Inside Angles: Tinkerings, Dabblings, Experiments, and Such

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Each season I have in mind at least a couple techniques that I want to experiment with. Some of them are mostly new, as when we first used the rippin’ technique with the newly introduced (at the time) Rapala Rippin’ Rap.

Instead of a slow steady grind with that lipless lure, we made long casts, let the lure sink, and then got a rhythm going, rippin’ it up off the bottom with a snap of the rod tip to 11 o’clock, letting it drop on a slack line, before rippin’ it again as it just touches down. It never sits still for more than a millisecond. You attract attention, then play keep-away with the fish, often smallmouths, driving them crazy until they just have to bite. They’re just there on the next rip. This also works well (almost magically at times) for walleyes and largemouth bass.

Other times, the experiments are attempts to characterize, or put into better perspective, a common technique for a specific fish species. That was to have been my quest last season, to work with Carolina rigging for smallmouths, trying to delineate what works best when, and if the technique makes sense in the larger scheme of things, productivity-wise, given whatever else one might be using. Today, much of what we do, given having so many presentation options to choose from, is about making the right choice at the right time.

These days, of course, there is almost nothing new under the sun, so it pays to do some background research. Anglers have been using Carolina rigging for several decades. No surprise, the very best of the literature on this has been covered by In-Fisherman editors.

Indeed, Field Editor Steve Quinn wrote about Carolina rigging strategies July 2020—an update after our last coverage in 2014. While much of that applied more specifically to largemouths, you could read “smallmouths” between the lines. Too, if we eventually do an article specifically on Carolina smallmouths, it won’t be me who writes it, but more likely Field Editor Matt Straw, who has penned more lines about “Them Ol’ Bronze Fish” than anyone writing today. But it’s through tinkerings, dabblings, and experiments and such, that an Editor in Chief knows when the time’s right to assign the article. And, more specifically, what needs to be in it.

No surprise, Carolina rigging for smallmouths probably needs to be a reduction in force, so to speak, compared to rigging for largemouths. So, instead of 20-pound mono or fluorocarbon mainline, more likely 12-pound, or a 20-pound braid. Then perhaps a tungsten slipsinker worm weight (probably generally a half ounce) on the mainline above a bead and a brass clacker, which all ride above a swivel.

I like leader lengths of about 24 to 30 inches, but 18 works well at times, especially in rivers. Probably 10-pound fluorocarbon for leader, although remember that fluorocarbon is heavier than monofilament, so it sinks faster. And a small wide-gap hook like the Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp L7013 in Platinum Black. Size 1 or 1/0. Or a small round-bend worm hook like the Eagle Claw L091 in 1/0. That’s for casting tackle, but something similar with lighter mainline should also work with spinning tackle. Longer rods (at least 7 foot) with medium- or medium-light power and fast action, facilitate making long casts with the longer leader swinging around.

I settled on a handful of bait options, all from Berkley, the PowerBait MaxScent 4.5-inch Hit Worm; the PowerBait MaxScent 4.5-inch Flat Worm; the PowerBait Lug Worm (4 inches); the PowerBait Flute Worm (4.7 inches); and the PowerBait Water Bug (4 inches). Toss in one more oddball option, the 2-inch Gulp! Crabby, which is a saltwater crab-imitation that no smallmouth has ever seen before (use a #1 or #1/0 wide-gap hook).

The Water Bug floats, and it seems important to have at least some softbait options that do so. In the case of the Water Bug, for example, the weight of the 1/0 round-bend worm hook just offsets the flotation so that when the Bug darts forward it settles toward bottom slowly. That seems optimal, as opposed to softbaits that are so buoyant that they immediately float tail-end up and float when the rig stops. The other softbaits, especially the MaxScent products, hug bottom as they move along, unless you purposefully lift the sinker distinctly, popping the entire rig up and off the bottom.

Indeed, longtime contributor and fishery scientist Ralph Manns has written about the physics of the Carolina rig. According to Manns: “We often see illustrations of these rigs with the bait floating up off the bottom. This doesn’t happen unless the lure and hook combination are lighter than water.

“If a floating bait is used, it rises whenever the retrieve is paused. Slightly buoyant baits ascend only moderately, because the hook weight and leader resists upward movement. A slow retrieve with many pauses allows floating baits to rise above the bottom. The longer the pause, the shorter the movement of the sinker, and the longer the leader, the higher a buoyant lure floats.”

He notes that with sinking baits each retrieve forces baits down, not up. Lengthening the leader doesn’t change the basic laws of physics. As mentioned earlier, only popping the entire rig up off the bottom raises a sinking lure much above the bottom.

He also discusses the use of brass or tungsten sinkers and glass beads, for anglers wanting to have their rig make a clicking noise, which is assumed at times attracts fish. Manns: To click, the sinker and bead must first separate. But once the sinker and bead are in contact, continued pulls, particularly when the bottom is level or uphill, don’t allow for a separation. Standard pull-pause pull-pause retrieves do little to create noise beyond that created when the sinker contacts rocks.

So, in essence, that’s one direction I’m headed when I can this year. Join in if you want and let us know how you do, in the name of tinkerings, dabblings, experiments, and such.

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