neilscatchin

I always use the needle knot to attach leadcore to mainline as it produces a neat non bulky knot that'll allow any lead/hooklink depending on style fished,to pass over it.

Gardner Muggas

Totally agree Tony. After all the hype about the korda maggot clips when they came out i went out a brought a packet, i took one look at them on the bank and binned them. I have got to say that i think they are the most over rated piece of end tackle that has been released in years. The gage of the wire is far too thick, the presentation is total pants, they are over priced and not to mention the damage one could cause if it happened to come undone while a fish is hooked. Zander go down the bait floss route it is cheaper, the presentation is far better and a lot safer. I agree totally.I said this from day 1,give me a bunch of maggots D rigged via a needle and cotton anyday just for natural appearance.Like you say if it comes undone or you break off during the fight the fish'll have 2 lumps of metal to contend with.

Yes but then you're punishing the majority of anglers who respect their fishery environment just for those too bone idle to pick up their litter who are in the minority.Problem is with issuing punishments is whose going to police it? I always make a point of remarking about anglers who are seen leaving disgarded litter/line etc and normally a quick informative telling off makes them change their mind.Personally although it still used to be a problem down my way with the surge of "instant" carpers the amount of litter has increased dramatically.Not good for angling or the wildlife.

That's the fella I use although obviously the higher bs it becomes slightly trickier and more awkward to tie.I use the softer fluoros for hooklinks and don't have any problems using Gardner Subterfuge Super Soft in 15lb.

Thats an idea, cheers gaz, searched through knots but could not see one that did the same thing as the blood knot (linking 2 lines together). http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=26461 Fifteen or so posts below: http://www.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=26430 :roll:

Use exactly the same coated braid but in 15lb on my syndicate water and it blends in well but then the clay is the browny sort as opposed to the grey/blue stuff.

Wouldn't be the first time I remember when they released the Mk2 lead clip and sent them out with Mk1 tail rubbers and they were nigh impossible to get off the clip by hand!

I still use the clear and the black version,wide range of applications from hooklength to leader material.

http://www.fish4fun.com/palomarknot.htm

Wychwood,Berkely Snide or TFG leaders are adequate for most situations and come in several bottom variation colours.

A safe zone leader no doubt.I use a leader quite a lot but not a Korda one!

Just a hint mate,don't mix and match companies components unless your confident because you could end up creating an extremely dangerous rig. Plenty of reasonably priced complete kits.

The cheese wire effect from leadcore is far less than that of braid or even some mono/fluoro leaders.Fish can and do quite often twist and turn during the fight but leadcore will do minimal if any damage.Problem with tubing is expelling all the air and getting it to sink,either putty or leadwire will do the trick along it's length.As for results I fished leadcore against tubing and I had more fish on the leadcore,same spot,same bait.

Suffix for me although I'll also use ESP Stripteaze or Pallatrax Steamlink which are equally as effective.I use 17lb X line and rarely go above 15lb hooklink unless near snags where I step up to 25lb.

That's fair enough but how can you make such a preconceived sweeping statement without having used ever used the rig seems crazy.It's like me saying Harrison rods are rubbish,I've never owned one so what so upon what am I making that presumption,hearsay?? What I've read in a mag??My "essay" as you call it was posted because it is impossible to make a claim without backing it up with some sort of understanding or reasoning.There are drawbacks with this rig yes with regards to both what size fish the lakes stock hold and as Jez says the part the longshank hook plays.I don't use curved longshanks at all,I can't abide them preferring either Muggas or Short Shank Nailers with this rig.The double hooking only occurs with the longshank hooks and with the above patterns this has been totally eleviated.I even know some anglers who use the longshanks but then again I know they're conscientious enough if any damage occured to bin the rig straight away.Like I said I personally would actively encourage any water which banned Fox Series 5 or Longshank nailers. Jez,as I said I don't possess a curved lonshank hook so with the shorter shank patterns the "nasty" side that everybody seems to have jumped on the bandwagon to outlaw this rig doesn't exist.I don't use this rig a great deal,I have no need and for anyone to suggest that I'd use the rig if there was the slightest shred of evidence of any damage caused by the way I use it obviously is grossly misled.Like I said in my previous post my findings have come from a variety of waters/fishing situations bouncing off of others over a number of years.

