Carolina Rigs?

[Jesse Ours]

I'm ignorant in the ways of the Carolina rig.All i throw is Texas rigs and I was wondering what is the purpose of it and are there situations where it could be used to greater effect than a Texas rig?

[dhami013]

It keeps you in contact with the bottom. It's good for when you need to keep your bait on the bottom, you can't always do that with a t-rig. It's also useful for figuring out bottom composition. Very slow technique. I just started using it this year. I enjoy it.

[herefishy42]

Its a good technique for points and drop offs. alot of people will catch fish on a crank and when the bite slows pick it apart with the c rig. What makes it so good is your plastic glides along freely behind the weight and is much more natural looking. Texas rig can work too but c rig shines in my opinion in working a significant depth change.

[snapshotmd]

The C-rig gets it action from the weight getting caught and pulled free along the bottom. The longer and the lighter the leader you have the more action you will have. I like using lizards, curly tail worms, and flukes with this setup. I will fish the C-rig when reaction baits don't work and when there is texture on the bottom to "catch" the weight, such as rocky bottoms, sparse grass, and humps.

Use no less than 1/2 oz egg sinker.

[Bluebasser86]

Carolina rigs are good for covering lots of water fast. With the heavy weight you can make long casts and drag it back. Like others said it's good to feel what is down there and the heavy weight helps keep your bait in contact with the bottom but since it isn't attached to the nose of your bait it doesn't kill the natural look of it. The noise that the sinker makes can actually help attract fish to your bait because the clicking noise sounds very similar to a crawdad digging around and turning small rocks.

[spotaholic]

If this has not been mentioned it also used when the grass on the bottom is growing and you want the bait to stay off the bottom and on top of the grass. On the lake that I fish it is very hard to throw a T Rig, Jig or Deep crankbait in the summer because it just gets bogged down in the grass.

[The Bassinator]

If this has not been mentioned it also used when the grass on the bottom is growing and you want the bait to stay off the bottom and on top of the grass. On the lake that I fish it is very hard to throw a T Rig, Jig or Deep crankbait in the summer because it just gets bogged down in the grass.

x2 I couldnt get them to bite my crankbait and the even though the water is only 5 feet deep I needed a presentation I could cover this large weed bed with. Finally tried the carolina rig got a #4 and a #2.

[piscicidal]

Here is an informative article by George Welcome which helped explain the benefits of the C-rig for me. One of the key advantages of the C-rig is that you can keep the bait down in the water column, while still getting some lateral movement of the bait (George mentions this, describing the 360degree circumference about the sinker). I can't think of any other presentation where you can present a bait in this way.

http://www.***/articles/crig.shtml

[hatrix]

I have done pretty good using c-rigged baby brush hogs this year.

[BuckyKat]

Just a recommendation here, you asked what the purpose was and the replies are great. I'll just recommend that if you want to hear some of the how to's look in the BestofBR in the general section. It's a great read, got me fired up about the C-rig just reading it.