I have had a Carolina rigged up for a while but have never spent a lot of time with it,
Over the weekend I stayed with it for several hours trying to learn how the bite feels
What is it suppose to feel like ?
Had half my worm stolen once , another took the whole senko
I could feel like a small brim nibbling then one small tug and bait was gone
The nibbling is that when you set the hook ?
THANKS for any help
Monte

Most of the time they swallow the bait if you wait to long and that's not good

1. Thump
2. Reel
3. Mashed taters
4. Swing batter

Hooksets are free. I would suggest that you reel down and swing on anything that feels different or off. Sometimes it can even be a sudden sense of nothing, or a complete loss of contact with the bait. It's a tough rig to stick them on when they aren't biting aggressively, at least in my experience. Especially with a long leader.

"tick-tick", "tug-tug", "mushy", "tap-tap".......anything that does not feel like the normal dragging of the weight on the bottom. Your question is why I encourage people to at least try braid on your main line. Amazing feel for what is happening on the other end....and I don't even really care for braid.

One of the reasons I love this forum..... I'm old....been fishing my whole life.....learn something every day.

Keep a constant slow tug on your line, very slow. If you feel anything that you think is a bite slowly pull, and they will let you know they're on there. Whatever you do don't let them eat it forever, the hook will be way down their throat.

If you�re in a pause situation and not moving the rod or reeling, yet feel the weight dragging the bottom you have a fish on!

If your weight never reaches the bottom, you have a fish on.

If the bottom pulls back, you have a fish on!




All of these were how they were biting during the SOT on Fork two weeks ago. Not many tell-tale �tic tic boom� type bites.

Lots of good 411 on this forum for you.

The best advice I can give you is this. If you are not sure what is going on down there, Jerk.

I do like 50-65 braid as my main line. One ounce bullet weight, swivel, 3-5 foot leader of 15-20# mono or fluoro, and hook of your choice. Most bites will occur right after you feel your weight clear the brush or whatever is down there. You won't always feel the actual bite, especially if it is a big fish. Most of the time, it just gets heavy and pulls back. You have to set the hook out of self defense.

If you are feeling lots of ticks or pecks it is most likely small bass or bream or sandies.

Also you will have fish pick up the weight at times. Not much you can do about that.

It gets heavy at the other end

Sometimes it gets REAL heavy....

I practiced during the week on Amistad for a tournament. Bass were picking up the weight on a regular basis. Lots of teeth marks on the lead sinker. Occasionally I would catch a small fish and had caught big fish there many times. Kept me busy sitting the hook. The night before the tournament I went and talked to an older friend and discussed the situation. He recommended using a 1 oz. jig as the Crig. weight then coming off the eye of the jig with a snap swivel for the leader to attach to. We weight in 5 fish over 4 lbs. each for the win. 4 of those fish were caught on the Jig.

[quote=FishTheBite]Hooksets are free.



Until you lose a tungston weight.

Hog Jaw got it right describing it as getting heavy. I have a video clip on fishing the Carolina and you may be able to see the tip of the rod before the hookset. The link takes you directly to this part.

I've never used a jig as the weight although I've heard of it before. I have also had them eat the weight when I used a polished tungsten. I always use a black/green pumpkin weight with a c-rig.