Tips & Techniques
Rules of Thumb for Texas & Carolina
Rigs
(Revised) |
 |
June, 2011
By Tom Redington
During the summer on most reservoirs you can count on two things—hot
weather and offshore bass. And if the bass are deep, Texas rigs and
Carolina rigs (C-rig) are often your best weapons. Both will catch bass,
but how do you decide which set up to choose and how should you rig it up
based on the conditions you’re confronting? This article will focus on a
few basic rules of thumb to help you answer some of the whens, wheres, and
whys for TX rigs and C-rigs.
C-rigs, especially when rigged with a heavy sinker (3/4 to 1 oz), work
best in several different situations. First, a heavy sinker allows you to
make long casts and quickly drag the bait across a wide area while
maintaining contact with the bottom the whole time to locate bass fast. In
addition, fluorocarbon line, a sensitive rod like a Dobyns Champion 764C,
and a heavy sinker clearly transmit changes in bottom composition or
pieces of isolated cover. I work the bait quickly until I find rocks,
weeds, or wood, and then slowly work my bait through this fish holding
cover. The ability to cover a lot of water and find small areas of cover
makes the C-rig a premier search bait as well as a good way to catch bass
once they’re found.
TX rigs, in contrast, typically work best when fishing heavy cover,
specific targets, or steep drops. In heavy cover, a C-rig often hangs up
more and will not get into the small holes in grass clumps or brush piles
as well as a TX rig. In addition, when bass are located in very specific
pieces of cover, a TX rig provides great action while shaking it in place
(similar to the way you shake a worm on a shaky head jig). This subtle
quivering action while leaving the bait in place often triggers inactive
fish that won’t react to a rapidly moving or a dead-sticked C-rig.
Finally, when fishing very steep banks, pond dams, or ledges, TX rigs can
be slowly crawled down the slope while a C-rig will often pull your bait
all the way to the bottom of the break too quickly.
Another factor to consider is the size of the weight you use. Tungsten
weights like Lake Fork’s Mega Weights are harder and smaller, telegraphing
more feel and getting into tighter pieces of cover. Heavy weights are
often good in summer, as the fast fall triggers fish into a reaction
strike. Furthermore, they reach the bottom quicker and allow better feel
on windy days. While the slow fall of a small weight will sometimes get
finicky fish to bite, I often start with a heavy weight and go smaller if
I must, instead of the other way around.
In addition to the size of weight, the soft plastic lure you use on your
rig also affects the drop speed and performance of your set up. Bulky
baits with big tails or appendages will slow the fall of your rig and work
best when paired with bigger weights and moved aggressively. Lures like
Fork Creatures, Hyper Worms, and big ribbon-tail ring worms like 10” Fork
Worms move a lot of water and trigger big bass that are actively feeding.
Hop and swim these baits on a TX rig or C-rig to get their full action.
Conversely, when the bite is tougher and you need to coax those big girls
into biting, more streamlined soft plastics are in order. In this case,
I’ll rig up with straight tailed worms like Hyper Finesse Worms, Ring Frys,
and Hyper Sticks. And for an especially tantalizing slow fall, try a Magic
Shad or Live Magic Shad on the business end of your C-rig—bass out deep
love them just as much as they did when they were up shallow in the
spring. Finally, keep in mind that big weights cause baits to drop more
nose down, while lighter weights make the same bait glide more to the
bottom, as do baits with more tails and appendages. Sometimes they want
more of glide, while other days a straight drop triggers more bites.
I use a slightly different rod for each presentation. Since I’m fishing a
very heavy weight and keeping my rod tip down, a heavy duty rod that is
sensitive works well with C-rigs. Because I often throw long 3’ to 5’
leaders, a longer rod makes casting easier. The 7’6” Dobyns Champion 764C
is a good fit for these requirements, supplying the feel, power and length
needed. With the Texas rig, I’m looking for even more feel and a bit
lighter tip to help cast lighter weights. I still prefer a long rod, as
the extra length delivers better hook sets and keeps fish on during power
runs and jumps. The Dobyns Extreme DX744C is ultrasensitive to help you
feel your way through thick snags to feel the faintest bites. It’ll still
cast smaller 5 to 7 inch worms up to big 10” worms, yet the strong
backbone of this 7’4” rod can handle the biggest of bass.
Of course, there are no absolutes in bass fishing. However, I hope these
basic rules of thumb help make your decision on what to rig up a little
easier on your next trip. If I can be of assistance, please contact me at
214-683-9572 or e-mail me through my website,
www.LakeForkGuideTrips.com.
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