb test line on the reel and 12 lb test on the leader with a 4/0 Owner Offset Cutting point worm hook. I am not a fan of the extra wide gap hooks because they gill hook alot of fish. Not back to focus, because there can be at times a lot of line out between you and the bait you need to be both a line watcher and use a rod with good feel. If anything at all feels different set teh hook because remember Hook sets are free and not setting the hook could cost you a very big fish. Bait selection can very alot. I limit myself to only a few baits to not over complicate it. I use a 5.5 inch Lizard, A 7 inch Fat body worm with a ribbon type tail, A Brush Hog or Baby Brush Hog and if the bite is tough I will down size to a 4 inch Finess ring worm or Centipede. These baits will normally gettter done. But when I need a real secret weapon I will put on a Big Fat Grub 4 inches or more Like a Tab Tail or a Fat Albert and drag it fairly fast to almost keep the bait moving almost all the time. Well thats about all I can offer in the C-rigs Bubba. Good Luck with them.