salokcinnodrog

A few ways to get hooklinks into PVA bags, and the length can be pretty much anything you want with a braided hooklink. Although an Inline lead goes in easier and more tidily, it is still possible to use Pendant leads. I think everyone on here knows I use Pendant Running leads and what is probably compared to many long hooklinks at about 20-30cms. Put the hookbait in the bottom of the bag, and then fill a little bit, put the hooklink in and keep filling up around it until 3/4 full. Either lick and stick or cut the bag so that you can use the tag ends to knot up around the lead or tubing above the lead. This will close the bag as well as fixing it to the lead for good casting.

A whole thread on the Barbed vs Barbless debate: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=19019 This thread is asking about whether crimped barb is allowed on a particular water

I have a feeling that on some waters pop-ups themselves may have blown, or in particular spots may well not work. That "bright yellow different flavoured" pop-up not used before or a food bait fished with a food bait pop-up could work. How the pop-up is mounted may have some relevance as well. A bait that is a long way from the hook may behave very weirdly in contrast to the free bottom baits. If this bait is able to wave around in front of the fish then it may be left as being unnatural, although Brian Garner years ago did have some good results on long haired pop-ups on The Mangrove Swamp. Go back to the wrong spot, if the fish are feeding hard on the lakebed, a bait presented more than (for example) 5 cms off the lakebed may well be ignored. Not even intentionally, but simply because the fish don't come up to feed at that height. Feeding heavily with particles, pellets or groundbait and a pop-up may well be the wrong choice of hookbait. Yet a bottom bait may likely work.

When it comes down to pop-up rigs I often go back to basics. I don't often play around with rigs much anyway, preferring to get location and feeding right over piddling about confusing myself and having the fish laugh at my overcomplicated rigs. Yes I do sometimes go more advanced, but most of the time, there really is no need For pop-ups I seem to go back to either braid or coated braid rigs. Tie a Uni knot loop at the end of the (stripped) braid hooklink and then attach the knot with a knotless knot. I then put putty over a stop (knot) or on the end of the stripped coating, or sometimes if I have already checked the buoyancy of my pop-ups at home, use an olivette. (I'm not paying silly money for Korda Sinkers ) I do sometimes head for D-rigs as I feel that they often sit right, but as far as I'm concerned the simpler the better.

There you have it then. The basic knotless knotted rig can be tied with Braid (as pictured), coated braid, mono or fluoro (just be aware that fluoro and mono can be rubbed through on the eye of the hook). The hair length is easily changed, can be used for pop-ups by adding a stop (knot, shot) and putty and can be fished over pretty much anything by changing the rig length to cater for different lakebeds, can be fished as a single bait, with PVA bags, stringers or mesh. It can be used with Helicopter set-ups, semi-fixed or running leads.

No, SuperSilk isn't "finger sticky" , that's Multistrand It is a braided hooklink, and is very thin for its breaking strain, actually the reason I don't use it now as I feel that it may be able to cut the fishes cheeks. Not proved, but just a slight concern I have, so won't take the chance. Although it is white it does take on the colour of the lakebed, or can be stained by soaking overnight in coffee or tea (without milk )

Rigs don't make you a better angler Developing your skills comes from watching how fish behave, how and where they feed. What makes you a better angler is putting your basic rig in the place where the fish feed and understanding them. That rig you can use many different baits on is the basic knotless knotted rig. I use it as my first point of call on almost every water I fish. It gets used for sweetcorn and other particles, boilies, luncheon meat etc. It works almost everywhere, on a float set-up as well as on the lead, and still catches fish. It can be used for pop-ups bottom baits and snowman set-ups. From that basic rig you can develop your fishing, change the hair and rig length when you see where the fish is hooked when you are landing them, or lengthen the hair if you are losing fish to hookpulls. It has been said that there is no more advance in carp fishing than the hair rig, and nothing has superceded it since.

Discussed it, laughed at, probably sworn at each other and I still use Merlin, as part of my combi links and as a hooklink material straight at times, for the odd occasions I use Pop-ups and for bottom baits and snowman set-ups. I don't have a problem with it floating, but that may be down to how I tend to use it, with a large stringer so it all lays down flat. It may also be that when wet it does sink down. Its rare that I cast out a dry hooklink when I arrive at the lake, usually getting a couple of casts to get it right, ranging towards the clip, or putting a few stringers worth of bait in. My other hooklinks are Mantis Gold and Jackal, and I don't have any problem just grabbing a ready tied rig out the rig bin and tying it on. Even then, I still go through a couple of "stringer" casts.

