ouchthathurt

A delightful pic of my tackle box, its 2sided tool box i use, sorry no pictures of carp adorn my tackle box. The other side. all very chaotic but it works for me. I mainly use helicopter rigs, as i use leadcore often (have for 14+yrs) and think the helicopter rig is safest. basic helicopter rig arrangement with spliced loop. If i get snapped off then the hooklink will slide away like this. you may note thati dont have any tubing/shrink tube on the leadcore to temporarily affix the top bead in place, nor is it altered or doctored in any way, for instance, not threading the bead on sideways! There is nothing in which to impede the movement of the top bead if required. the 100% most important most imperative thing is that the bead and hooklink swivel ( with big bore ring) must be able to pass over the spliced loop like this. then the 'core with lead attached is now seperate to the hooklink.

Photo copy of cr##py carpers.com all rights reserved. To place an order for the "karp-level" (the real spirit in angling) call 0-1 2-1 do one and this excusive piece of carp fishing equipment can be yours... The karp level only £69,99p rrp (limited editions signed by an essex wide boy with a quiff and polo shirt will cost £99.99 only 10,000 of the deluxe levels will be available to those on a first come first served basis. Stitch em and legget tackle specialists have the "karp-level" on offer at £39.99p to the first 100 buyers. To complement the set stitch em and legget will throw in the "karp kruncher" a 2lb mallet for getting those pesky polished stainless onto hard banks... Or B&Q sell them for a fiver, but there are no pictures of a carp on it...

Ih jesus!! My rigs have to be 100% spot on; but my tackle box?? Er.... Lets just say it could do with a visit from the cleaning fairies...

Close up of my bottom bait rig, curve shank size 4 hook on braid hooklink using blowback principle. Note the darkness of the braid? This is lead putty rubbed into braid and excess removed. I like a pretty long hair. Bait is 15mm fishmeal/robin red boilie.

When i used to make my own cork pop ups, i would only make small batches of 10-20 at a time. I would take a length of shockleader line or a cocktail stick and score a shallow groove around the middle so once boiled and hardened off, i would have a groove to tie my floss in. Just be careful not to make a groove right through the boilie paste and expose the cork ball.

I prefer to tie my pop ups on as any piercing of the bait will affect its boyancy over a period of time. I also find that the boilie skin over the pop up integrety is damaged, then water ingress will soon soak and split the skin as well as leaving it open for small fish to have a peck at it.

Does this not work then??? Whats all this about changing hooks?? Seems a bit wasteful to me... Lol!

Guilty as charged... Im not as bad as getting the ruler out but i can happily measure by eye - the end presentation must be neat and tidy, if i'm not 100% happy, its binned immediatley. I have my favourite rigs, but also have those i dont like. The "chod" for instance, not a fan!!

Sliding pop up rig short shanked wide gape beaked hook size 4 with pop up mounted on sliding rig ring on shank stopped with float stop pop up on the left with cell boilie in situ - had 2 20's in the last two sessions. Rig on the right is my bottom bait rig - blowback rig with long hair and size 4 curve shank patterned hook. Both rigs tied on short braided hooklinks with lead putty to ensure it sinks. Happy to use this with inline lead arrangements or helicopter rigs (most common as i use leadcore regularly and helicopter rig allows hooklink and lead/leader to part company. never use leadcore with inlines)- will fish snowman rigs with same set up. photo below shows position of hair/bait (hopefully!!) when blown back by feeding carp. at least thats the plan... I like a slightly longer hooklink to my bottom bait/snowman rigs, my speccie water all fish come out to pop ups (bottom covered in thick stinking silt which taints and trashes bottombaits to the point that they can sit there until the cows come home) so the sliding pop up rig is the one i use, on my "big" water 37acres, there are many big bream which demolish pop ups and single bottom baits so i started using snowmans and caught a double figure common within 30mins of trying, so a good start! I have been known to reject rigs that look "untidy" or not as neat as i can get away with, i like a really subtle finnessed rig with small, neat rig componants. With bottom baits, i like a long hair. With pop ups i subscribe to the small pop up big hook approach, but it all has to be 100% perfect, putty, right swivel for the lead, right hooklink for the bottom substrate (how many anglers use the same hooklink regardless of the bottom fished over?) sharp hook etc the hardest part is to get the carp to pick up the bait in the first place, without losing it through complacency

We need them all, its each to their own but i dont like the korda films too much of an advert for my tastes. I love "a passion for angling" its the true essence of angling, that show. John Wilson is the king of fishing shows, he holds the crown for so many reasons. The carp crew with jan porter were watchable as it was so hippy and laidback, dont know why he was swapped with kev green halfway through (anyone know?) that ruined the series for me. The tips and tricks on the show were nothing groundbreaking or technical, but it was watchable.

you can use a whipping knot to tie hair rigs - the same knot you would use to tie a spade end hook on, just adding a loop to the tag end. i wouldnt be happy using washing up liquid as its smell and chemical make up may be off putting, there are better flouros to use as they are designed especially for hooklinks, using tiny amounts of rig putty can also help.

