salokcinnodrog

As Stoogi says, simple knotless knotted rig will work almost everywhere, and may be possible to be improved on by adding a shrink tube or silicon tube line aligner. You have a massive choice of hooklink materials to cope with almost everything; mono, fluorocarbon, or braid, coated or uncoated.

I hate the name Chod, after all, it is a SILT rig, designed for fishing over... silt The number of fish I used to lose on helicopter/silt set-ups Hookpulls, the line being rubbed away with a swivel "rolling" on the line. Far better set-ups available to fish a pop-up in my view.

I don't think that I have ever bought a rig from a shop. I've always preferred making my own, to my own specifications, although a few of my mates and I have made rigs for each other, but only those whose knots I trust, (and them mine) I'd never forgive myself if I made a rig for somebody else and it failed. As Jules says, if a rig or knot breaks, then the only person whose fault it is, is myself.

Yeah I'm using it safely i have cut down the lead clip to its minimum length and I'm dropping the lead on every take. I am using lead core because it suits the situation that I am fishing. And yeah I was trying feathering the line. Either it's not working for me or I'm not quite getting to grips with it. Just because you're dropping the lead doesn't necessarily make it safe. A leadcore set-up with a pendant or inline set-up is still a risk to fish, and it only needs a length of 15cm I reckon for it to be able to snag up and potentially tether a fish. Also leadcore means that should the fish be left trailing a rig, the weight of the leadcore will hold the hook in position, preventing the hook being ejected (rehooking), which carp can do with no weight attached on a normal rig. Leadcore is also thrown forward on the feathering of the cast, meaning that the mainline will be pulled and twist around it increasing the chance of a tangle. Dump the leadcore (or any leader), and fish tubing if you have to, or go naked. PVA then reduces the risk of tangles, be it a stringer, bag or stick.

Knotless knot for hook if I'm going to fish an integral hair, or Uni knot for just about everything else with the exception when I fish a loop knot on the combi link (I use ring swivels a lot), when I use what I believe is called the Rapala knot, but it is the knot featured in Kryston packaging.

It comes off the spool like that. I use black Amnesia myself as a shockleader for my Marker and Spod set-up, and I've noticed a few clear or lighter patches as it comes off the spool. It doesn't appear any weaker than the "proper" stuff.

Salokcin nodrog Break it down backwards, surname to forename, hence Nick I don't think that a hook is sucked in "backwards", and with the bristle it appears that the hook is being sucked in bend first, and relying on the bristle to push the hookpoint down. Carp feed in a manner that the hair is a very useful part of the armoury. No hair, or very short means that the bait and hook can easily be ejected without any indication. Yet by adding a longer hair (as per Kevin Maddocks and Lennie Middleton), the bait is sucked in, and the hook follows naturally Have a look at this, it may make some sense about hair positioning

The most important thing with any rig is putting it in the right place, and getting the fish to feed in such a way that the bait is taken. Those who rely on the lead to hook the fish are probably missing a lot of fish as the fish can get away with it most of the time. I think in most cases, using a running lead with a slack line, you get indication whether a full blooded run in most cases, but a few bleeps if the bait is picked up and sussed. The original name for the set-up pictured, when fished with a pop-up was the Swimmer rig, but by adding a bristle makes it a bristle rig. I use a very similar set-up myself, with the ring as well, which gives me the option of changing hair length, but in my case I mostly fish a snowman set-up. The bristle may help prevent the hookbait being ejected once it is in the mouth, but with a bottom bait, I think you need a fair bit of separation to get the hook and bait into the mouth, but play with that degree of separation dependant on the background feed (and bait if using particles). As per the bristle, there have been a few variations, the bristle down the shank, or an "anchor" by the eye, a stiff piece of nylon going through a piece of tubing at right angles to the shank from side to side.

I absolutely hate leadcore with a passion, and think for carp safety's sake it should be banned from fishing altogether, as many fisheries have done. I've had to desnag fish that have been tethered in the stuff, even with helicopter set-ups, where the supposedly safe beads (fitted correctly through the hole), have been unable to release themselves and the rig is unable to come free. I also spent a lot of time experimenting with various lead set-ups to prove or disprove, and the only safe way is not to fish the stuff. If the lead drops off on a rotten bottom, then the beads and rig are often stuck in the middle of the leadcore, both ends of which are being towed behind the carp, offering two ends to snag up with, or one very thick line which it stands little or no chance of breaking. So my advice is totally ditch leadcore, and find a safer alternative. I also think the chod rig is overated, and overused. In many cases a standard pendant set-up, either running or semi-fixed can be fished effectively in silt, just by lengthening the hooklink. This can be fished with a bottom bait or a pop-up. Or you can fish the lead on a lead link, attached to a run ring, and buffer bead as per normal. The lead pulls everything behind it on the cast, and can be fished safely in weed or silt. However, in silt, the helicopter or "bomb on the end of the line" silt set-ups do offer a very good way to fish, and I would prefer to fish it naked, but I came up with a version years ago, that can be fished on a leader if required as the silt set-ups (including chod) can cause excessive line twist, and potential breakages (written about by Tim Paisley in his book Big Carp, Big Fish Summer chapter I think). So some protection of the mainline in the form of suitable beads, or heaven forbid a leader. (However with leadcore, this twist can be transmitted down the leader, preventing beads coming free, so again, spot the leadcore issue again ) Pics on this thread: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=37603 No point in fishing a hookbait above the silt if the fish feed in it. Whichever way you fish, fish safely so that the rig can be safely ejected, and is all that the fish is left trailing in the event of a snap-off.