Don't confuse yourself with rigs. A simple knotless knotted rig will work almost everywhere, easiest to tie, no faffing about, will work over gravel, silt, clay, sand, you name it it will work. It is easy enough to change to suit, lengthen the hair or rig length. Many people confuse themselves with rigs, and for NO reason other than the magazines insist we have to be more complicated using 360, KD, Withy etc. This may give you some interesting reading: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=9536&highlight=complicated+rigs

I'm easy to please, its known as Kryston. The only manufacturer I use for hooklink materials, with the excepion of Amnesia for Combi-rigs and mono for surface fishing. They are 100% reliable, never given any problems and so I see no reason to change

I must admit that the only hooks I have sharpened have been those on Pike Trebles since the days of Chemical Sharpening came to be standard. I have a couple of worries in sharpening the point of a hook; First one is removing the protective outer layer, be that Teflon, or even the outer layer of metal which may provide the hardness of the hook. Then I worry rather than making it any sharper I'm going to blunt it down. I'm pretty good with a file, steel, sharpeners, oilstone etc, my knives are "slice first notice later" sharp, but a very fine pointed hook is a whole lot harder. Add to that, by making the point thinner I am opening it up for more damage on the lakebed, or if I pick up a twig or other rubbish on the retrieve. I don't lose many fish down to hookpulls, and I'm happy with 99% of hooks I get out the packet, but that is down to choosing and using good quality hooks from decent manufacturers or brands. They are sharp enough for my fishing, whereas even if some good manufacturer produces Korda hooks, they are NOT the same as the hooks from the factory owners. Incidentally Kamasan and Drennan/ESP, I think all come from the same factory, being as Drennan own it, and those are fairly good brands. And don't forget I'm thick skinned

Welcome to the forum Welcome to the forum Welcome to the forum Honestly, there is no need to start the same thread 3 times I've moved this into the correct section of the forum for you, so hopefully you should get some more help

Nope! The point only just nicked into the skin with that 3oz lead.

Here is a scary one for you, I use Gardner Muggas for most of my fishing (and catch a fair number of fish on them), and with a size 4 Mugga hook in my thumb and a 3oz lead I was able to lift it completely off the desk and reach out to grab my camera to take pictures. Sorry this 2nd picture should actually be rotated 90degrees clockwise, but even in this, you can still see the whole lead is off the desk. I thought Muggas were some of the sharpest hooks around! I went out and purchased some Korda Kurvs, and Gamakatsu G-points to do the same thing. The Korda hooks did not even leave a hookpoint mark on my thumb, whereas the G-Points did. Not particularly scientific, but I found that the only way to increase hook penetration was to increase the weight on a semi-fixed lead and speed of applied tension, so the faster line tightened on the using up of slack when using running leads the further in the hookpoint went. Also during a fight, (with the right patterns, NOT out-turned eyes) the hook works in further. So fishing slack lines with semi-fixed set-ups may not pull the hook into the fishes lip, and the lead may be moved a long way with no indication. As a slack line is taken up on a running lead, the tension increases to the rod tip/reel and so the hook is pulled in to gain some penetration.

A PVA bag often slows down the "sinking" into silt of the end tackle as it slows down the impact on the lakebed, a stick mix will work as well. Just a thought though; if you bag up the hookbait it may actually stop the lead sinking as far into the silt as it is help up by the PVA bag

Could I ask a question about the "hand test"? I have seen the videos where various rigs are dragged over the heel of the palm to demonstrate how the hook will behave. It would seem to me that this only demonstrates what is happening when the line is being pulled i.e. when there is tension in the line. This will happen when the boilie is being sucked in or if the carp is backing away. If the carp is just mouthing the bait or is blowing it out, the feature demonstrated by the hand test is surely irrelevant? Ideally you want the point to turn over and prick the bottom lip of the fish, whether that is done using a taut hooklink or the carp blowing the bait out. So draging it across your palm and getting the hook towards the edge just before you pull it off the edge the hook cocks and pricks the palm on the edge... I very rarely loose any carp, cant remember the last, if i get a run its on, and well nailed in the centre of the bottom lip.. Results speak.. I must admit I find the Hand test as described, and even the "over the thumb" test misleading as I can think of a number of rigs which will fail both of them are actually very efficient fish hooking rigs. A carp can only suck and blow the bait (and hook) in and out in its "natural" feeding, so almost every rig is failing at some point and not hooking every time. The most important thing is getting the feeding situation right, so that if a rig does fail first time, it is continually picked up as the carp is feeding naturally or comfortably. The more times or the longer the hook is in the mouth, the more chance it has of hooking the fish.

No, the lead pulls everything behind it. A method I do to make doubly sure is make up a PVA bag, put the hook into the bottom corner, and lick and stick the top of the bag around the lead link.

