salokcinnodrog

well I now know exactly how big the pike I lost last week was! I took my friend Colin for his first ever pike trip yesterday, and on his 2nd cast with a smelt on the float rod he landed a 9lb pike, a very tentative take, that the float merely twitched on. He wasn't sure about it, so I told him to hit it. A very scrappy pike then surfaced, and had taken the bait very confidently on the spot, and was for such a take, deeply hooked About 3 hours later he flicked a ledgered smelt under the tree to the left and within 20minutes had another indication of 3 bleeps, which he hit quickly and played himself a decent pike to the landing net. As I lifted the net under it, I could only laugh and he couldn't work out why. When I lifted it onto the mat, there was around 6feet of my line that had some very large abrasion rubs across it, and my trace in the corner of its mouth, which I managed to remove easily, although his trace was very deep and in the stomach. I immediately cut t he line from his rod, so that attached to the trace was just a foot length of line, and no rod hanging around. An over officious bailiff then started to make life very awkward. I have unhooked goodness knows how many deep pike, and always found that even with a big fish, a small pair of forceps I can free deep hooked fish by going in carefully through the gill rakers, someone gently pull the line/trace, and I can unhook the trebles with no damage. I had the bailiff telling me I should go in the front, with a pair of long noses, which with my head looking at what I was doing, my left hand holding the mouth open in the gill flaps the other side and astride the fish on the unhooking mat, and my mate gently holding the line to prevent it going back in as far as I was concerned was not an option. I also had him telling me to pull the fish backward and forward in the margins to flush it through! I unhooked and sorted, weighed it and got a mat picture within 3 minutes, which with an extra trace in, I reckon is acceptable, and when I held it in the margins for release, she swam away strongly I really feel for Colin as it was the fish of a lifetime, and his 2nd ever pike at 24lb, I could not get a decent picture as the bailiff was so panicky, and he wouldn't let Colin lift it for a pic.

Knotless knot in mono can part, the hook eye can rub over the knot and break, so check it before every cast. If I do use a mono hooklink, then it is often the same mono as the mainline, but I do also have Amnesia, Berkley XL or Drennan Fly Leader The occasional problem with mono hairs is that they can be too stiff, therefore I would tie the hook on, and then go back to a finer more supple (thinner) hair, either dental floss, 4lb mono or a Kryston/ESP hair material. As for avoiding tangles with braided hooklinks, some occur as you pick up the lead on reeling in, the hooklink has fallen around the lead, then as you reel in, it just tightens around the lead. Ways to avoid tangles; a wet hooklink avoids trapped air, so sinking better. Always feather the cast, to throw the hooklink forward. The use of PVA, stringers and bags. Obviously the whole hooklink in the bag (and the lead), stringers attached to just the hook, or even stringers attached to the hook, and the hooklink swivel near the lead. Another possible is the use of a anti tangle rubber over the mainline/hooklink join, effectively the same as the tail rubber you use to cover the swivel/quick link as per: or even just stiffening the hooklink near that mainline join, superglue or stiffening material as like this stuff: http://www.kryston.com/products-redone/super-stiff/ http://www.kryston.com/products-redone/styx/

micro swivel or bait screw make the rig so much easier to tie, but i dont think either way effect the effectiveness of the rig...with the exception of weight! And with a pop-up, maybe a swivel could be the way to add some weight to hold the pop-up down, but that is worth a thread in itself (Pop-ups and how they behave under water may be worth looking at ) As for the bait screw, I have always worried about piercing the skin of a pop-up, so I have tied mine on for many years

This is one of the books that whenever it comes into the Library, I borrow. I read and re-read it as many times as possible.

