By Vance McCullough

Peter Thliveros, a.k.a.: ‘Peter T’ enjoyed a career that saw him amass more than $2,000,000 in tournament winnings as he captured titles in both professional leagues – B.A.S.S. and FLW (now Major League Fishing).

Early on Thliveros set himself apart as an expert with the Carolina rig.

“I just got fascinated with it when I found out a tournament was won with it on the St Johns River,” says Thliveros of the fishery that flows through his hometown of Jacksonville, FL.

“I really began to study it and use it a lot.

“As far as leader length, I’ve learned that the old standard 3-foot leader is all you usually need. I used to experiment with different lengths. Sometimes in cold water a shorter leader is better.”

“It’s all about the feel. A tight line helps with this. It increases the sensitivity and helps you identify the type of bottom, hard or soft, and what’s on it, shell, grass, wood. Then when you catch a fish, you can feel around for more of that same type of bottom. Fluorocarbon line and tungsten weights help tremendously to increase sensitivity as well. When I started doing this, all we had was stretchy monofilament, lead egg sinkers and cheap, dull hooks. And the longest rods were only 6 feet. Try throwing a Carolina rig on a short rod sometime,” laughed Thliveros. “I lost more fish than I caught on the rig back then.”

As he began to master the technique, Thliveros added his personal wrinkle to the game. It’s called the Petey Rig and it takes advantage of a lighter sinker, perhaps as light as ¼ ounce, to finesse a downsized, but otherwise normal, Carolina rig through cover where a heavier weight would constantly snag. The Petey is especially appropriate in thick grass, brush and rocks.