I'm a Suffix fan myself but the Pallatrax Steamlink is also a very good alternative and more reliable than the Hybrid.

Have you ever used this rig? Obviously,not.The reason I ask is because in reality if you had used as it should be on larger fish then you'd realise that this rig doesn't pose any greater risk than any other.I'm in the fortunate position of fishing a lake with very,very few fish under 20lb in(you can count them on 1 hand).My findings and those of many other anglers is that the rig causes no more damage than any other hooking arrangement.I've never caught a fish on this rig that has any mouth damage and every hookhold has been in the bottom lip so it is as near to placing the hook in a guarenteed hooking position as you can get.A hook is bad for a fish's mouth,full stop and mouth damage can occur with a size 8 hook tied to Kryston Supernova knotless knot with braid cuts to the mouth.The damage occurs on the soft mouths of smaller fish when double hooking occurs or the hook catches the outside of the mouth and a lot of damage is done when people are unhooking the fish with no idea.Lee Jackson and Chilly have both used this rig in the past and caught 100+ fish on the rig and if it was detrimental to the fish in anyway,do you really thing that they have a "fish at all cost" attitude. I think mouth damage is very dependant on what type of bottom you're fishing over too as the fish in silty lakes will have softer mouths than those from a gravel pit. Yes it is a good rig, but only in the right hands and on the right waters and it only provides a very small part of my armoury.I put the fish's welfare before anything else and having used the rig for well over 2 years with no issues,I'll continue to do so.I personally can't see how anyone can comment unless they have personally tried it over a period of time fishing in different situations.Gives the impression of armchair angling IMO but this is a forum and everybody's entitled to theirs.

I always use the rig with either Gardner Muggas or Carp R Us Short Shank nailers with no real preference for either.A lot of people recommend curved longshanks such as Fox series 5s or Carp R Us Longshank nailers but having seen the damage caused by these hooks through double hooking in smaller carp then I would avoid them unless your lake only contains larger fish(20lb+).

They do still make them although not in the same guise.The Z15 is now the F1 pattern and has a black nickel finish instead of matt. F2 is the same hook with longer shank and F3 is the same hook as F1 but barbless.A cracking hook,strong,lightweight but reliable.

Why not use a helicopter rig.That way if tied correctly there will be no doubt that the carp will be left trailing anything other than the hooklink(worse case scenario)and there's no need to add any weak points to your tackle at all.As long as the ring swivel can pass over the shockleader knot(I always check several times on the bank from different angles)then this is by far the safest way of using a shockleader without compromising on the fish's welfare.It has the added bonus of being relative tangle free too at range.

A few blobs of putty along the leader and a flying backlead will help to pin down the shockleader/mainline but I'd only recommend in conjunction with a lead clip set up as the putty may impair the ability of a running rig removing a vital safety aspect.Perhaps a specific manufacturer's running rig set up with a flying backlead alone may be the answer but either way if the mainline breaks the fish will still be trailing hooklength and leader.

I'm a bit unsure.Not being condescending what do you mean by a safety clip? A lead clip? If so the lead clip is only designed to jettison the lead definately not to move as it's a pivot point for the release of the lead and locked to the swivel.Definately recommend a shockleader as you'll have 3.5-4oz worth of weight even with a small bag.

Try using Kryston bogey round a bead or small cork ball.The hemp will create a ball of hemp by sticking to the bogey but if memory serves me correctly you'll have to dry the hemp off before it'll stick.If only looking for several grains on a hair rig use the enterprise plastic hemp or small black rubber beads flicked with tippex and soaked in hemp oil.Rigwise use whatever you have faith in already and adapt.

Any braid and a permanent marker,any smell will soon be removed with the smell of the silt.