I have only just read this book, and I'm sad to say I was a bit disappointed. I know it is a book about the captures of some big carp, and I know it is a compiled from writings of other anglers, but I felt a bit let down in most of the content. And like others I felt the mention of some of the bad practices in fishing came up as well, which disturbed me. I know no angler is an angel, but don't big up your misbehaviour or excessive time you spend on the bank that caused your relationship with your girlfriend to break down. I know that fishing is fishing, and we are coarse fishing, but I found some of the language from some of the writers a bit coarse itself. I do not need reminding of the swear words that there are in the English language. Also it kind of takes away from the being able to give it to the younger anglers of today as I would not give it to a carp angler under his teenage years because of that. Also there were so many chapters on Yateley this, Yateley that, Heather, Arthur, Dustbin etc, that it felt too much. However, as much as that disappointed me, I did enjoy Ritchie Macdonalds chapter on the Royal Park 40, and Martin Lockes chapter on catching Sally from Savay

I use a small rig ring and apply pop ups with an avid bait screw , great little things By the look of it nick uses rings as well Nick , how are you tying a snowman to the D ? The bait is tied onto the rig ring with a fine piece of nylon, hair braid or dental floss, I've been using 4lb Mono for a few years now. To tie the bait on I tie a Uni knot loop at the end of a piece of nylon and thread in a Pop-up and then pull tight. I then put a bottom bait on the hair and tie it to the sliding rig ring. If to use it for pop-ups then instead of adding a bottom bait you can just tie on that pop-up.

Don't tell anyone, but it is a capital D, for D-rig Something to do with the shape of the hook and the attachment of the hooklink continuation Coated Braid D-rig Works with mono, fluorocarbon, stiff link, braid and coated braid. The D-rig was the next step on from the basic hair at Savay, designed I believe by Roger Smith (while Rod Hutchinson was coming up with his version of the sliding/extending hair rig). It makes a good set-up for pop-ups, snowman baits, and I have also used it successfully with bottom baits on Taverham

Alternatively have a sliding rig ring on the shank with a bead or stop to stop it sliding round the bend and off the hook, and attach your soft material hair to that

I've brought this back from the Abyss, as I was going through my photobucket and found a couple of rig pics I took on a lake. It is not the most coloured water, yet even up close and personal, it is almost impossible to see the actual rig underwater. I know the hookbaits are easily visible, I know that on one it is possible to see the tubing, and looking carefully, the lead. These pics may have been taken in the margins, but just how visible is the rig out in the main lake where the water is deeper and visbility not so clear. Is the main lake going to be so clear in gravel as it is in the top picture? As an add, from the top picture, I did actually catch a carp from that spot!

A simple rig ring will work, as would a standard quick link. A swivel is used for the ease of attaching the line at either end, and it sure as heck doesn't prevent line twist or allow the swivels to spin freely Swivels also make for good locking deviices, locking the lead clip, locking the inline lead to a swivel is easy

As simple as you can get, although I used to use braid where the River Gipping was quite slow. An inline lead, braided hooklink, knotless knotted and line aligned. As much of my fishing was up close and personal on such a small river I was able to lower the lead and rig in with no worry about tangles. On areas I had to cast, then a PVA bag kept it tangle free

And why didn't I think of that Possibly cos of the worry of finding the hole after, but considering I bell the end of the plastic inserts on inline leads in that manner to hold the sleeve on, I should know better

Solar did do the http://www.solartackle.co.uk/products/rig-gear?ptitle=bullet-buffer-beads_159 to fit their gear, but rubber tulip beads also work: http://www.tacklebox.co.uk/terminal-tackle/beads/anchor-rubber-tulip-beads.html I found that occasionally all of the tubing pulls out of the beads (hence part of my choice for going naked, but these beads seem to work best and take most tubing. I suppose it is possible to safely glue the tubing into the bead, (the run ring will ensure the lead is able to come off, and in the event of a mainline snap it usually goes at the hooklink swivel) but then the tubing after a while will possibly crack at the bead.

In the link, I know the bottom pic shows my rig length and make-up. That is not to say it is right or wrong, but I prefer to have two thirds of the length being the stiff material. I know others have different feelings on that.

