Carolina Rig - Floating Worm - OBX Ponds

[DanMarino]

I admit it guys, I'm pretty terrible at salt water fishing in the OBX. I have a vacation home down there and I struggle to catch any salty fish down there. I'll figure it out eventually.

I recently spent a 2 week vacation down there. The weather was fantastic. I wanted to share a new and successful technique to me that worked well in the shallow, mucky, weedy ponds that are in the OBX.

Since there is quite a bit of grass, weeds, and muck in the shallow ponds, I decided to try a Carolina Rig to go after largemouth bass. Since the bottom of the ponds mostly have grass, muck, with areas of hard sand, I decided that a floating worm might work best. That way, the bullet sinker would drag along the bottom, but the floating worm would float up above the muck.

It worked well. I used about a 3 foot leader of some 30 pound mono I had on hand. The floating worm was I believe a Strike King, elaztec plastic. It floated great and was weedless except when the hook point became exposed.

The bass would either eat the worm on the initial cast as the worm dropped, or the bass would strike on the drag and pause. I look forward to applying this presentation to the ponds I fish here in Maryland to see how it does.

[Mark]

You caught some nice bass Tom.

I've used a Carolina rig myself and to be honest, I did not like it, although it is effective. What I didn't like was the awkwardness of the cast. It's more like slinging than casting.

What I've been doing recently in shallow water ponds is using a worm hook on soft plastic plastics with no weights at all. The paddletails are heavy enough on their own to cast far on spinning tackle. I keep the hook point buried in the paddletail to make sure it's weedless. They sink very slowly but they do go down. With a slow start and stop retrieve and a little finesse -- allowing the bass or pickerel to take bait fully before striking -- it's a very effective method for fishing ponds.

Congrats on your catches.

[DanMarino]

Hi Mark, I agree that casting the Carolina Rig was difficult and my casting accuracy was poor.
I’ll have to give your method a try. This floating worm would not sink at all without weight.

[Big Mike]

Another very effective method with a weeded bottom that doesn’t have the casting issues of a Carolina rig is to drop shot. If you’ve got 1’ of weeded bottom tie a drop shot hook about 2’ up and use a finesse worm (I hook it just barely in the head). It does help to use a specific drop shot weight as the finesse worm will twist your line.

You don’t need to drop this vertical, cast and retrieve like a jig, just go slower.

[DanMarino]

Hi Big Mike,

Yes, I have also successfully used your drop shot approach in these weed covered ponds. Both methods seem to work well. I'm not sure if I prefer one over the other. I'll have to apply them both more.

I am interested in trying some rabbit fur zonker strips on the drop shot hook to see if it is as effective as soft plastic worms.

Hope everyone has a nice Christmas.

Tom