Modern day Carolina-rigs favor a brass weight backed up with a brass or glass bead against the swivel. This is done to add a clacking sound and attract attention to the rig. These are even available pre-rigged on a wire shaft to simplify rigging and gear. I’m sure that there is even a tungsten version, which would be overkill in my opinion.

On the business end, use just about any of your favorite soft plastics. A 6-inch lizard has been the most popular bait on a C-rig for years. It’s still a great option, but I also love craws, creature baits, flukes, buzz toads, worms, tubes, and goby baits on the Great Lakes. The baits are generally rigged weightless, often Texas-rigged with an appropriate-size worm hook.

Cast the rig out and let it settle to the bottom. Then lift the rig and let the weight return to the bottom. Now give it a second. The weightless bait will slowly drift and glide back to the bottom. If you don’t get bit, move the rig three feet and repeat.

Watch your line. You will either see it jump, or just slowly move off when the fish takes. Ninety percent of the time, the strike comes when the bait is gliding back to the bottom. When it happens, reel down to pick up any slack and do a long side-sweep of the rod to set the hook. There is generally slack line, and you need to get that weight off the bottom as well before you get completely tight. Sweep the rod, reel up that slack, and sweep again!

Carolina rigs are tailor-made for offshore humps, deep weed lines, and points that extend offshore. You can toss these a mile, so they are great for covering large expanses of water.

I’ve even caught bass and walleyes using a #9 floating Rapala behind an egg weight. Instead of sinking down when you pause, the Rapala floats upward. This tactic even works great from breakwalls for Lake Michigan browns.

That leads us to a second and similar rig called the “Free-rig.” It’s the modern cousin to the Carolina-rig, with one difference: There’s no swivel to separate the bait from the weight.

For the Free-rig, I like a drop-shot weight around 1/4 ounce. It tucks right up to the same Texas-rigged bait when you lift it. But when you let it fall, the bait and the weight separate. This gives the bait an unusual action as you pull it down to meet the weight. It’s a really effective way to fish the 15- to 20-foot depths that bass and walleyes use in July and August.

Here is the juice with the Free-rig, and the way I fish it most of the time. Use a 3/8-ounce drop-shot or bell weight. I fish it with a 3-inch tube, Texas-rigged. Here is the dirty secret. Cut an ear plug in half and shove it in the tube. Now, the tube wants to float, but it is free sliding in the weight that is on the bottom. If you give it a little line, it floats up; but if you pull it, it dives to the weight.

If you have fish on structure like cribs or big rocks in deep water, you are fishing this actively… but not moving it. After moving it up and down a few times, move the rig 3 to 4 feet and repeat. One long cast can take you five minutes to retrieve, but it is lethal in cold water. If you fish Door County, keep this one in your back pocket.

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