HE OLD BALL
AND CHAIN
THE CAROLINA RIG PROBABLY DESERVES MORE
RESPECT THAN YOU’RE GIVING IT
By Sean Ostruszka
PHOTO BY SEAN OSTRUSZKA
It was kind of remarkable to watch, really.
Darold Gleason sat over a typical offshore spot – a roadbed crossing a hump
– on Sam Rayburn during the 2020 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit kickoff and
was having the morning of his dreams. In contention to win starting the third
day of his rookie year, he’d fired up his school with a vibrating jig for bites on
his first, second and fourth casts of the morning, prompting him to let out some
hilarious “Gleasonisms” on FLW Live.
But, as they tend to do, the school settled, and Gleason started cycling
through the normal rundown of offshore offerings: a jig, a crankbait, a dropshot.
Among all the usual suspects, one stood out; one that definitely wasn’t
new, yet rarely gets much notoriety or play outside of southeast Texas anymore
– a Carolina rig.
It seemed like every time he tossed the C-rig out there, he got bit, and he certainly
wasn’t alone that event. That was something we saw time and time again.
Ron Nelson had an offshore spot where the only thing he could get a bite on
was a Carolina rig. Every so often, he’d switch it up and maybe get a nibble on a
jig, but they’d never eat it well, and they ignored everything else. Then, he’d
launch out the Carolina rig and recommence catching fish every cast, which he
did for more than an hour.
Miles Howe had a similar experience. The only difference was he was doing
it in less than 2 feet of water (more on that later). In fact, in more than a dozen
years of covering tournaments, I’ve never seen so many Carolina rigs being
thrown, let alone shining as much as they did.
One might just pass it off as a Sam Rayburn quirk, but to hear it from pros
like Gleason or Lloyd Pickett Jr., who’s dragged a rig around all over the
Tennessee River to earn a shocking percentage of his half-million dollars in
FLW earnings, the Carolina rig is much more than a local option. It’s a long-forgotten
reality for bass anglers everywhere.
In an age when every angler is seeking that go-to, secret offering to give
them an edge, it seems the “new” baits many anglers are seeking could already
be in a tackle box buried in their garages or boats. It’s just a matter of getting
reacquainted with the old “ball and chain.”
JUNE-JULY 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FLWFISHING.COM 65