levigsp

Hi to make up a chod or silt rig tie up a rig like so. Then simply thread a bead onto your mainline,make sure it has a large hole,next thread on the rig as shown through the swival,then another bead with a tight hole, then tie a figure of eight loop in the mainline. Now if you are using floro line simply tie a lead to the loop, if using mono fasten a leader of choise eg 1 metre of floro or a smooth coated leader on,this leader must have a ring or swival tied to the end,then tie a lead with weak line to the ring. Slide the tight bead down the lot untill its 4-6 inches from the lead,you will find you need to lubricate the line and leader to get the bead into position,especialy over the knot. Slide the hooklink and other bead down the line,if this bead is restricted in anyway as it goes over the knot, change it for one with a bigger hole. Then re- tie the lead with pva to take the cast,and also tie a piece of pva tape 40-60cm above the top bead to stop the hook and bead traveling to far up the mainline on the cast. Use as light a lead as you can get away with, once cast out sink you line as usual then keep letting line out untill it is on the bottom from rod to lead. The lead will sink into the silt and the hooklink will slide up the line untill it is just sitting ontop of the silt. No matter which way the carp approaches the bait it will spin and on pickup so little resistence is felt as it is free running the carp simply cannot deal with it. In the right hands,on the right waters it is quite simply unbeatable. But it defenately is not for every water As for fishing the lake you mention, do the carp feed in the silt?if so fish in it with a soft reliable braided hook link and heavy lead. If the dont, then find the hardspots they have created, and fish on these if possible. If however you find the fish simply graze the surface of the silt, then the chod or silt rig will prove effective. PLEASE realise that the above version of the chod is perfectly safe, but it will not be found in the magazines, I also doubt will you find mention of fishing it compleatly slack. Hope this is of some help,if somewhat long winded.

They both use the principal of a short stiff link for its antieject properties, but thats where the similarity ends. I have no preference for either. Both presented and used quite differently,the chod being used as a sliding link up line above the lead in silt,silkweed and the like. The hooklink is shaped into a curve and as a consiquence of this and the fact that it can spin in any direction the fish have great difficulty in dealing with it. The hinged stifflink is normaly fished after the lead,ie leadclip or inline. Now this rig is useing the same effect of the stiff section being difficult to eject,but it is desighned for clear bottoms,and often used with bottom bait. They are both good rigs in the right situation.

Hi Kieth,I started comming onto the forum to see if I could get to know any like minded souls and to see if I could learn a thing or two and perhaps help on or two. Most anglers you see nowdays or in fact in the past do not think for themselves,they simply do what they have been shown either first or second hand. A few think for themselves work out how to catch fish,and either first or second hand teach all the others. Magazines and forums for that matter can help beginers, they also can help thinking anglers in their train of thought. But in a lot of situations you know they will read and follow like sheep.

Two anglers that regulary have articals in the carping press were fishing a well known southern still water. I asked If they minded me watching being a novice and all that,they obliged. After some time I asked one of them to show me how to tie up a rig he was using 3 months earlyer in the mags and also show me how it worked. He informed me it was so long ago and so much had changed, he could not remember how to tie it,or how it worked. This answered some very important questions for me.

Jez I too sight fish whilst free lining, however I have fished countless times where I cannot see because the water is to turbid or it is in fact dark. I to beleave in sharp hooks,as sharp as possible. But as stated I have put baited hooks in the water freelined and watched carp get away with it,a simple addition of a weight changed everything,even when the weight was only a couple of foot of leader On other waters no weight is needed. I have sugested on this forum before that I consider the makeup of the bottom a very important fact in my choise of hooking arrangment. The strain/shape of carp also has a profound effect on some waters. However these are only my ways and thoughts,and as said before I got strange ideas about carp.

A good point made by Jez to try different things and the fact that different things work for different fish. I am a fan of fishing free lined baits in the margins, ive watched carp pick up the bait 10-20 times without getting hooked,simple addition of a lead resulted in hookups. I am thefirst to point out carp can and do use leads to eject hooks,but not always. Another good point by Moorsey,I would also like to see a secret video Frank

Zander a quote from you " i understand this but i cant see why there is so much anti leadcore and pro fluro (which i use for the most of my fishing), but that is indeed for another thread " The answer is on this forum in a few places if you look, I amoungs't others have writen about it. But to refresh here are a couple of reasons . Leadcore kinks badley in its natural state and it also kinks very badly when the core comes through the side wall. When this happens you might as well have the hook tied to it. Leadcore is extreemly abrasive, get a length and see how easy it cuts into something . I for the life of me do not know why anybody needs to lock beads onto any helicopter or other similar rig,it simply is not nessasary. Length of suitable leader fastend to lead, bead [tightish fitting] slid down leader, hook link atatched to a swivel is slid down leader, another bead[big bore hole] is slid down leader and then the mainline is tied to the leader. The two beads can be set far apart as in a chod rig or close as in standard heli, the mechanics work either way. I simple knot of pva tape on the cast keeps everything in place, and if the unthinkable happens and you part of, it all comes apart quite easerly. If you choose to fish helicopter type rigs, fish them safe,and that means simple and loose Frank

Why the bead above the hook,absalutely no need for it,and all it does is make it difficult to come apart. The rig would be safe without the bead. However the rig CANNOT work correctly as a helicoper rig,the link simply cannot spin. The whole idea of a helicopter rig is that the lead goes first for distance and the hook link spins to stop it from tangling round the leader. If you used very stiff or very short links it might work,but why go to all the trouble. A correctly tied up chod/helicopter rig using smooth leaders/line and not leadcore work very safely.

