Bass Fishing With Carolina Keepers

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.