I talked about the basics of some techniques in part 1. Now as promised, I’ll dig a little deeper and get more in depth.
Line: I said that I prefer Seaguar Fluorocarbon and I still stand by that but there are a lot of quality lines on the market today. My advice is to always buy Good Quality Line. This it the main link between you and the fish. Speaking from my personal experiences trying to save a few pennies here can be extremely frustrating. I don’t feel that the “Generic” type lines have the stringent quality control the name brands do.
I live by the same rule when it comes to hooks. While I have never had any issues with X-Points and Daiichi You don’t need to buy the most expensive ones but try to get a name brand and if need be get your self a file and sharpen up the hooks to a sticky sharp. One way you test the sharpness is to take the hook and lightly pull it across your thumbnail, if it leaves a slight scratch its sharp. If not keep sharpening it.
Next, lets talk about some of the techniques I talked about in part 1.
I talked about the basics on how to rig the Carolina Rig now I’ll go into more detail. As far as what lure to put on your hook, what ever lure you want. Any lure can be Carolina rigged. You can use any soft plastics you desire and believe it or not you can use hard baits as well. Crank baits and Jerk baits can be very effectively fished with this technique. One word of caution, make sure if when using a hard plastic lure that it is a floating model so it does not sink to the bottom and get hung up.
This style of fishing can be used at any depth, on any submerged structure and at anytime of the year, just like the split shot rig, which like I mentioned, is just a modified finesse version of the Carolina rig. If fishing it in underwater weeds, make the leader long enough so your lure floats above the grass.
Fish it like you would fish basically any other technique. Drag it, hop it, jerk and pause it, slow roll it or reel it quickly. Take into account the conditions, if its cold, slow down. If the fish are active speed up, let the fish tell you how they want it. Pay attention to exactly what you were doing when you got bit, how fast, how slow, how deep, etc. Paying attention to these details should help you develop a pattern.
With the Texas rig I mainly use plastic worms anywhere from a 3 inch finesse worm to 18 inch snakes. Just make sure to use the appropriate size hooks for each different size. Nothing is written in stone here, I like to make sure the hook does not over power the plastic. What I mean by this is if I’m throwing a 3 inch worm I would use a smaller hook then when tossing the snake. Same principal applies to the size of the weight used. You can also Texas rig reapers, which are just a California finesse bait, plastic crawdads, Senkos, tubes, whatever.
The drop shot can be used for fish on structure, fish feeding off the bottom as well as suspended fish. It’s a very versatile technique. You can also use big weights, hooks and baits for flipping a drop shot into cover.
The darter head technique can be deadly on suspended fish. Graph the depth of the fish, make a cast, close your bail and allow the lure to pendulum back to the boat into the depth the fish are holding in. Or you can cast it out, as the lure falls count it down then engage the reel and slowly retrieve it. These same techniques apply when using a Slider or Shakey head rigs.
Some common terms fishermen use are, Dragging, Long Lining, Shaking, Doodling and Dead Sticking which are terms generally associated with plastics. Dragging should be pretty much self explanatory, you just drag it along the bottom. Long Lining is generally a split shot term. You let out a bunch of line behind the boat and basically use your trolling motor to move it while holding your rod still, maybe twitch it every now and then. Its basically trolling and is very popular out west. Doodling and Shaking are basically the same except when doodling you add a glass bead to make noise. Dead Sticking is just letting your lure sit motionless on the bottom for an extended period of time.
Terms like, Walk the Dog, Popping, Waking, Burning, Jerking, Twitching, Cranking, and Slow Rolling are terms used with reaction baits Walking the Dog and Popping are surface lure terms. To walk the dog you snap your rod tip downward then throw slack back into it. Continue to do this back to the boat. This causes your lure’s nose to lunge one way when you jerk it and then back the other way when you throw slack back. Waking is when your reeling in a lure fast enough it rides just below the surface and it leave’s a wake behind it. Jerking and Twitching are techniques used with Jerk Baits, the term pretty much explains the technique. Cranking and Chuck and Wind, of course are used when tossing crank baits. Slow rolling refers to Spinner baits or even crank baits. You cast your lure our and slowly reel it back in.
I hope that helps explain some of the common techniques and terms used by fishermen.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