Many hooklink materials loop up off the lakebed, from monos, fluoros or braids, I think more often with shorter hooklinks. The loop up occurs between the quick link or swivel and the hook or any counterbalance weight used at the hook end of the hooklink, i.e. pop-up putty or shot/depth charge etc, usually if the knot is tight and held firmly onto the link or swivel. It happens less with loop knots or ring swivels. If you are concerned about it, then you can "mouse dropping" putty along the whole length with braid, or rub it in through the whole length, or even get a Kryston product called Drop Em, and mouse dropping with that on the other hooklink materials

Is this any use? http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=34583

A very long lived line, been around for years! I know I was using it in the 1990's possibly or probably before at times as my pike fishing mainline, carp fishing mainline and hooklink, and also in lower strengths for chub, roach, tench. In fact I still have a spool of it now to go on my chub fishing reel as it is still one of my favourite mainlines for ledgering or freelining, very tough, can handle a bit of abuse as chub stalking is apt to be. Come to that, I have a feeling that when I rigged up my sons and daughters pole rigs, I used Maxima as the mainline and just added a hook to nylon for them all.

Someone doesn't read their wordpad C&P's when making a post I'm not sure if the V2 is the same set-up for tuning dongle to receiver, but I switch the alarms on with dongles in place, hold the button on the side of receiver and switch that on holding the button down. The first led should flash, bleep the alarm once to tune it to receiver, led should stop and next one starts flashing, same procedure until sorted as per all alarms.

I used to fish a couple of weedy lakes, and my standard set-up was an inline Zipp shaped lead, with a braided hooklink (Merlin) to a size 6 hook. I used the same basic rig for pop-ups or bottom baits. Simple knotless knot to the hook and probably about 30cms long. The inline lead was held in place tightly onto the hooklink swivel by a rubber tulip bead fitted into the bottom of the drilled out lead. I know every lake is different, but I found that the shape of the inline lead, and weed would slide over the lead on the retrieve or when playing a fish, and I very rarely got weeded or jammed up. It should be an even safer arrangement with a break away lead. (you can get double ring swivels, use one ring to attach rig, and one to attach mainline, then push the other end into base of lead, hold the line tight to the top of the lead with a tail rubber) On the cast the whole lot was put in a PVA bag, free bait, hook and bait, rig and lead.

With corn I use almost exactly the same basic hair rig as I do for the rest of my fishing, something like the top rig pics on this thread: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=54131 I also usually use 3 or 4 pieces of sweetcorn or maize on the hook, balanced to lift it up with a fake piece or a small piece of cork, and yes, I will use cork with real sweetcorn.

Well due to my changing water this year, I still haven't put a fish on the bank while using it. I have however found it casts more smoothly and further than my previous line. The diameter of Pro-Carp means that where I had been casting around 90metres with a line of 0.36, as my top distance on the 10000 baitrunners, I'm getting closer to 100metres with a baited rig due to the 0.35mm of this line. It casts smoothly, flies further, and is somehow more "comfortable". One thing I will say, make sure when you load it, bed it down properly, reel in slowly instead of putting it on as fast as possible, but that is the same with any line.

I use snowman baits on it almost all of the time. With a pop-up, I'm not sure how you would get your supple section to the exact height you needed it if you have to chop and change to get it exactly right. Be a lot of tied up rigs with different supple section lengths! I'm not saying this is the only knot to use with Combi-rigs, as the Albright knot works, but I can tie this up easily without thinking, and it works also as a good knot for shockleaders: Tie an overhand knot in the stiff material, but don't pull it tight Push the supple braid through the knot, and then tie a Uni knot Lubricate the 2 knots and gradually pull tight being careful not to pull the braid back through the overhand knot. For my own confidence I lighter blob the tag ends of the knots. It may be worth checking that this can can be used with a fluorocarbon if you use it for the stiff section.