Combi-rig pic and set up on this thread: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=57620 The rig in the pic had actually been on the rods, and had recently landed a new PB for me, hence the knot tail of the mainline being just cut off the rods, and rig photographed

If I said Amnesia would you be surprised? In 20 or 30lb breaking strain, and black or clear dependant on lakebed. I honestly don't think that in many cases the hooklink really matters if it is camouflaged on the lakebed, there will be weed, twigs, sticks, stones and everything that all show up, and so break up the hooklink materials from being too obvious. Add to that, and in the depths of the lake, I bet your clear water is a lot more murky I think it was the first material used for a combi-rig tied to braid, and I started using it back in the 1990's and still use it today. The only change now I that I'm pretty much using Merlin for the braided section almost exclusively

I'm not sure that the lead is ever responsible for hooking the fish, unless the carps acceleration and the lead weight are at absolute... I used to use 2-3oz inlines a lot (but not for around 10 years, went to running leads), a length of tubing, braided hooklink and know I could stick the whole lot in a bag. My thought was always that the quicker the fish moved off and got to the lead, with least movement from the lead and the hooklink swivel, then the sooner the hook would pr ick and the run would be indicated. Fished with a dead tight line, absolutely no slack and the indicator at the top just under the rod. It worked for years with monkey climbers, and then with swingers. I used the standard Korda leads, and plastic inserts supplied, then lighter flamed and belled the end of the insert on the hooklink end. Over that I would then fix a neoprene sleeve and that locked over the swivel.

I can honestly say I have not used a hooklink anti tangle sleeve. I knot the hooklink material to the swivel, job done. No tangles, no worries and if the possibility of tangle is there (only with braid), then I have PVA.

Tie your hook on as normal, then with the soft braid for your hair material, tie that into the eye of the hook with a blood knot. I cover the eye and knots with shrink tubing to protect them. It does mean that you are changing rigs or retying when you need to change hair length though.

Ty checked out combi rig looks like a super rig like the fact that when casted the stiff boom would petrude with minimal chace of a tangle give the hook total freedom to move, simila to a rig i usually us just with out the stiff material and instaed i peel back coating of hook length. will get on the combi over week end. how effective do you find it ? Hi Mate, Being as it is your post, could you do a copy and paste of the link onto this thread: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=55800 I'd do it myself, but being as you dug out the link, you should get the post and credit I have put a pic up on another thread of my combi-rig set-up, but reckon I can put it up again here: You don't have to use the sliding/revolving rig ring, a plain straight knotless knot will work, but in the other thread I believe I give my explanation of why I use the revolving ring. Also the supple section can be any braid you prefer, and the boom I know a fair number of anglers prefer a fluorocarbon, but I'm old fashioned, and why change what works for me?

It is a method I use a lot, when stalking fish, and when I know that they visit the area. I often bait a few areas up, then fish a few minutes in each one before re-baiting and moving on around the lake. It produces a lot of good fish for me, tench and carp. I also enjoy teaming it up with a centre pin, there is nothing like the screech of the reel as you get a proper take after plenty of dips and glides of the float when the fish are brushing the line.

Nige, Have you tried this rig although using a plain standard ring instead of the swivel? I understand that a swivel will give a little bit more weight to balance the pop-up, but I think that a rig ring will still give correct movement along the D-rig section

I deleted my previous post on this thread as I felt I had to quantify some of my comments: I thought about it, I worked on it, and I came up with the same as I used however long ago I originally put this up, although I have changed the hook pattern. I use the same hook arrangement with a coated braid and a combi rig, although the only difference between the two is the choice of coated braid or combi: These rigs can be used for snowman, pop-up or bottom baits with little change. The hair length on a pop-up is shortened, in fact the bait is tied in a loop and then attached to the rig ring tight to the hook shank. I then use the knot on the combi-rig or the end of the stripped section to attach putty to for the pop-up height. With the snowman I put the bait in the loop and then tie the hair at the length I think is right, so that the bottom bait of the two will be on the hair. As for a plain bog standard bottom bait, the hair is tied on with a standard loop and then hair stop is used to hold it in place. The advantage of the rig ring is that I can change the hair length to suit my fishing, rather than break it all down to change it.

Plenty of theories for and against a pop-up in a PVA bag. The pop-up is the most noticeable piece of food, carp eats first, gets hooked. Alternate, the bottom bait is just hoovered up by carp as it eats patch of food. Both work, or both fail and don't do as well as you expect... Is this any use?

You may possibly find these useful: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=57582 http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=55800 The second link I gave you, I updated it last year, but I still use those style rigs, even though the pics I put up myself (my own rigs on there) and thread originally went up around 2008