|   |

Author:
Bobby Ivie

Carolina Keepers may be a godsend. If you're like me and don't like to spend your valuable fishing time tying knots, these are for you.

If you use Carolina Rigs, you are going to love these babies. They make the rigging process so much faster and you can change leader lengths on the fly. They can also be used for catfishing and using live bait. My preference is plastics.

Rather than having to tie to a swivel, then tie a leader to a swivel, then tie the leader to the hook (already I'm getting tired), you simple tie to the hook. Here's how it works...

To put a Carolina Keeper on your line you simply squeeze the Carolina Keeper with needle-nose pliers. It has a slit that opens when squeezed and you place the line through the hole and release the pliers. Use the same method to adjust the leader length. Pretty tough, huh?

The Carolina Keeper is great for use with sliding sinkers because it eliminates the need for split shot or swivels to keep your sinker above the bait. The Keeper can be easily adjusted up or down the line to change your leader length. You can easily make adjustments without having to change the whole rig. If it slips or if you are using a larger weight, adding a second keeper will keep the weight in place.

One good idea is to use two Carolina Keepers on the hook side below two lighter weights. This will cause the weights to make a noise, especially if you shake them in brush piles (even more so with tungsten weights). Also, the weights banging against each other knocks them loose to aid in avoiding snags in the brush or in rocks.

Line twists with Carolina Keepers is almost non-existent and you can feel much more confident with your rig by not having a couple of more knots on a swivel. I like the idea of being tied directly to the hook and not needing to "feel" through the swivel.

One thing to be careful of is what happens when you hang up. For instance, if your weights become hung on the bottom between rocks and you pull hard on the line to free it, the Keepers might slide down the line. If this happens, you might want to move them up the line, cut off some line and retie the hook. This is because when the Keepers slide on the line, they can scrape and damage the line. Just be careful and check your line often.

I have never been the best at tying knots (or wanting to) and these eliminate that. I hardly ever get hung up anymore. If I do, popping the weights up and down will dislodge them almost every time, and this method seems to go through grass real well.

You can find Carolina Keepers in your favorite sporting goods store or by searching online. Have fun.

----
By Bobby Ivie

Bobby Ivie is an avid fishman and owner of Fishing-Hunting-Camping.com. He makes the biggest part of his living on the Internet, NetBizWorkshop.net

This article may be reprinted as long as this source box is added and the source box hyperlinks are kept intact.
----

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Bass Fishing... Leading Bass Fishing Techniques: Become A Better Angler Today Splitshotting can mean the difference between taking a cold boat ride and a great day of catching fish. Invest the time to practice this technique and you will have more fun bass fishing in the cold winter months. This and other Bass fishing techniques are required to master the art of bass fishing. If you put the time in, you will soon learn how to master the fall and winter bass fishery in British Columbia. Your efforts will be rewarded with exceptional smallmouth bass of trophy sizes. Remember though it takes roughly 8 to 10 years for a smallmouth bass to attain a weight in excess of 5 lbs., so conserve your catch by practicing responsible catch and release methods. Well the cold weather has put the bass into their winter patterns. Forget about rip baits, spinner baits and crank baits. Now is the time to break out the finesse gear. One of the most common techniques for getting bass to bite during this season is splitshotting. It is a fairly straightforward technique and requires little investment in terminal tackle. The hardest thing there is to teach a bass angler learning to splitshot is detecting the bite. The bite will vary according to the activity level of the fish. There will be times when they pop the bait hard and you will know immediately that they are eating the bait. Other times there will be a soft, almost imperceptible tick and then nothing. And finally there is the dreaded pressure bite. The pressure bite will take two forms. The first way to describe a pressure bite is you will feel a slight resistance to pulling your line forward. This is somewhat like hooking a soft, spongy rubber band. The second pressure bite is when you lose contact with the bottom. A bass has picked up your lure and is just...