Braid for Carolina Rig

[cbd15178]

What size braid is everyone using as a main line for Carolina rigging? I’m using a 12-14lb mono leader.

[Walkabout7781]

Less than 40 lb is somewhat of a hassle with braid on a baitcaster. Some might like 50 lb, but sometimes smaller just works better due to wind or current. I use 40 on my spinnerbait rod, so I'd start with 40. Good choice of using monofil/copolymer leader. Some use FC, but I think I'd want a little more float...or a little less sink.

Brace yourself for some sensory overload. I really couldn't deal with it, but we have a lot of cedar bark on the bottoms of our lakes, and that crap feels exactly like a bass going "tap, tap, tap". A big ol' slab of cedar bark puts up a hell of a fight, though!

[golfpro307]

I use 15# flouro or mono to 12 to 10lb flouro. No need for braid.

[ridgerunner6901]

I wanted to use braid for the c rig but I just didn’t get any satisfaction at all from it, lots of break offs from rock abrasion, a good flouro or copoly for mainline and 12 pound big game mono leader is hard to to beat

[Bassbuster95]

get rid of the braid as a mainline for the c-rig. 15-20 mono/flouro and 12/b leader is what I use.
I broke off ALOT with braid. That said, I never adjust my drag. I lock it down. I guess if you want to play with drag and adjust your hooksets, you could use braid. I dont fool with it though

[DrewFlu33]

I was using 50 lb braid (Sufix 832) for a Carolina rig for some time and really liked the feel you could get with it, but like others have mentioned was having to retie more often than I wanted due to it getting frayed. I didn't experience any breakoffs short of those where I was just hung and couldn't get it out, though. The other much bigger problem I had was that I seemed to hang up a lot more, possibly due to the diameter of the line (12 lb diameter for 50 lb braid usually) or due to the absolute lack of stretch making that sinker really wedge into the rocks, even without "leaning" into it as we've all learned NOT to do through lots of lost baits!

At the suggestion of a good friend who kicks my butt regularly on bottom contact baits - specifically a Carolina rig, swing head, and football jig - I went to 18 lb Shooter for my main line on my "dragging" rod. The only complaint I have is that it takes a trip or so to "break in" which I had never experienced with fluoro before, but past that it's absolutely incredible for this technique. Incredibly abrasion resistant, very sensitive, and I seem to hang up much less often with it (or at least when I do, I'm able to lift the rod tip and "finesse" it through). I'm using that to my swivel on a C-rig then a 16 lb Sniper leader on the other end.

[barrys]

Same here 18lb sniper or shooter works. The leader doesn’t really matter if your fishing a Carolina rig the way it was intended your bait will drag the bottom no matter what your leader is made of. Just go with maybe the next size lb test lower than your main line

[Walkabout7781]

To come clean on the braid/C-rig thing...out here a lot of guys do what is commonly (improperly) called "Splitshotting" or just "Brass & Glass". It's a 7' spinning rod, 6-8 lb copolymer line, approximately 1/4 oz bullet sinker, glass bead, maybe a brass "ticker", swivel, leader and a hook suitable for the bait of choice. The bait is often a 3"-3.5" reaper, 4" worm, 3" gitzit, etc. I'd done that for quite a few years with good success, when Spectra Braid came out and I tried some for this use. It was 16 lb test Cabela's "Evolution". I threw that stuff quite a bit that season and actually caught one fish. Nothing else changed, just the main line. I felt a lot of stuff that I thought was fish, but wasn't. When I hooked and boated a 5 lb piece of Cedar bark, I gave it up. My opinion is that there's literally a sensory overload and it was just not possible to tell the bites from the chaff. So, I wouldn't suggest braid for the main line.

I currently have my C'rig setup (7.5' MH Flipping Stick, 8:1 Lew's Super Duty Wide Spool, Pradco 14 lb SST, 10 lb SST leader). I might change the mainline to 17-20 lb. P-Line CXX...pretty nice stuff for a baitcaster, as recommended on BBC. For years, I used the 14 lb SST mainline paired with 14 lb Berkley Trilene leader. I NEVER broke the mainline, ALWAYS the leader. That setup died when I no longer got free sample spools of Trilene at WBC monthly raffle drawings. I won't buy that crap.