(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
While some anglers call the Carolina Rig the “quitter’s rig” or worse, Pete Gluszek considers it one of his most productive tournament tools under a wide variety of conditions. It produced his first professional win, and he still uses it years later for all three major species of bass in vastly different types of water.
“Some people give it a bad rap,” he said. They claim it’s too slow, or only produces big fish, but he disagrees. “It wins tournaments. It catches great big ones and it catches numbers.” He thinks that’s because it combines the best attributes of power fishing and finesse. You can use heavy rods, heavy weights and heavy line, but the soft-plastic behind your weight still floats along subtly, catching even stubborn fish unaware. He uses it from the spawn all the way through the summer and into the fall, in both shallow water and deep stuff.
Choosing the right equipment is the key to success, he believes.
It starts with a long rod, in his case a 7’6” Cashion Carolina Rig rod (model CR90676). Because he’s using a long, cumbersome leader, the rod aids in casting ability and distance, and also allows him to move a lot of line when he gets a bite. He pairs it with a 7.1:1 Lew’s BB1 Pro Series reel. The fast gear ratio allows him to reel in quickly to fire out the next cast to an excited school. It also allows him keep the line taut when he hooks a fish and it runs at him.
He almost always uses 20-pound Gamma fluorocarbon for his main line. It has low stretch, and the Carolina rig is all about “transmission,” allowing him to identify the bottom composition as rock, sand, grass or something else. The heavy line also resists abrasion and fraying, particularly where the line enters the tungsten weight, a natural pinch point that has been the undoing of many potentially winning catches.
He likes the VMC tungsten weights, most often in a 1-ounce size, but sometimes as low as 1/4-unce, and occasionally as high as 1 1/2 ounces. The weight should be a flipping model or a worm weight, not a barrel sinker, because the tapered end comes through cover better, snagging a little bit less.
He ties the improved clinch knot (three of them!) and saves time on the water by having pre-tied leaders with hooks ready to go. That saves him two knots during critical tournament moments. His leaders are most often 16-pound Gamma fluoro, but he’ll go as low as 8 if minimizing visibility and maximizing natural movement are the keys to garnering more bites. Additionally, when he gets hung up, a lighter leader will break before the main line, saving him time and money.
Most often he does not use a bead between his weight and the swivel, believing that it doesn’t add anything to the package, and indeed that the extra noise may turn fish off. His leaders are usually in the 4-foot range, but he’ll go shorter in stained water and may go longer in clear water. At the end of them sits a round-bend worm hook like the one made by Gamakatsu. He’ll use a 4/0 with larger baits like a full-sized Brush Hog, being sure to cut a hole with the hook point to get it “real loose so I get good hook penetration.” The gold standard, of course is a 6-inch lizard, and you can’t go wrong with green-pumpkin or watermelon in relatively clear water, and black or black/blue when there’s some stain.
When fish are finicky, he’ll downsize to a 2/0 worm hook and go with a 5-inch finesse worm or an even smaller centipede, true “do-nothing” baits. His most frequent choice, though, is something with a little more action – a watermelon red Baby Brush Hog. He’ll usually dye the tails chartreuse, especially if there are smallmouths or spotted bass around.
If you want to learn some of the other keys to Gluszek’s Carolina rig tackle choices, including one of his favorite oddball colors in the 6-inch lizard, check out his full video from the home office, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
