How To Make A Carolina Rig
The “Carolina” rig is one of the most used rigs in the fishing industry when it comes to fishing on bottom recreationally and is a fishing guides go to rig for getting their bait on bottom. This rig allows you to get your bait pinned to the bottom or allow it to drift away from the weight and get it a little higher in the water column, depending on where you are trying to target fish.
Materials Needed
- Hook
- Swivel
- Weight
- Leader Material
- Crimps (if preferred)
- Crimping Tool (if needed)
Crimping
When making your crimps, you want to get as close to the edges of the crimp, without going over the edge and cutting into the leader material. Over-applying pressure can also cut into the leader as well. Not enough pressure will allow the crimps to slide and in turn, tangle the rig. Take your time when making your crimps as this is the most vital part of the construction of your rig.
Making Your Rig
This rig is made by sliding your desired weight onto the mainline and following it up with a swivel to prevent tangling. Once you have your swivel securely attached to your mainline, you can move onto attaching your leader material to the swivel. This can be done by crimping or tying, whichever is more preferable to you. After you have ensured that your leader is properly attached, you can fasten your hook to your leader by tying or crimping. Below, are some knots that we find easy to tie and are of superior knot strength for this rig.
Knots
The knots to use for this rig can vary, depending on the type of line, whether it is braided line or monofilament line, and its thickness. For monofilament line, we prefer to use the “Improved Clinch” knot for superior holding strength. This knot is made by taking your mainline side of you line and running it through the terminal tackle that it will be holding, whether that is your hook or swivel, and bringing it up parallel with itself, then wrapping it 3-7 times around itself, depending on line size, and finalizing the knot by tucking the tag end of the line through the loop created near the piece of terminal tackle and tightening the knot onto itself. For braided lines, we prefer to use the “Uni” knot. To tie this knot, you start out by running your mainline through your terminal tackle and bringing it up, parallel to itself, then you create a loop with the tag end of the line, then make 3-7 wraps around both the mainline and the tag end through the loop that you made, following it by tightening it and placing the tag end through the loop created at the bottom by the terminal tackle and cinching it down.
Purpose of this rig
This rigs purpose is to get your bait to the bottom and pin it down for fish that feed along the bottom and aren’t within the water column. The Carolina rig also allows you to let line out and get it higher in the column by allowing the bait to get away from the weight.
This rig is used for targeting a wide variety of fish species. From patch reef fishing for different species of grouper and snapper to bottom fishing offshore for black sea bass and other grouper, snapper species, to fishing the backwaters and bays for trout, flounder and redfish, this rig works great for many different depths and areas of the ocean and its many backwaters and estuaries.
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