tonybranno

Its not that hard fella, a simple knotless knot on braid is simplicity in itself. I have never bought a ready made rig in my life and will never do so either.

If the top bead can be pulled off the tube easily then it can be used.

Ok ive just tried the snell knot (which is the same as a whipping knot on a choddy) on a combi rig and here is my effort..... I cannot get the gap between the knot and the eye of the hook any smaller (in this case its 10mm) but the braided section definately isnt any longer than the shank of the hook (in this case a size 6 ESP Big T). But with a bit more practice i might be able to get it shorter if needs be.

Cheers fella, i will look into that knot to see how you tie it cos it would add another chink in my armoury for sure. Nice one

Well that might be worth a bit of experimenting but if you use such a short length of braid (considering some hooks have a short shank) IMO there isnt much room to actually tie the knot and get it tight. I think it will be much easier just to use coated braid and carefully strip a 2mm section of outer material off, to get the 'hinge' effect, right near the eye of the hook. But like i said, there is some experimenting to do there to compare results.

why's that Keith? Im stumped as well. When i tie my own, true, combi rigs out of 2 different materials, the braided section can be as little as half an inch, upto two thirds of the entire length of the hooklink. For e.g. If my hooklink is 9 inches, then the braided section will be 3 inches in length. It works for me.

Its the Multistrand that can take the colour of the lake bed because Merlin is a green and white colour if i remember right. And the best thing to use for your combi rig is a knot, not a ring.

So, are you using 11 foot of leadcore as a leader? Cos if you are using a leader which is shorter than your hooklength then you may as well drop the leader completely cos its doing nothing for you..... is it?

6ft the last fish i had on zig was on 10ft hooklink i cast it of my unhooking mat i use 3oz inline lead with leadcore Why use leadcore on a 10ft zig? dont have to be leadcore u could use toub .i use it to stop it tangling on casting that all So i take it when you are using 10 foot zig hooklengths, you are using a 11 foot leadcore leader! And i guess when you floater fish, you use a leader as well...... to stop tangles

Even though i do try a zig every now and again, i can honestly claim ive never caught a fish on the method. So with that i have no confidence in it whatsoever. I will keep on trying though.

I remember it and im certain it was called something else long ago and TBH it does sound like the Superstiff stuff. But you say it isnt so im stumped.

As long as its set up correctly

Its down to personal preference. I spoke to Jim about this and he favours a loop because it gives the hooklink a bit more movement. Try them both and see which one you favour. Its all down to confidence mate!

Wow Paul, That place is steeped in Carp fishing history Damn right. And it was stocked by the late, great Donald Leney. I should know, cos ive flicked through his famous stocking books

What are you after? Club, day ticket or a syndicate?

Are you new to fishing or just new to carp fishing?

Im just thinking about the water quality on any certain venue where leads have been dumped quite regularly! Would it do anything to it whereas the fish could suffer in the long term? Because once a lead as been dumped, thats it, its there forever and nothing short of donning scuba gear and trying to find them out will rectify that. Obviously my fears maybe totally unfounded but it would be nice to know all the same.

Im still very much concerned about the environmental side of things though with the dumping leads after each take.

Because i expect someone in a higher power at babycarphunters lake has heard bad things about braid, had a knee jerk reaction and banned it without looking into it more first.

Thats the way to go fella. By all means try different materials but get your confidence in one sort and stick with it. I use 5 different hooklength materials for different fishing scenarios and they are..... Stiff coated braid - Armaled Kik Bak Soft coated braid - ESP Striptease Braid - ESP Sinklink Flourocarbon (for my combi links only) - Korda IQ And for my choddys - ESP Stiff Bristle Filament And thats it, i wouldnt dream of using anything else.

No..... its because the weekends on the forum are notoriously slow, everyone either out fishing or doing other things. In answer to your question though, for me i think the only safe rig imaginable would be a simple running ledger (with quite a large bore on the swivel of the lead itself) sliding directly on your mainline.

Simple, use a small cylinder of zig foam (i Use the Gardner stuff) of around 5-10mm in length and just hair rig it as normal but use a very short hair so that the foam is touching the bend of the hook. I also use a small Choddy/Stiff Rigger type of hook in size 10 because it opens the gape of the hook out far better than a standard hook. Tie one up and you will see what i mean

I see your point but then you have the problem with the flouro not being supple enough for the hook to do its bit and hang very limp. There is no way on earth that a hook on a flouro hooklink can turn as well as a soft braid..... FACT! So that leaves you with only one option..... a combi link of braid and flourocarbon. Sorted!

Thats because the KD rig isnt designed to be used with a "standard" pop up bait..... is it?

Well thats the whole point of the KD rig isnt it? Use a pop up..... critically balance it with a shot on the hair so that it ensures that the hook will be heavier and hang down more aggressively thus giving it more chance of catching the bottom lip.