The Carolina Rig is one of the most overlooked rigs in all of bass fishing. 

The ball-and-chain has been around for a long time, but it still produces quality fish for a number of anglers. 

“The Carolina Rig [has] almost faded away,” said Pete Gluszek. “You don't see a lot of people talking about it. … It shows up from time to time. I love it. I've always been a big proponent of this rig. It does so many things well. It makes me so efficient as an angler.”

The Carolina Rig, traditionally, is a technique where you place a barrel sinker above a swivel, and then tie a leader line from the swivel to your soft plastic bait. This allows the bait to swim through the water column without interference from the weight. While this technique is often considered strictly a deep-water method of catching fish, there’s also a lot of value in fishing it in shallow water. 

In this seminar, Gluszek introduces viewers to the Finesse Carolina Rig as a way to target bass in shallow water. 

Traditional Carolina Rigs allow anglers to carefully work through an area and pick apart cover in deep water, but the downsized version lets anglers do the same thing in shallow water around brush, rocks, and even grass. 

By downsizing the weight, Gluszek says it's easier to work the technique through shallow cover, especially shallow grass mats, which can often cause problems for techniques utilizing heavy weights. 

This is a technique Gluszek especially leans on in the spring and fall, but he says it really shines when locating pre-spawn and spawning bass in the early spring. 

Gluszek also covers the best rod, reel, and line for fishing the Carolina Rig, and talks about two of the more complicated aspects of the technique: how to cast it and how to set the hook.

• 1:00 How To Fish A Finesse Carolina Rig
• 3:30 Using A Carolina Rig To Learn About An Area
• 4:40 Best Gear Setup For Carolina Rig Fishing
• 6:00 Selecting The Right Bait For A Carolina Rig
• 7:40 Using The Right Carolina Rig Rod
• 9:00 When To Use A Carolina Rig Shallow
• 12:20 How To Retrieve A Carolina Rig
• 14:40 How To Set A Hook On A Carolina Rig
• 15:45 Searching For Cover With A Carolina Rig
• 20:20 Making Adjustments To Fish Around Grass
• 23:45 How To Properly Cast A Carolina Rig

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