Sorry fella but I wouldn't regard that as a particularly safe rig. The bore of the safety clip and even more especially the tail rubber would make it very likely to snag on the slightest of tangles (possibly a snap off during casting) or knotted piece of line (maybe wound round a small stick after being cut off on the lake bed). Personally I would much prefer to use a large eye swivel or runn ring in order to allow everything to "run" properly. The lead clip was designed simply to drop the lead and to do that it MUST be permanently fixed to the hook link swivel. I could not agree more, if only more people would realise this the carp would be better of.

Kieth I have used the same set up effectively,however I have noticed that it does not work everywhere. I have found the makeup of the bottom has a direct effect on how carp feed, this has a direct effect on how hooking rigs work,likewise the size of the fish has an effect as you already said. A good example is my brother who went to France on holiday. Whilst there he was shown the aggresive hair tied in floro, it worked brilliently,yet everywhere else he trys it it results in dropped runs. Your thoughts?

Strange that isn't it, I doubt that I have used a bloodknot for over 30 years in my general carp fishing. I started to discover stronger knots that were easier to tie back in the seventies and haven't used one since except for a brief spell when Terry invented the hinge rig. With the short length of bristle filament the blood knot was the only option but the thicknes and strength of the filament allowed it. Im the same not used it for a lot of years. When I started salmon fishing ithe twice through the eye blood was the first knot I tried,only to find the fly vanishing over the horizon every time I mistimed my cast and put the power on. Simple polomar knot and another knot I do not know the name of stoped the problem. I am a stickler for trying the breaking strain of all my gear from hooks,swivals,hook length,line etc etc. I want to know that everytime I hook a fish regardless of size and place I will land it,unless the hook pulls. And on that point I have had far less pulls since testing the strenth of the hooks frank

Funnily enough you could be wrong. I did a lot of tests with the palomar knot and even tied quickly (it's never going to be the neatest knot) I found that the hook link broke at the knotless knot more often than at the palomar. I agree with you totaly. I do tests on all my lines with different knots, to hooks and swivals and nearly everytime find the polamar the strongest,but it does look loose at times. Its a knot I use a lot of,apart from hook on which I use two different whiping knots.

Surely if you can bed a bloodknot down then you should be able to with the others,far easyer knots

Im very supprized Nick never noticed the slip,knowing him Cos I use a double granny knot tied with a special loop and pulled down tight dry JOKING! Not noticed much recently, as Frank knows had other things on my mind I nearly always use the Uni knot, mainline and braid or for loops the knot on the kryston packaging. For some stupid reason I can't get my head round the Palomar knot As they say when the cats away seriously I use the polamar as much as posible with some lines. However I always try different knots on each new batch of line.

Im very supprized Nick never noticed the slip,knowing him

It does not matter what knots you use,so long as you have the safety word. sorry wrong forum.

Good afternoon. I said I wished I fished the lakes you did. I have fished lakes where the fish self hook,but a lot more where they dont. Maybe its because a lot of my angling nowdays tends to be on huge gravel pits,I dont know? However If I am fishing for soft mouths I will happely fish running rigs especialy if not used for some timeon the water in question. If fishing hard mouths I always use bolt rigs and if need be I will play with the rigs/complicate them untill I get good pickups.

I agree with you moorsey on not needing anything on the line for running rigs,and that backleads etc only detract from the effectiveness of the setup. However I wished with my whole heart I fished the lakes you do,not needing to strike Most places I have fished with a running rig you do get some screemers,but on picking up unless very close nothing there. At range realy have to strike hard. A lot of anglers moved onto the fixed lead etc because it hooked fish for them without the need to strike, as they missed so many runs on running leads. I very well remember the bad old days of sitting for days on end for runs only to mis them on the strike. Changing to the hair rig did improve matters but not totaly,whilst the boltrig improved thing no end. Only my opinion mind.

I am very puzzled by this Three things to think about here,one is by inserting lead into the boilie you are in effect creating a poison bait,as already pointed out by iambun. The second is the fact that if you drill a hole that the very flimsy wire will slide into,it will just as easerly slid out. If the whole is tighter you qwill never get the wire in in the first place. The third is this,to insert enough lead wire into a 14mm standard off the shelf popup and create a balanced bait you need a lot of wire. The people doing this use thick lead solder wire and insert 2-3 pieces at a time So unless you are useing 500lb bs leadcore the wire would be useless .

i wouldnt even bother trying to tie that, to many swivels and beads. i think its one of those rigs to make you buy more tackle. If you could build in another ten swivels you probably wouldn't need any line at all. Problem solved. lol. Add even more swivals and you wouldnt need the hook either,carp could simply tangle themselfs up in swivals and rubber etc.

What actualy killed the fish?

I can tie them with out it, but I still prefer a Hook Tyer to get the loops right. I've seen John Wilson tie a size16 spade end behind his back I would like to see John tie up a 26 behind his back infact I would like to see him tie one without glasses

Whats wrong with dough bobbins

Im sorry but if I read you right you surmise that a "chod" fishes the bait off the ground? If this is your thought you are sadley wrong,the "chod" fishes the bait directly on the soft surface of silt,silk weed etc,whereas other rigs could pull the bait under the surface. Big fish rigs do not exist,the way you can fish might be big fish selective.

Both big in my book would it be more likely catch the bigger of the two tho? 50/50, unless............... Bigger fish tend to eat more, so the bigger, greedier fish would want to get to the bait 1st, so yes so nothing to do with the 360/big fish rig then Yes. The 360 is one of the most effective rigs out there. Big, older fish are often more wary, so a less effective rig may not catch either. Failing that, i surrender. You can have this one Bang on again, I couldnt agree more. Big fish are wary and the 360 is a very effective rig,so it sorts them out.