I'd actually avoid Inline Leads for running rigs. The nose of the lead may dive into the silt and prevent the lead from running anyway, plus if it hits a harder patch may damage the hooklink. I'd stick with the running set-up, and even use Leadcore, but NOT in the way you'd think, instead making a lead link, so that the run ring is attached to the lead by a length of leadcore: While Chod/Helicopter set-ups have been advocated for using in Silty waters, it has actually been pointed out by people like Tim Paisley in his book Big Carp that bomb-on-the-end-of-the line set-ups can produce a number of hookpulls due to the angle of pull being across the hook, leading to the possibility of hooks opening out, or even levering themselves out under pressure.

If you are losing fish to hookpulls, then the first thing I would change is the rig and hair length, they probably aren't long enough. Also an Inline lead fishing running, may well not be running at all. The nose of the lead may have pushed the hooklink swivel into the lakebed, or even the lead had dug in far enough so that it couldn't run on a take. edited for typo

It was "inner free", there was nothing inside it, but it was a heavy sinking braid. Can't remember what I did with it, although being as it is not in my house, and definitely not in my fishing tackle, it looks like it went into the bin, or got used to hold up beans on sticks.

Yes it is from the original Korda Rig Guide, from the days when DF was actually getting into the tackle shops and I had respect for them. I hate the article plugging by Korda that is now commonplace by the employees and sponsored/subsidised anglers in magazines. I have also found since the publication of that book that some of the stuff they now produce is NOT suitable for my fishing. Problem is that one of our best known anglers has said publicly that he uses Leadcore in lengths as long as 10feet long, although I believe since he has been forced to shorten it for another article Some anglers will catch fish with LC, and they will fish it no matter what, some may not accept the risks. I'm sorry, it doesn't take a "wrongly" set-up leadcore leader to kill a fish, all it takes is 10cm of leadcore and a fish can be tethered. A few years ago, I got into the water between New Year and Christmas, proper fishing as well and did a fair few experiments to prove or disprove some of the theories regarding Leadcore, and in doing so, managed to upset a certain Magazine editor when I e-mailed him my findings, and I got accused of being an armchair keyboard warrior in print in the magazine. The threads on here that gave the facts were all locked when people didn't or wouldn't accept them and the insults flew, all aimed at Keith and myself or those who were showing and telling the risks of Leadcore That 10cms of Leadcore can kink and trap beads so that rigs can't pass over the knot join, even if they do go through the proper central hole. Leadcore can shoot past the lead on contact with water on a cast, even when feathered, that shooting past is able to create a kink in the LC. Pulling it back does not necessarily remove the kink or pull it totally straight. In leadcore, no matter who's it is, there is the possibility of the lead inner breaking and poking through the outer sheath, which can also trap beads in position. If leadcore is able to wrap around any twig, it will prevent the beads (and rig) coming free. That twig can then be pulled and towed around, picking up more weed and other twigs and detritus creating a big bundle of rubbish that a fish is now pulling complete. I know that we want to keep our fish fit, but I'm sure they don't like doing "Wind Sprints" , and that in turn can break the fishes jaw (ask Keith), or eventually snag up totally, tethering the fish. I can give you pictures of bundles of rubbish pulled out of a lake, and in them, for some reason, there always seems to be a length of leadcore, even if it has managed to pick up other snap-offs, or lengths of line. Leadcore does NOT lay so flat along the lakebed, it is not supple enough to go into every nook and cranny, although mono is probably the same, it is not as highly visible as a length of LC laying along the lakebed. The abrasion resistance, I will agree, it is very high, only it is so high that the outer core (which may well be Kevlar or Dyneema based) is able to saw through wood, and is MORE likely to mark and cut the fish than mono, which usually slides over the fish. In fact last week I had a small common which I caught on Fluoro coated mono, and at one point in I saw the line go around the pectoral fin as it turned away under pressure and then came free as the fight progressed, I netted the fish, and there was no marks or damage. I have also got pictures of fish, which I have put on here before during the days when I did use leadcore, and there are marks which I believe may have been caused by leadcore rubbing along the flanks. Regarding the pictures I put up ages ago of fish with marks on their flanks, that I consider may well have been damaged by leadcore, there is no chance that that is spawning damage, not unless it takes roughly 2 months for (fresh) red marks to heal on rarely caught fish (the big fully scaled caught on 7/7 if anyone knows why the date is relevant) and straight line marks on another mirror and even a pinged scale on the first fish I caught from there which I caught earlier in the year on my second fishing trip to the water, which could not have been caused by spawning as of the time of the first 2 captures they hadn't been there to do it. In fact the first 2 captures came on my second fishing trip on the water in April, and the water was still cold and clear. They didn't spawn that year until May, I know I watched them when they did it.160acres of water to hide in, fish may not get caught for years between captures and some had never been caught before. It was during a time when I did use leadcore in my fishing. At the same time I was also fishing Suffolk Water Park a bit, which is very weedy, and lost a fish, that was guaranteed to be trailing a leadcore leader, fished Pendant lead style, as the line went above the leader knot when the fish cut along a gravel bar on the take. Another incident on that lake made me realise how risky any leaders can be; I cast my marker rod out one evening to have a dig around at what was in front of me, and got snagged up by something. Eventually I retrieved a leader fished helicopter style, complete with (plastic) bait, where the lead could not be ejected and 10's of metres of line caught up in weed a big bundle. The beads would not come free from the leader no matter how much hand pressure myself and the bailiff put on it. We had to use pliers to free the beads and the rig, which I'm sure the carp or other fish are not in possession of. I'm sure that Keith will always use his actual memories of having to kill a fish, it is a first hand incident, one that because he saw and dealt with himself is going to use as a reference. Now he has a water where leaders are banned, and since then has not had another incident, and I believe in his water he also drains down at times to remove any snags and branches that are a risk to fishing. The fish seem to have come on in big weights. Leadcore and leaders are things in fishing where if you use them correctly, as per instructions, will cause the potential for fish to be tethered, but add to that, there is so much additional potential for fish to be snagged/harmed if things are done incorrectly, like putting beads side on, or fishing too close to snags. As I said, it only takes 10cms of leadcore for a fish to be snagged up, and a small twig. If anyone has ever lost a fish, and watched it with a hook in the mouth, they can sometimes use a branch or twig and rub against it, swimming round in tight circles. That 10cms of leadcore may then snag up. Result, a snagged, tethered fish. I really didn't want to get dragged back into another leadcore debate, they do get nasty, and apart from smart alec remarks I'm not that way inclined. I prefer live and let live, but sometimes you have to try to point out dangers to whoever I'm sorry, I have copied and pasted some of my replies on another forum into the quotes, so some of it is repeated (as it has been done many times before albeit in different words), and I have also C&P'd some of this thread onto that "Leaders or Not" Thread

