Lloyd Pickett Jr. still prefers to “feel
what’s down there” the old-school way.
PHOTO BY DAVID A. BROWN
MILES HOWE
the rig adds up. Plus, he figures the
weight hitting the metal swivel produces
more than enough disturbance
on its own.
Pickett feels differently.
“I’ve played with thousands of configurations
of the Carolina rig,” he
says. “One thing will always stay the
same for me: I won’t throw one without
a glass bead above and below the
weight to get maximum disturbance.”
THE LEADER
Leader combinations are endless.
Let’s simplify it.
Based on both pros’ preferences, a
3-foot leader is the happiest of mediums.
Both agree the added buoyancy
of monofilament allows the lure to
look as natural as possible, though
Gleason still likes fluorocarbon for
simplicity since he’s using it as his
main line anyway. And 15-pound-test
line is again a happy medium between
the two pros’ preferences.
1-OUNCE LEAD EGG SINKER
Obviously, adjust accordingly
depending on water clarity (lighter
line, longer leader) or if you really want
to make longer casts (shorter leader).
THE LURE
Almost any bait at the end of a
Carolina rig will catch fish. That might
be an oversimplified exaggeration, but
maybe not by much.
“I’ve put a square-bill crankbait
behind one and wore them out in 30
feet of water,” says Pickett.
That’s an extreme example. The typical
presentation for Pickett and Gleason
is more conventional: a creature bait.
Gleason loves the V&M Baby
Swamp Hog and Pickett a Zoom Baby
Brush Hog. The traditional trailer for a
C-rig is a lizard, though traditional
doesn’t always work best all the time.
The other go-to for Gleason is a V&M
Pork Shad 2.0 in the winter months,
but 90 percent of the time, both will
have a creature bait rigged up.
PHOTO BY JODY WHITE
C-RIGS AND GRASS
While the Carolina rig is great both shallow
and deep, most shy away from trying to
toss it around grass. Pickett sure doesn’t, and
neither did Miles Howe during the Pro Circuit
event on Rayburn.
Pickett loves it around sparse grass,
where he swaps the 1-ounce egg sinker for a
3/4-ounce (if he wants to stay on bottom) or
1/2-ounce (if he wants his rig to stay on top of
the grass) bullet sinker.
Howe went even more finesse at
Rayburn. While fishing grass in only a couple
feet of water on a spawning flat, Howe used
just a 1/4-ounce weight to intentionally keep
it light enough to stay atop even the lightest
grass. He used short drags to almost deadstick
his rig. It was painfully slow, but entertainingly
effective.
JUNE-JULY 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FLWFISHING.COM 67