Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
This started as an article about the history of the Carolina rig. I planned to do a deep dive into the method, including its origin, its originator, basic components and methods, and more. Unfortunately—like so many efforts to get to the bottom of a piece of fishing history—that did not pan out. Much of bass fishing history is shrouded and clouded in mystery. Innovations seldom happen overnight. Instead, they evolve, picking up minor advancements here and there … forever.
The Carolina rig—or, more specifically, the South Carolina rig—arose and evolved in the midland impoundments of the Palmetto State in the 1960s at a time when no crankbait reached double-digit depths and jigs, spoons, and plastic worms were deepwater staples … to the extent that anyone was fishing deep water at all. These were still the early days of sonar flashers, and few anglers had the confidence to abandon the banks.
The Texas rig came out of East Texas in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a tool to penetrate brushy cover in places like Lake Tawakoni. That rig did more to popularize the plastic worm than anything else. In fact, it caused Nick Creme—the man who created the first soft plastic worm—to move his company from Ohio to Texas, where sales were booming.
Brushy shallow cover in the newer Lone Star State reservoirs required the self-weedless rigging of the Texas rig, but several impoundments in the Carolinas were older (Lake Wylie was impounded in 1904, lakes Murray and High Rock in 1927) and a lot of the shallow cover was gone. Instead of a snagless worm, those anglers were looking for something that would hug the bottom, feel the contours, and be fished faster than the hop and crawl of the Texas rig.
The answer, of course, was a heavier sinker that allowed for longer casts and greater feel, even in the depths. A big “egg” or “catfish” sinker was the answer. They were easy to find in weights of 1/2-ounce and more, just right for the task. And if they weren’t as sleek and cover-friendly as a bullet-type slip sinker, well, they didn’t have to be. Anglers were dragging these rigs across points and humps, not through bushes and brambles.
They key components of the Carolina rig are simple. First, you thread on the sinker—typically 1/2-ounce or more, heavier in deeper water or current and lighter in shallow or weedy waters. Then comes a plastic or glass bead after which the line is tied to a swivel. Some like the bead as an element that adds noise to the rig; others maintain that it protects the knot from the sinker. Of course, this is nonsense. After all, the bead might protect the knot from the sinker, but what protects the knot from the bead?
A better way is to use a small cushion that can slide up your line, like the Boss Kat Knot Protector. It’s a device for the catfish market, but it’s perfect for Carolina rigging, which is really just a variation on a traditional live bait rig for catfish or saltwater surf fishing.
Once the cushion and swivel are in place, add a monofilament (it floats) or fluorocarbon (it sinks) leader of 1 to 5 feet. This leader should have a breaking strength less than that of your main line. That way, if your bait gets snagged and you break it off, it will most likely break below the swivel, and you won’t have to re-rig everything.
Early Carolina riggers were fond of floating worms. They’d use a light worm hook, and the lure would float the hook and mono up behind the sinker, making it highly visible to any bass nearby.
In the late 1950s or early ’60s, a North Carolina angler named Lloyd Deaver (1914-1999) introduced the first “French fry” worm. He called it the “Fish Finder,” and it was a 4-inch, two-hook “worm” with little or no conventional “action.” It would simply rise, fall and glide behind the sinker. Bass loved it on the Carolina rig … still do.
Virtually any soft plastic lure can be successful on a Carolina rig, and bait styles have fallen in and out of fashion through the years. Hard baits work, too. We’ll never know how many hundreds of thousands or millions of bass have been taken on a floating minnow-style bait fished on a Carolina rig.
The Carolina rig almost exploded in popularity in 1973 after the legendary Bill Dance finished second in a major tournament on South Carolina’s Clark Hill Reservoir. But that was second place … and the runner-up technique rarely ignites a craze. It would be another dozen years before Jack Chancellor would win a big event on a French-fry worm of his own design. At that point, the Carolina rig was firmly in the spotlight. For the next decade or more, the C-rig was an absolute staple in every serious bass angler’s arsenal. For most of that time, the two most popular soft plastics for Carolina rigging were the French fry worm and the lizard, and pros like David Fritts—generally regarded as the best deep crankbait angler in history—quietly earned much of their prize money by “mopping up” their crankbait hotspots with a Carolina rig.
Today, the Carolina rig seems to have lost much of its luster, but no one told the bass that. If fewer anglers are throwing it today, it’s because they’ve been distracted by newer, shinier options, not because the C-rig stopped working.
What makes the Carolina rig special? It’s probably a multitude of things, including (a) the fact that a heavy sinker (and many “riggers” regularly use 1 ounce tungsten weights) keeps the bait firmly in contact with the bottom and any structure to be found there, (b) the bait is free to float and flutter behind the sinker in a way that may appear more natural than other methods, (c) strikes are generally easy to detect and there’s little to alert the fish that it should let go of the bait, and (d) it’s easy to fish.
Final tips
- Use a long rod—at least 7 feet. It’ll help you to make long casts and set the hook against the long leaders often used when Carolina rigging.
- The heavier the cover you’re fishing, the shorter your leader should be. A good, average leader length is about two feet. Ninety percent of your leaders are likely to be between 18 and 36 inches.
- Use a fast reel—at least 7:1 gear ratio. It’ll help you pick up line more quickly, which can be an issue if a bass grabs your bait and moves toward you.
- When in doubt, use a heavier sinker. Since the sinker is not in direct contact with the bait, it doesn’t have a lot of impact on the lure’s action. A heavier sinker helps you stay in contact with the bottom.
- Drag it, don’t hop it. By keeping the sinker in direct contact with the bottom throughout the retrieve, you can learn about the substrate, feel any cover, and provide plenty of action to your bait.
- Set the hook with a sweep to the side. You need to move a lot of line when setting the hook on a Carolina rig. The best way to do that is by sweeping the rod to the side and turning your body in the same direction.
