Detecting bite on a Carolina Rig?

[Nepatizz]

Hello, 

 

I've been trying a Carolina Rig for the first time and haven't caught anything on it yet. What do bites on this rig normally feel like? How can you distinguish between your weight hitting something and a fish pecking at and picking up your lure? 

 

Any other advice much appreciated! 

 

Thanks 

 

[Todd2]

So just to back up some..I slowly drag with rod tip down to the side and drag 1 to 2 feet at a time, I reel up my slack to the beginning and pause a little between the next pull. The bite normal happens in the pause, sometimes you feel it..sometimes you won't know until you do the next drag and it feels like your pulling up a wet towel. In either case....reel out all slack with rod pointed toward fish and sweep back hard to the side and keep reeling. It takes some practice, especially if you are use to a Texas rig....think more of a crankbait hook set but harder and longer.

[scaleface]

When   fishing a Carolina rig I usually dont feel the typical tap . Its a pressure thing for me .  I  do a lot of swings and misses . 

[WRB]

Carolina rig; egg sinker, bead, swivel, leader and hook. Is this the rig your are using?

I ask because no rigging term is universally accepted today.

You are basically dragging a weight and can't feel what is going on behind it unless something stops the hook and you pull out all the slack line between the weight and hook or a bass does. 

Using a traditional C-rig the weight is somewhere between 3/8 oz to 1 oz egg sinker, the leader somewhere between 36" to 48" long. 

Define your Carolina rig.

Tom

 

[MurphD]

I use braid to the swivel with a tungsten bullet weight. Flouro leader. Fast tip heavy action rod. 

When I reel up the slack after the drag I reel at the same “speed” as I bring the rod forward. This keeps the line pretty tight and seems to help with bite detection. 

I could be doing it wrong. 

[Nepatizz]

2 hours ago, WRB said:

Carolina rig; egg sinker, bead, swivel, leader and hook. Is this the rig your are using?

I ask because no rigging term is universally accepted today.

You are basically dragging a weight and can't feel what is going on behind it unless something stops the hook and you pull out all the slack line between the weight and hook or a bass does. 

Using a traditional C-rig the weight is somewhere between 3/8 oz to 1 oz egg sinker, the leader somewhere between 36" to 48" long. 

Define your Carolina rig.

Tom

 

I've been using a 1/4 oz bullet weight and a red bead with a swivel. I mainly bank fish. 

[WRB]

Line? Leader?

If you are using your main line for a leader and a swivel with bead for a weight stopper then it's a C-rig or more accurately a finesse C-rig. 

Casting from shore my guess is your rod isn't over 7' long and the leader is less then 36" long. 

Bullet weights are designed to slide through snags minimum resistance where as egg sinkers drag with more resistance. 1/4 oz is a light C-rig weight but a normal finesse C-rig weight. Enough trying to define what you are using.

You cast the rig and drag it back along the bottom uphill fishing from shore. If you use a standard 3/0 worm hook with FC leader and 6" to 7 1/2" worm the rig is contacting the bottom, not floating off the bottom. Trying to detect a strike is nearly impossible unless the bass eats the worm and turns with it pulling on your line. If you don't set the hook when feeling pressure the bass drops the worm.

Don't use FC line or leader because it sinks and drags the bottom. Use lighter wire worm hooks and worms that float off the bottom and mono or coploy leader and braid main line or mono/ coploy main line. 

What worms, hook and line are you using?

Tom

[lo n slo]

9 hours ago, Todd2 said:

It takes some practice, especially if you are use to a Texas rig.

you ain’t kidding. 

 

i haven’t thrown a c rig in years because they either swallow the hook or i don’t set it properly. plus, all those knots. 

[Sam]

6 hours ago, Nepatizz said:

I've been using a 1/4 oz bullet weight and a red bead with a swivel. I mainly bank fish. 

Your set up is fine. What you need to do is know how the bait feels without a fish on it.

 

Cast out and retrieve back while focusing on how the bait feels.

 

If the bait feels different, you set the hook.

 

This is the "rule" for all baits. The only "rule" in bass fishing that we all have to learn to follow.

 

And as Hank Parker says: "It doesn't cost anything to set the hook."

[Todd2]

One other thing...I learned the technique from a guide many years ago. He told us that when he took couples out..the woman almost always out fishes the man on a C-Rig. The reason....patience....slow it down. I keep that in my mind and slowing down helps me more times than not.

[Troy85]

I almost never feel the traditional tap.  Usually either you will notice you line moving sideways or feel pressure when you make your drag.

[bagofdonuts]

Lots of times when you feel the traditional thump of a bite on a c rig it’s a fish trying to eat the sinker. With practice you’ll be able to detect everything other than a bass. You’ll know gravel, sand, weeds, wood; then when you can’t tell what’s happening set the hook. 

BTW. Search for any info Mark Davis has put out on c rig. He is the zen master of the c rig.