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Not as far as I can see. I've used braided rigs for hundreds of years, plain braid, combi rigs and coated braid. It was Danny Fairbrass who said he never needed rig tubing on knotless knotted rigs, but I'm wondering if that was with stiffer materials. I watched fish in Chantry park lake pick up my carefully positioned braid knotless knotted rigs, from a distance of about 3metres. I saw the hookbait go back, in the mouth, saw the hook and bait come flying out again, on both semi fixed and running leads. I swapped straight back to a line aligner and put the rigs back in the same place, and hooked my next two pickups, from fish that I had watched eject the other rigs. On Thwaite, I used to use the water as my experiment lake, where I researched lead setups, running vs semi-fixed, helicopter, leadcore, and even baits. I got numerous single bleeps with the same knotless knotted rig, (water colour meant I couldn't watch them close up), no development of the take, even though we could see the water rocking. A switch back to line aligner there with running leads and I started hooking them again. Thwaite was not a particularly pressured carp water either, mostly fished by match anglers, so rigs should not have been a major issue. Longshank hooks tend to be more difficult to eject, but the length can supposedly lead to mouth damage, a line aligner replicates the difficulty to eject as the bent hook rig, but with tubing no mouth damage.

Think you need both tbh Pods for hard ground, stage stands for wood and singles for soft ground or well spaced rods. There's no fix all unfortunately

sound ideal Gary .... does it have sailing boats on buy any chance?

I've managed to get onto a local syndicate water, 20 minutes from home which is a lot better than doing a 3 hour round trip. It also means I can go down a few times a week to get some bait in. I've already been down a few times baiting 4 to 5 swims, and I'm getting through a bit of bait lately. I'm not due out fishing for another week or so due to a minor op I had yesterday but I should be able to get down for a couple of recky trips this week. I can't wait, new water, new challenge and near enough right in my door step

For me Hook size all depends on the size of bait, if I were using a 14 to 16mm bait, I'd use a size 6, an 18 to 20mm, I'd use a size 4. I like curves, just a simple knotless knot and a hook. Using curves eliminates the need for shrink tube, I just think the less components you use, the less likely it will be seen.

I've pretty much used pods exclusively for years, I started with the early Gardner Tru Lock and Black Shadow Pods right the way through to Solars Globetrotter in the early days. Now I have one of the original Fox Euro Pods. It took me quite a while to hunt one down and I like the convenience of pods, and I've used it on a number of waters. I've never used single sticks, I've used bank sticks for a goal post set up but always felt a pod would be better. Everyone to their own I guess, I just like pods.

I agree and have had to learn to be prepared.

Excellent for carping on canal prebaiting and fishing love mine