ouchthathurt

It holds the bait in place if theres a slight breeze - no constant re-casting! No good for windy conditions though IMO but surely if there is a slight breeze, the free offerings are going to drift away, making the static hookbait more obvoius to taking carp? surely if the free offerings are moving on the breeze, it would appear more natural to allow the hookbait to do the same?

on my water a lot of the anglers were just using plastic rings off anything they could find, or plastic runrings, yet they found with heavy mono links, they were cutting into the plastic causing the line to fray or the ring to cut in two and snap, either way losing fish. others were using the ring pull of coke cans, which sheared the line regularly. i know it sounds stupid, but this is what was being done!

when i used the rig, years back, it was very inaccurate to cast, quite fiddly and basically i found a simple controller set up just as effective.

with todays modern monofilaments and specific floater tackle, is th beachcaster rig really necessary?

same here, i dont feel in need to change my rig from a simple knotless knot presentation, it works perfectly for me. i could quite happily fish all season and not even think about the D rig.

errr...

hope it hleps pal, as the old adage goes, if it aint broke dont fix it!

it's funny, but i have never thought to worry about the affect the glue was having, as i've said i have never thought of it, but i will have to ponder over its necessity, i am happy to use without it.

i join them together with a length of spaghetti, that does it. also (an idea stolen off lee jackson) you could join up bottom baits and pop ups and use them as freebies?

you need to start with what you know to begin with, once your there, you can speak to the baillif for advice, see what the other sucessful anglers are doing and follow suit. but remember, your rigs work everywhere else? so why be in a rush to change?

i would have another go, if it happens again, i would start making subtle changes, a running lead, or changing the length of the hooklength. one off sessions like this happen, dont be in a hurry to chop and change, just accept that things like this sometimes happen!

my advice is not to overcomplicate matters, my pop up rig on rods are simple silkworm hooklinks with putty to sink it. just stick with what your confident with mate, that will make life easier. concentrate on locating the fish and presenting a bait to them. use what YOU have confidence in. the D rig is good yeah, look at the pellet rig thread and there is a drawing of one, (swimmer rig) just go with what you know!

you have stated that you are new to this game and that all these hooklinks and whatnot are confusing? am i right? if thats the case, forget about all braids and fluros and stuff, justuse simple mono hooklinks made out of your mainline, thats what i did for years, concentrate on learning your trade, get a few carp under your belt and as your knowledge and confidence grows, you will feel the time to move on to more complex rigs and materials. i've been carping nearly 14yrs, and i still revert to simple mono hooklinks these days, what with all these braided hooklinks, you will probably be the only one on mono hooklinks and thats and edge! i have braids and fluros and stiffys in my tacklebox, but i use them when its necessary, not because its fashionable. i've caught more 20s on simple mono rigs and simple running lead systems than on complex braids and lead systems. take your time, learn the game most of all, enjoy it! get a decent quality bait you have confidence in, work on your location and get to know your lake and where best to place your bait, fish properly for the conditions and if the carp wants, he'll have it! we make this carping game more difficult than it needs to be most of the time!

good spot! thats the ultima stuff i got! i'm sitting in the corner thinking about the bad thing i've done...

not if you use it sparingly, i only glued it for my own peace of mind, however during sessions where i have been caught out having to tie a needle knot without superglue, it still holds well for me, without the glue. its not strictly necessary, but i have not noticed any ill effects, but having said that, i change my leadcore regularly, so maybe i'm not giving it enough time for a problem to become apparant? something to think about.

whatever you like. i use the 'd' ring set up on my pop ups only. my hooklink is either bristle filament or ghost fluro by ESP. i fish it between 6-8'' finged stifflink style. leadwise, you can use an inline or pendant style, your preference. why have you chosen this rig over a simple hair rig?

in this day and age with every tackle manufacturer under the sun firing out new and more fancy rigs, it is very easy to start to lose confidence in your presentation. what i do is remember that the manufacturers are relying on you buying their product, so i tend to take their new wonder rigs with a large pinch of salt. i prefer to pay attention to location, finding the feeding fish, i pay more attention to using good high quality baits, fished in the correct areas, as for rigs, i dont want the newest superduper carpcatcher3000wonder-rig, i want the nice simple rigs i have confidence. thats why on my rods right now there are simple silkworm hooklinks with a bit of shrinktube to flip the hook. i want to know where the carp are, i want to feed them a good quality bait that they will grow to love to the point they are actively feeding on it, then when they do suck in my hookbait, i have every confidence that my size 10 ESP longshank will flip over and nail them. and my catch rate is as such i'm totally happy with my presentations, when my catch rate suffers, then i will happily re evaluate my rigs based on my own past exeriences.

i used to use the beachcaster rig years ago, but i found it unnecessary, if the carp are partial to a flater, i just used a nice soft through actioned rod, (mine was an abu garcia delta 2lb test through action specimin rod designed for light carp and heavy tench work) 8-10lb mainline, the smallest controller i could get away with, (or a stick with a hole drilled in it and a bit of tubing threaded through, then the line to make a stick controller, then drennan doublestrength hooklength in 6-8lb. these days with the fluro mainlines and hooklengths, its possible to make a near invisible controller set up if you use a soft actioned rod, sensibly light fluro line for the conditions, play the fish well, and build their confidence before introducing your hookbait. get them going for your mixers before casting.

i use ESP leadcore, with a needle knot and superglue to the mainline, and i srip a short length of leadcore inner on the hooklink end and tie it with a 4turn blood knot, i've never had any problems with it.

how about pellet paste wrapped around a small corkball? then you can pop it up or balance it.

[i use the D ring principle on all my pop ups as i feel the presentation is more superior to a standard hair, the hooking mechanism does rely on the 'blowback principle' which can make it harder for the carp to eject, they are used to dealing with standard hairs, so offer up someting slightly different? also, the pop up height? well that depends on the day, i personally would start at about an inch then work form there. PVA rig foam will protect the hook on casting then it will also suspend the hook over the lead as it settles, as the foam disolves, the hookbait then drifts gently into position, on top of the detritus, rather than being buried in it with the lead. i have great faith in pop ups, but in my experience, i find most dont like them, so when they do use them, they dont fish them correctly, then when they dont catch, they write off the bait as opposed to the method. you need to fish pop ups with the same thought and confidence as you would your bottom baits.

i'm using the same rig as described above, i just use ESP stiff link, its called bristle filament for the stiff end and silkworm for the supple end. for straight stiffys, i just use ESP stiff link to stiff rigger hooks, fished swimmer rig stylie.

in my tackle box you will find, ESP stiff link (chods, hinged stiff links) kryston silkworm, (bottom baits, small pop ups) ESP ghost, (bottom baits in clear water.) thats it. hooks? ESP stiff riggers for my stiff rigs, ESP longshanks fr everything else. total confidence in that. best ever hooklink for me? amnesia!!! (or bog standard mono.)

i tend to use 4''-6'' links, then adjust them to suit the hookhold, if im getting hookpulls or poor hookholds, i tend tolengthen them by an inch at a time untill the hookhold improves. i tend to try and use the hooklength for the situation, rather than rely n haing the same set lengths for everything.

in this situation i tend to use the smallest lead i can get aeay with, slack lines and suchlike. its personal preference at the end of the day though. if they are that close, i would also consider float fshing or stalking, its that more thrilling as well...