Carolina rig question....

I'm starting to fish more carolina rigs....I have never cuaght a fish on one, but it feels like it has a lot of potential for where I fish.

How do I detect bites on a c-rig?

THanks

in my experiances,most of the time it will feel like its hung up on a weed or something so when you give it a good jerk to get it loose the fish will almost take your rod away from you!!the rest of the time when you stop the drag/retrieve they will allready have it then run with it(also make ya feel like the rods going in the drink)
use a side to front drag/retrieve then reel down while letting the rod get back to that side!sometimes use a fast drag and then sometimes just a slooooow drag! then at times ya need a hopping drag/retrieve(kinda like a jig/pig

I fish it 70% of the time and find the bite to be very similar to a Texas rig bite. It may feel mushy sometimes, or you may not be able to feel the weight at all. When in doubt SET THE HOOK. also use the lightest weight you can get away with.

good deal...thanks guys.

First time I fished a C-Rig, I was in a little man made lake...very clear
My dad rigged it up for me (I was only like 6 and had never used it before)....tossed it out there, felt a HARD tick tick...like a texas rig, only harder....set the hook and brought in a 5.5 pound bass...

First time to use it...and landed my biggest bass at that time....might have been on the first cast, can't remember...

I fish a carolina rig a lot. It accounts for probably 75% of my tournament fish during the year. I have been fishing it for 15 years. Very rarely do you feel the "hit" on a Carolina rig. What usually happens is 2 things. Because you are usually using a 1/2 to 3/4 oz weight, the rig makes a big splash when it enters the water. This draws a lot of interest from area bass. In my experience, more so with fishing for smallies then Largies, 50% of the time the bass picks up your bait on the inital cast, before you ever drag it even once. Having said that, when they dont pick it up right away the will almost always pick it up on the pause between drags and most times continue to swim toward you or off to the side. As you go to drag again it will either feel "mushy" or you will actually feel the fish swimming away. You feel the tail going bacl and forth as the fish is swimming.

Great...thanks again guys.

I will probably use a rig in my next tourny this weekend.

Do you guys pre make your rigs..and just store them in bags?

one way you can store them is a piece of foam pipe insulation and jsut make the leaders up and wrap them on and spin them off when you need them
a lot of the pros use diffrent lengths of leaders adn they keep them organized by length that way

CSHAVER, K-mart sells a leader keeper. It is this yellow hollow plastic tube with screw caps on either ends. It has a black velcro surface and small tabs that stick to the velcro. There are plastic loops to put your hook point through. You then wrap your line till you get to the swivel and then place a tab over the line at the swivel. It keeps everything tight and in place. It holds 10 leaders and the screw off cap at the ends can hols the hooks, beads, swivels and weights. I have 2 of them and wont leave home without them. They also fit nicely in a plano 3700 box if you take out all the dividers for one row.

I read that you should use a sweep set. I don't know, I'm just getting into C-rigging, but I've read probably 5 articles that said this. Also maybe try braid for the main line. http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

I dont use Braid on a C-rig(but its gotta be OK for it)but,always ''sweep'' the rod to one side to set the hook and let them play out a little before reeling them near the boat/bank http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif

ALWAYS sweep set. NEVER set the hook over your head. I dont know what reels you guys are using. I am unusual in that I LOVE to throw my Carolina rig on 7' heavy action spinning rods. I use a Shimano Stradic or symetre 4000 series with 14 lb test main line and 10 or 12 lb test leaders. I use a 2-3 foot leader almost always unless the weeds are really tall. Then I may go to a 4-5 foot leader. The reason for using spinning gear is gear ratio and line recovery. The symetre and stradic both are 6.2 -1 and line recover is 31" per handle turn. The reason this is important is when you are dragging the rig you usually feel the fish at the end of a drag. You now must real up all the slack to get a good hard sweep set. These high gear ratios and high line recovery allow this much easier then any baitcaster, in my opinion. Try it...... You'll like it!!!

I've got me a C-rig ready togo now. Got it on a Quantum 7' Medium Heavy with 14lb Big Game main line, 8lb P Line Floroclear, Quantum Accurist with a 6.3:1 ratio.

What kind of weights are you all using for a rig? Tungston? Brass? Lead?

It is wierd..I have this confidence in a c-rig...even though I have never caught a fish on one.

A large egg sinker, glass beads.

I use brass(its cheaper than Tungston and harder than lead)mostly 3/4oz but use 1/2 up to 1 1/2oz 1-2 glass beads several diff. colors(real cheap in hobby store)<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CShaver8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What kind of weights are you all using for a rig? Tungston? Brass? Lead?

It is wierd..I have this confidence in a c-rig...even though I have never caught a fish on one.</TD></TR></TABLE>

If I am fishing weeds I use bullet style weights and always go as light as the wind and depth will allow. If I am fishing rocks or wood I use egg style sinkers. Reason being is they tend to snag less easily in the rocks and wood. We have lead laws here in most of New England so I use tungston. However because tungston is so hard I now use a plastic bead along with 1-2 glass beads on my rig. The plastic bead is the 1st one that goes on the main line after the weight. It acts like a cusion or shock absorber. I was finding the tungston was chipping or breaking the glass beads and in turn the beads were knicking my line.

You answered your question yourself in your post when you said...... You dont want the bass to hit your beads. Think anout it. Same should go for your weight, even if it is a jig. I have read about using a jig as a weight and even tried it one day. The jig was constantly fouled with bottom muck, small weeds , ect. You want the bass to be honed in on the bait dragging behind the weight. I would hate to make a long cast (most carolina rig casts are some of the longest you will make bass fishing), engage the real, move the bait and feel a fish there and have it be on the jig and not the soft plastic bait. What are the chances you would get a solid hookset with 100' of line out ? http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthdown.gif