The cool thing about fishing Mexican
bass lakes is the laidback, casual ambiance. No one’s in a big hurry, there’s
never a line at the boat ramp and it doesn’t take a lot of fancy gear to boat
some of the biggest bass you’ll ever see.
On the other hand, this distinct
departure from modernized bass fishing presents the occasional speed bump on
the road to opportunity. Take, for instance, my past trip to Lake El Salto,
during which the water release schedule started claiming some of the better
shoreline spots of an area we were fishing and pulling bass into deep water.
Essentially, the area was a big bowl – very likely with a whole lot of bumpy
stuff in the vicinity. Basically, bass heaven.
Only problem was that the guide boats
had no electronics and this was a few years before the various Smartphone tools
that now make an angler’s job easier. That being said, old-fashion fish-finding
skills never need a waterproof case and they never run out of battery.
My partner for this day was former
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Marty Stone and it didn’t take long for him to
locate the meat pile by using one of fishing’s most underrated techniques –
Carolina rigging. For Stone, the task was simple – paint the bottom with a
Carolina rig, until he dialed in the sweet spot.
While others continued trying to find
shallow bites, Stone whacked big fish after big fish, until word of his success
brought half a dozen boats from our group to the new-found community hole.
Confident in his methods, he sang the praises of a rig that often gets way too
little love, despite its ability to deliver lights-out productivity.
“Your strength may be fishing the bank
but if all of those big fish have swum off that bank, you can fish your strength
all day long but you’re not going to catch anything except the bank runners,”
Stone said.
“Carolina rigs work anytime except
during the spawn. The time when I will start my day with a rig is the
pre-spawn. Those fish are ganged up; waiting to come in and you can get well in
a hurry.”
During summer and winter’s extremes,
Carolina rigs excel for dredging the deep stuff. Come fall, when bass follow
bait schools back into creeks and coves, probing main lake points and later,
those secondary points offers an effective option to cranking.
Now the basic formula of
bead-weight-bead-swivel-leader-hook gets the job done in most cases, but here’s
a few tips to improve C-rig productivity:
Heavy
Thoughts:
Carolina rig weights vary from bullet styles similar to flipping rigs, to egg
shapes and even cylinders for slipping through persistent snags. Lead sees
plenty of action, but the denser and harder tungsten transmits more bottom
detail up the line and into your hands. Moreover, tungsten weights are smaller
than corresponding lead items, so presentations are more streamlined.
Stone prefers tungsten, as the denser
material is essential for “reading” the bottom and deciphering all of those
little bumps and rattles.
“If
you can’t feel what that bait is doing, you’re just throwing something out
there and hoping (a fish) comes up and bites it,” he said. “You’re going to
miss structure and you’re going to miss a lot of fish. It’s all about the
feel.”
Bait Up: Carolina
rigging welcomes a variety of back-end options from straight worms to fancy
creature baits. The palette is yours to paint, but don’t hesitate to experiment
with bait shapes, sizes and colors – especially when steady action starts to
decline. Stone typically starts out with a Zoom
5-inch Magnum Finesse Worm but he’ll work in a 7-inch Zoom Trick worm and a
Baby Brush Hog as needed.
“After
I have caught a few fish and they slow down, I’ll change baits and give them a
different look,” he said. “Normally, if you have a school of active fish,
they’ll hit whatever you throw in there. I’ve found that when the bite slows
down, by throwing a different bait in there, I can pick up another bite or
two.”
When
tough conditions find the fish playing hard to get, think finesse and downsize
your weight – the smallest size that will maintain bottom contact. Wary fish
may be drawn to a big weight’s sound and “mudding”, but a larger profile could
spook them.
Tackle
Talk:
The longer your weight is on the bottom, the longer the Carolina rig is doing
its job. Therefore, a stout rod with plenty of backbone and a fast tip enables
those long casts that keep your rig in the game. Most C-riggers go with a 7- to
7 ½-foot medium heavy rod and a 6.3:1 baitcaster loaded with either 40- to
50-pound braid or 15- to 17-pound fluorocarbon.
Braid can lengthen casts and complement
the tungsten’s sensitivity. But, as Stone notes, fluoro sinks fast and gets the bait down to where the fish are,
while adding abrasion resistance to repel tough environments.
As
for the long rods, he believes that maximizing his range benefits the overall
game: “I
stretch it out as far as that weight and fluorocarbon will allow me to throw.
Always stay away from the fish. Also, you may come across something you didn’t
see before.
“A
lot of your bites come on the end of a long cast and with that fluorocarbon and
the longer rod, you can really move some line and drive that hook up in there.”
Proper
Presentation: Stone
notes that a fast reel affords the necessary
swiftness for long-distance connections. Especially in deep water, Carolina rig
hook sets depend on your ability to quickly transition from a slow dragging
motion to a rapid rate of line collection that enables you to drive the hook
home.
Stone also admonishes jerking on a slack
line. “The fish moves left and you think he moved right; you’re ¾ the way into
your hook set before you come tight on the fish. That’s why I keep all the
slack out of my line, so when I set the hook, all the pressure goes into
driving that hook into the fish’s jaw.”
Maintaining contact with the bottom is
crucial to putting on a good show, so keep the rod low and make lateral sweeps,
rather than the upward strokes of Texas rigging. Picture an eel or a salamander
scooting across the bottom. Theirs is a mostly horizontal track, so nix the
hopping stuff.
Intrinsic to effective C-rigging is a
slow, methodical presentation. Move the bait with the rod and then gather slack
with your reel. Moving your bait by reeling greatly reduces your sensitivity –
in terms of reading the bottom and detecting strikes. And don’t sweat the
swing-and-miss. If a fish bites and you fail to connect, just keep your bait in
the strike zone and if the original bass doesn’t follow up, one of his brethren
likely will.
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