I use both coated and uncoated braids. For years I used standard Silkworm, Merlin, SuperSilk, SuperNova or even Multistrand straight through, with few problems or little tangling (PVA reduces or nullifies that happening ), long or short and it produced fish from gravelly, weedy, silty, sand or clay bottom lakes. I'd quite happily use any of the Kryston hooklink braids as I have never had problems with them, other than the Multistrand, but that was more down to where I used it as opposed to tackle fault. Then in an attempt to "progress" I moved over to coated braids. The original Snakeskin I struggled with, but when Snakebite and Mantis came out I really got on with them, and again, it didn't matter what lakebed, I was comfortable using it everywhere. Even now if you go through my rig bin, and tackle box the rigs are made up with one of those mentioned, usually Merlin or Mantis, although now most of the Merlin rigs are fished as a Combi-rig and there are a few rigs made up from a spool of Jackal that I own. Even that Combi-rig I'm not that far advanced from the Harry Haskell original, still using Amnesia to the soft supple section. I'm not saying this is the only knot to use with Combi-rigs, as the Albright knot works, but I can tie this up easily without thinking, and it works also as a good knot for shockleaders: Tie an overhand knot in the stiff material, but don't pull it tight Push the supple braid through the knot, and then tie a Uni knot Lubricate the 2 knots and gradually pull tight being careful not to pull the braid back through the overhand knot. For my own confidence I lighter blob the tag ends of the knots. It may be worth checking that this can can be used with a fluorocarbon if you use it for the stiff section.

I'm not saying it is the only way to go, but I always use a Running lead set-up, and nearly always use a combi-rig at the moment. You may find my set-up on one of these threads below, plus a few more combi rig pics. http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=54131 http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?p=568035#568035

That not mixing components from different manufacturers SHOULDN'T matter, all should fit safely; its down to plastic pegs to make a lead clip safe or the Armaled style, not it locking onto a swivel by pulling down. Fox don't have a size 8 swivel in their range, and size 8's are different dependant on brand as pointed out. Even DF has admitted that point in his book from years ago, and said that some packs within the same manufacturer are different dependant on PACK SIZE of 10 or 50. I have rigs tied up in my rig bin, and should I need to change I will pull out a rig, and attach it to my mainline. I'll be a monkeys uncle if I can remember whose swivel is on every rig, and I've bought and used tackle by Solar, Gardner, Fox, Korum and others, and all should be compatible. Come to that, Fox and Solar Buffer/Bullet beads and Solar and Korda tail rubbers all fit over whatever swivel I use, whether a size 7, a 10 or an 8. A run ring from Avid, Enterprise, Korum, Fox or Solar are all safe, and all will slide off whoever's make tubing I have used. As it happens, I tend to use size 10 swivels for joining floater hooklink to mainline, with a tail rubber over the swivel and the controller "jammed" onto the tail rubber. It can break free should it break on the mainline. I also use size 10 swivels when lift float fishing sometimes when I attach a hooklink, its easy. However my main use for size 10 swivels is on the occasions I use a hinged rig, or as a sliding swivel on the hookshank in certain rigs to attach the bait to.

Extending the length of the shank of a longshank with a piece of tubing may well be part of the cause then. Go back to the shorter shanked hooks (which seem to be working), and stick with them. It may even be that the longshanked hook can't be taken in, or "turned" in the mouth of a smaller fish. I honestly don't like longshanked hooks with smaller fish, I don't think they work at all well, and may be partly responsible for mouth damage.

You may need to consider something else as well. It may be a completely unlikely possibility, but of those 3 takes that you "lost", was it possible that a line trailer went over your line and gave you a run. Or even that you had fish going over your line and giving you proper liners, especially if you are fishing over particles. The 4th fish that you landed was a "proper" take. It may be a total coincidence that it happened, it could be genuine lost fish, but I've given you another idea or 2. As for the original rigs, is the normal rig with or without rig tubing? (As opposed to the longshank rig) Is the longshank rig using any tubing? Line aligners on either etc? What size fish are you catching?

On the swivel packet it should have a breaking strain written on it Mustad for example are rated at 69lb, whereas ESP are rated at 50lb.

Well you can get at least 2 tins of sweetcorn into a kilo of Vitalin Also many mixed particles, pigeon conditioner, Red Band, Hemp. Half fill a 10kilo base mix bucket with Vitalin, a few pellets and then add a couple of kilos of prepped particles complete with juice, maybe even some CSL liquid or Molasses. As you say, a little spare groundbait in case you do over do it, but I do have a tendency to check it as I mix the whole lot in, and usually still end up with a "dry patch" of groundbait in the base/side wall join would you recommend groundbait used with vitalin as i tend to stay away from groundbait as it attracts the andys like locusts ? would the liquid leake out of the mesh during the cast unlike the bag sorry for any typos ive been in the pub for the last 5 hours lol I used to use loads of Vitalin with particles and pellets on the reservoir. I knew that bream were going to be attracted to it, but sometimes I piled it in and caught carp over the top instantly, and sometimes it was bream. You could also be catching slab after slab, and then get a pick up exactly the same to find a carp on the end. You could also have the occasional blank, but the attraction remained for a while as it almost "flavoured" the lakebed. Come to that, mix it stiff enough and you can even fish it "method style". Groundbait moulded around the lead, and no need for PVA

Well you can get at least 2 tins of sweetcorn into a kilo of Vitalin Also many mixed particles, pigeon conditioner, Red Band, Hemp. Half fill a 10kilo base mix bucket with Vitalin, a few pellets and then add a couple of kilos of prepped particles complete with juice, maybe even some CSL liquid or Molasses. As you say, a little spare groundbait in case you do over do it, but I do have a tendency to check it as I mix the whole lot in, and usually still end up with a "dry patch" of groundbait in the base/side wall join