A couple of threads about Leadcore and Leaders: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=32598 That goes back to 2008, when I started experimenting to prove or disprove the safety aspect; Result for me was that Leadcore does NOT do what it says on the tin. http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=39794 http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=40970 And ask Moorsey what has happened on the fishery he owns and runs in France from purchase to modern day

Answered

If I give a full explanation then it seems patronising, yet what you forget is that other people NOT just yourself read threads and opinions, and may need a full answer or explanation. If I had just given a 3 word answer of "Use the Chod" you would have been happy, but it didn't agree with what you wanted to hear. In fact you trying to tell me about how Silt rigs and Chod rig got their name put my back up as I am pretty sure that I probably have a very long memory regarding a vast number of rigs, baits and tackle, in many cases long before some of todays anglers were born. Frank Warwick christened the Chod rig "the Short rig" Just put it this way, I've fished in the 70's, 80's, 90, 00's and now the 10's. Work out how many decades that is! You asked for advice, and I gave you advice and my opinion and some of it from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE! I would totally avoid Helicopter set-ups unless I absolutely have to, and the clue in that personal experience is in this line: 20years ago I was playing around with bomb on the end of the line set-ups and found that that was a fault that they had going against them. It meant that even with 20lb leaders I was losing fish, where even the shockleader was giving way. Then we switched over to that horrible poxy stuff called leadcore, which is something I dislike with a passion after finding out for myself how much of a risk it is in fishing. As for Jim Shelley, then I still honestly don't care, I have had personal contact with him, and sometimes what the great and famous do, is not always the best in terms of fish safety There are other rigs that are effective with a great hooking potential, and many a whole lot easier to set up on a standard lead set-up. Now I fish a water that is very silty; no matter how hard I search I still can't find a hard bit of bottom in the lake, it is very thick (smelly) silt, yet I haven't had to resort to Silt set-ups with the bomb on the end of the line yet, and I have had a fair number of fish out on limited number of sessions.

It wasn't Frank Warwick who christened the short rigs on a helicopter the Silt rig, it was Tim Paisley, shortened from the terminology from "bomb-on-the-end-of-the-line" as he put it "for brevity's sake" The Chod rig terminology came from a conversation between Terry Hearn and Jim Maylin when one asked the other "What's the bottom like out there?" The reply was "its a bit choddy". And Jim Shelley also had to change away from the Silt rig on a number of waters, because it didn't sit right, and wasn't hooking fish Just because someone "famous" does something, it DOES NOT mean that other methods won't work. I use Combi rigs, so I do know how stiffer hooklinks come off the swivel, being as Amnesia is a VERY stiff hooklink material Which is WHY I gave you the picture, so you could see a lead link.