moorsey

Spot on Nick.

I am a fanatic for testing things and the only hooks that currently do the job properly for me are the Gardner covert muggas or Atomic grabbas. Both brilliant hooks.

That's a bit close to the truth. My grandfather came over from Russia at the turn of the last century Nick im interested on your thoughts on the line acting like it is pulled through a tube when immersed would you care to elaborate, im sure it was you not so long back who mentioned this:) "The dynamics of any object moving through water." I quick example that you can try for yourself is to cast out a float rod and allow the line to form a big bow [can be on the surface so that you can see the action or you can sink the line] and then pick up the rod and see how much line you can straighten before the float moves. That is indicative of how good the indication is on slack lines.

I agree BUT there are a lot of articles written which are the product of a fertile imagination. I have spent many many hours paddling around in my lake in order to find which rig blends the best sensitivity with the biggest percentage of hook ups. A lot of the current published rigs have never been tested.

Absolutely spot on. The lead is not needed to set the hook and all of my big fish have been caught on running rigs with leads of less than 2oz.

It doesn't matter which type of leader you use nor does it matter what you do to it to improve it, you are still transferring the weak point from the hook link swivel to the top of the leader.

How can changing rigs make you a better angler? I have been carp angling for 45 years and I am now using the same rig that I started with in 1967 and I go carp fishing to catch carp so developing as an angler means learning how to find the fish and how to present a bait to them in the right spot. K.I.S.S. will serve you well.

Quite simply, NONE of the tubing items to which you refer are necessary. A well tied hook will be at least as effective as a hook with a line aligner and sometimes the latter can close the gape of the hook and reduce its ability to take hold. Rig tubing was introduce to reduce tangles when we started using braided hook links. It DOES NOT protect the fish from being damaged when mono or fluoro main line is being used. Where exactly would you fit it when floater or zig rig fishing?

There are now several run rings which also allow the lead to break free if snagged.

My own personal opinion of that set up is that it is dangerous. I feel that the hole in the top of the tail rubber is far too small and will jam up on the slightest piece of detritus or even blanket weed. Having lost fish because of flying back leads jammed with blanket weed [and they meant to slide] I can't see how the lead-clip and tail rubber can slide safely.

I see from some of the posts that there is some thought that "if the lake is murky then it doesn't really matter what we use. How wrong can you be? Have a look at the link below and watch the film titled "can carp see our rigs?" http://www.underwatersecrets.co.uk/

ive never used running rigs for carp,what situation would you normally use them in as you say where possible I use running rigs with light leads for all of my lake fishing and I use the same set-up, but with heavy leads, for river fishing. The "boltrigsemifixedleadclip" system came about from the myth that it needs a heavy lead to hook the fish.

I agree Jez. How would the tackle companies ever exist if all anglers thought like we do? There's only so much "innovation" that can be built in to a run ring and a buffer bead. Mind you my tackle bag now fits in my pocket. Keith

Fluoro all year round. If it's the best when the going is tough why change?

Two things:- 1. If you insist on using tubing it must NEVER have a separate length of line through it and then this tied to your main line. That is actually worse than using a leader. 2. Your rigs will work much more effectively without it if you try running rigs and, in the event of a snap off, the fish should be left with just a hook link.

I agree that no rig is 100% safe but it is our responsibility to try to make each rig that we cast out as safe as possible. On the "lifting scales" argument, I can honestly say that in over 15 years of using main line straight through and now watching our customers using exactly the same tactics for a number of years, I have never seen scales lifted by it. I have seen scales and fins damaged in the landing nets and tails snapped by anglers leaving the arms of the net beneath a flapping fish but never during the battle. My worst discovery was the fish that I often write about, which was an upper twenty with a broken jaw because of a leadcore leader [no lead, just the leader]. To have to kill and bury such a fish makes you consider the risks of your rigs.

But any rig with a leader and the hook-link fixed directly to the end of that leader becomes a dangerous rig. There is no way that the fish is left with just a hook-link to tow along, it will have the leader to deal with as well.

A running ledger, bolt rig or in-line lead should never be used with lead-core.

Try to always bear in mind that most [if not all] of the "TV" fishermen are paid to write that they use all of their sponsor's tackle ................ even if they don't actually use it. It doesn't take too long to tie up some terminal rigs with leaders, clips, swivels, tubing etc etc, for the camera, when what is actually being fished with bears absolutely no resemblance.

Hi Dave We removed the small males in order to reduce the "frenzy" at spawning when it was common to see 7 males attached to one large female and the damage caused was horrendous. Since then we haven't lost a single fish at spawning time but we do still see numerous fry survive so our regular vidanges look as though they will need to continue into the future unfortunately. In fact, this year we want to remove most of the catfish to allow the perch and bass to multiply. Keith

Just to keep you all in the picture, we have now seen 96 forties banked already this year [that's on top of the 24 fifties] so we hope to see 50 fifties and at least 150 forties by the end of October and then we can carry out another vidange in order to re-balance the biomass. Can't wait to see some "proper'uns" in 2012 LOL. Keith

It will be good to see you again mate. Next year is filling fast now mate. Amazing how some big carp generate lots of new interest LOL. Keith

Catch report for end of week 8 21st May 2011. A very strange week with more carp lost than landed due to a multitude of reasons but the banked fish consisted of:- 17 twenties [including 5 of 29lb+] 20 thirties [including 6 of 39lb+ which would all have been forties before spawning] 2 forties 5 fifties [51lb 6oz common and mirrors of 51lb 12oz, 53lb 8oz, 54lb 4oz & 56lb 1oz] Totals for the year to date:- 85 twenties 247 thirties 77 forties 23 fifties [14 different carp]

Catch report for end of week 7 [14th May 2011] the week during which the carp decided to spawn. 8 twenties 30 thirties 14 forties [48lb 10oz mirror & 47lb 13oz common] 3 fifties [54lb 12oz, 55lb 0oz & 57lb 7oz, all mirrors] Totals for the first 7 weeks:- 68 twenties 227 thirties 75 forties 18 fifties Spawning is now done and dusted and I am expecting to see some of the smaller [20's] caught at the start of this week as it is normally the males which switch back on to feeding before the females. Keith

Sorry mate but I can't agree. I had to kill a large carp which was tethered to a "properly tied" lead-core rig which had already lost the lead so it wasn't the angler who had done anything wrong ............... other than using lead-core in the first place.