johnplumb

For many years now have tied my rigs on the bank , i never know exactly how i'm going to be fishing so to tie them accordingly i feel is the best way. Never keep old rigs but will sometimes keep swivels and kwick links depending on how i'm feeling.

Yes ,but like you i would never "chase" it . I can understand when people say size isn't everything and to catch a nice old english fish is what it's about, but what ever lake you fish there is a fish in there that is the biggest and i do not believe that any of us wouldn't be happy to catch it be it 20lb or 100lb .

I enjoy threads like this as i genuinely believe that i have learnt something and one day it WILL catch me an extra fish or two . I feel you may not be able to re invent the wheel but you can improve it

After watching the 1st Korda video's to me it was clear that hooking a carp was a lot harder than you may think. I remember reading something about a fish that hadn't been caught for years and was presumed dead, it was spotted feeding with its tail right up , feeding this way is going to make it much harder for the hook to take a hold . Whether a carp can learn to feed in a way that helps it eject a rig or it naturally feeds in a way that helps is possibly why some carp do not get caught that often while still putting on weight. In reply to your question i shudder to think how many times you are picked up and dumped , it does tell me that for all the fancy tackle above water all the expensive alarms the matching reel handles don't mean a thing unless you get the £2 worth of bits spot on at the other end of it

To me watching something like this throws up a few points . Is it a good idea to fish a pop up that is totally different to the freebies around it ? Having the pop up close to the hook may well end up in you missing a larger fish , ( larger the fish larger the mouth , more chance of the fish just blowing everything clear away ) That using a bottom bait that has been critically balanced ( drilled and cork inserted ) may be a better than a very buoyant ready made pop up. The way a fish feeds ( and unless you are able to watch this there is nothing you can do about it ) will make a huge difference to how many times it will get caught .

Interesting little vid filming a pop up rig at 1min 30 he has a fish take the pop up , now how i see it the pop up takes the hook high into the fishes mouth alowing it to simply blow the rig out in that instance a longer hair would alow the hook to to hang nearer the bottom lip with more chance of of catching . Make sense?

But you already have a rig that catches 90% (or more) of the fish that pick it up , why would you want to change that ?

Now i am far from the greatest expert on rig tying but when using a stiff material such as fluoro carbon is it not best to use a hook with an out turned eye , the longshank x has an in turned eye . Could this be a possible cause for the pulls ?

How is it possible to know how effective a rig is ?

For many years i have thought that bigger hooks give you a better chance of hooking larger carp , i tend to use 6's and 4's once in while if using a new potato or huge lump of paste a 2.

How about trying a different hook length material , perhaps a coated braid or indeed uncoated,

What rig are you using ?

That should be fine to land most fish , unless your fishing for 60lbers in very snaggy waters .

That's what i try to do Surly with the quick link inside the lead if the fish goes off at an angle or comes back over the lead the link will catch inside the lead ,until the hole in the lead is inline with the hook

Is the idea behind a running rig that the carp does not feel the lead at all ?

Can i ask why would you want to add all the extra to the top rig what do you gain from all the tubing ?

I would hope that would be fine , i'd bet no one checks anyway

Why? I don't see what difference it makes. Although I would crimp it on a tight line so you didnt lose diameter under tension from stretch. Me personally, I'm not convinced but I was not convinced by splicing lead core and that worked. I think pop ups are un natural but they work also. As does having the bait on a hair, I didn't like the idea of hat much either. I'll buy a set in about 3 years once im sure they are ok Because they say so-The Krimps and Krimp tool have been designed to allow easy rig construction with stiff materials (at the moment we only recommend Hybrid Stiff and Mouth Trap). Pasted from their web site

I think you will find they are not made to use with mono line

Size 8 is the standard , personally i use Korda ,i have never seen a lb rating on small swivels but have never had one fail, good luck .

That sounds fine , i still do not understand why there is another piece of braid on your rig

If im reading this right you are saying you have braid coming off both sides of the swivel , if this is so then i'm confussed . you can certainly have your main line running to the lead clip swivel and from that you have the rig coming off the other side

Landing

We have had success fishing in weed using a method feeder ( several 20lb+ fish) with a 3" rig . I would also think about clearing some areas with a rake,if it's a water you will be fishing regularly you can keep the areas clear and baited , looking at the pictures im guessing this is not a busy water.

There is no answer to this one Nick it depends on the fish , bait , lake bed and so on,get yourself a selection of hook link materials make up different rigs see which work . All part of the fun