If it's summer, you can count on hot weather and deep bass. And if the bass are deep, a Texas rig or a Carolina Rig (C-rig) is often your best weapon. The Texas Rig and Carolina Rig will catch bass, but how you decide which setup to choose and how you should rig it is based on the conditions you're confronting. This article will focus on a few basic rules of thumb to help you answer the whens, wheres, and whys of the Carolina rig vs. Texas rig.
Carolina rigs, especially when rigged with a heavy sinker (3/4 to 1 ounce), are most effective in several situations. First, a heavy sinker allows you to make long casts and quickly drag the bait across a wide area while maintaining contact with the bottom the whole time to find bass fast. Additionally, I'll use 20-pound Seaguar InvizX Fluorocarbon, and the heavy sinker and fluorocarbon line will transmit changes in bottom composition or pieces of isolated cover. I work the bait quickly until I find rocks, weeds, or wood, and then slowly work my bait through this fish-holding cover. The ability to cover a lot of water and locate small areas of cover makes the Carolina rig a great search bait and an effective bait to catch bass once they're found.
Texas rigs, in contrast, typically work best when fishing in heavy cover, targeting specific areas, or over steep drops. In heavy cover, a Carolina rig is more likely to hang up and will not reach the small holes in grass clumps or brush piles, whereas a Texas rig will. In addition, when bass are located in particular pieces of cover or structure, a Texas rig will still provide great action while shaking it in place (similar to the way you shake a worm on a shaky head jig). While leaving the bait in place, this subtle quivering action often triggers inactive fish that won't react to a rapidly moving or dead-sticked Carolina rig. Finally, when fishing very steep banks, pond dams, or ledges, Texas rigs can slowly be crawled down the slope, while a Carolina rig will often pull your bait too quickly to the bottom of the break. In these cases, the Texas rig emerges victorious in the battle between the Carolina rig and the Texas rig.
Another factor to consider is the size of the weight you use. Tungsten weights are harder and smaller, transmitting more feel and getting into tighter cover pieces. Heavyweights are often good in summer, as the fast fall triggers a reaction strike and reaches the bottom quicker, allowing for a better feel, even on windy days. While the slow fall of a small weight will sometimes coax finicky fish to bite, I often start with a heavyweight and go smaller if necessary, rather than the other way around.
In addition to the size of the weight, the soft plastic lure you use on your rig will also affect your setup's drop speed and performance. Bulky baits with big tails or appendages will slow the fall of your rig and work best when paired with bigger weights and moved aggressively. Lures like the Rage Tail Space Monkey, Rage Tail Lizard, and giant worm like the 10" Rage Thumper Worm move a lot of water and trigger big bass actively feeding. Hop and swim these baits on a Carolina or Texas rig to get their entire action. Conversely, more streamlined soft plastics are in order when the bite is more challenging, and you need to coax those big girls into biting. In this case, I'll rig up with straight-tailed worms like Missile Baits Magic Worm, The 48 Worm, and Quiver Worm, or craw worms like the Rage Craw. And for an especially tantalizing slow fall, try a Zoom Fluke or a Big Bite Baits Jointed Jerk Minnow on the business end of your Carolina rig. Bass love them just as much as they did when they were up shallow in the spring.
Of course, there are no absolutes in bass fishing. However, when choosing between the Carolina rig and the Texas rig, I hope these basic rules of thumb help make your decision on what to rig up easier on your next trip.
