Yes, you can use a Carolina rig outside the Carolinas. And the Jupiter rig? It’s at home anywhere in Florida.
Everywhere I’ve traveled, I’ve seen— and used—different rigs for snook fishing, even from one inlet to the next. Part of that is because anglers tend to adopt a rigging system that has worked well in the past. But if you pay attention, you’ll see there are other reasons.
When fishing in Miami, we used the Carolina rig for snook. That’s one term for a rig in which an egg sinker slides from the monofilament line to a swivel, followed by a leader, and then the hook. This allows the bait to move away from the weight on the bottom when the reel is in freespool. The bait can go with the current up or sideways, and the predator won’t feel the presence of the weight. It’s a good and very popular rig.
A knocker rig is another free-sliding weight rig, but the sinker is allowed to slide all the way to the hook without a swivel. This rig is widely used in many places. With it, it’s especially easy to remove a hook that’s stuck in the bottom, by jerking the rod up and down. This causes the weight to bounce and de-hook the bottom.
Here in Jupiter, where I fish, we use the “Jupiter rig.” It consists of swivel-sinkerswivel, with the swivels separated by a few inches of 80-pound mono, and then about 2 feet of leader material tied to a circle hook. This rig keeps your bait near the bottom at all times. Sure, the predators feel the weight, but for some reason they don’t seem to really mind. I use the uni-knot, also called the Duncan loop, to attach all.