the helicopter rig is probably the best rig to use with leadcore, especially if you splice a loop in the end you attach your main line to. leadcore should NEVER be knotted to the mainline, unless you are using a needle knot which is small enough to allow the hooklink swivel to pass over safely. the hooklink swivel needs to be a "big bore" variety, preferably one with a large ring on it which you pass down the leadcore. there was a "fashion" for a time, to thread the top bead onto the leadcore sideways using a baiting needle, now THIS IS dangerous as it cannot pass freely up the line. which will tether the hooklink to the leadcore. i use leadcore often, always with a helicopter rig, i dont agree with leadclips and leadcore, as i dont think this is safe, as regardless of whether the lead has ejected or not, the carp is still attached to a length of hooklink and a length of leadcore. when you consider the average hooklink breaking strain for braided hooklinks is about 20lb, and the average leadcore leader breaking strain is double that, at about 40lb, (ESP being 45lb) this is quite a substantial strength "tether" should a trailing carp become snagged - yet the lead may have ejected as designed. the most common length for leadcore is usually several feet, so if you picture the scene, you have a leadcore leader of several feet with a leadclip and a coated braided hooklink, a common enough rig i'm sure you will agree. you get a take, you snap off, the lead ejects as designed, the carp heads for the safety of the snags, as they do, (the leads gone, remember) the carp makes it inot the snag, thick branches, weeds etc, trailing a 20lb hooklink and several feet of leadcore, which snares on the snag as it passes, (no lead remember!) the fish panics, becomes tangled and is now stuck. with a "fish safe" leadclip... with the helicopter rig, the line snaps, the lead, securely tied to the end of the leadcore, snags up, the top bead pops off under the pressure and the hooklink slides up the tethered leadcore and slides off the end, now the carp swims off with just a hooklink to get rid of. - provided the helicopter rig is tied properly to begin with. when i tie mine, i get a length of leadcore, tie on a lead to one end, splice a loop in the oter end. i then slide a helicopter buffer bead down over the lead followed by my rig, tied to a ring swivel, but the hooklink NOT tied to the ring, but to the other end. as the ring will be going down the leadcore leader. once the hooklink is threaded on the leader, i then thread on a 1cm length of shrink tube, and shrink it down about 1-2" above the top of the buffer bead. once this is shrunk down, i slip another 1cm length of shrink tube over the 1st, and shrink that down too. then finally, i slide the top bead down it sits on the shrink tube. the safety test is simple. hold your hooklink in one hand and your lead in the other. drop the lead and if the bead pops off and the hooklink travels up the leadcore leader and over the top, then its ok to use. if the hooklink hits the top bead and does not move, then find a top bead with a larger bore, until the merest jarring of the hooklink causes the top bead to pop off. then if/when you snap off, when the carp picks up the bait and shakes its head, the top bead pops off and leaves the hooklink to travel freely up the line. there is one very simple rule, if you are in ANY doubt, dont use the rig, if you are not used to leadcore or are in any doubting your rig, use tubing. there are many varieties of tubing that is as good as leadcore, anchor rigtube being one. never put the fish at risk because you are unsure to the rigs "safetiness"

no dramas mate, what we are all here for after all. i know different anglers have different opinions on the palm test, but it gives me confidence and its not doing any harm, so where is the problem there? i have read from some "big name" anglers in magazines that the palm test is irrelevant but it makes me happy so thats that. regardless of hook or rig choice, you are looking for that "flipability" so it spins and finds a hookhold as soon as the carp takes the bait.

to be honest, you dont really need the tubing with kurv shanked hooks. the concept behind the curv-shanx was that the hook flipped over as the hooklink tightened in the carps mouth finding a hookhold, which was the reason why shrink tubing was used over the eye of the hook on long shanks/other patterns, for this "hook flipping" it all stems from the original idea behind the "bent hook" rg which was used a lot in the 80s-90s which was a long shanked hook, like an aberdeen pattern or o'shaunessy bent at a 45 degree angle about 1/2 way up the hookshank, then tied in a knotless knot and hair rig arrangement presented a really agressive angle, but did cause some serious mouth damage and is now since banned on many (if not all) waters. you can use a tiny section to pin the hair to the hookshank,like i do. the way i fish them is to choose my chosen braided hooklink, - they are not as good with mono hooklinks - but thats just me, tie a loop in the braid for your hair loop, thread my chosen bottom bait/boilie onto it - so i can accuratley measure the hair. then i get a small piece of shrink tube, thread this onto the braided link, then thread the hook through this tubing, hookpoint 1st. so this leaves you with a length of braid with a boilie attached and and a hook attached to the braid by a length of shrink tube, but not yet tied on. i like relatively long hair lengths, so i measure out my chosen length and place the rig tube so it sits on the bend of the hook, i want the tubing to sit oppasite the eye, if that makes sense, then i tie the knotless knot as normal with the braid coming out through the front of the eye. if you imagine the eye of the kurv-shanx hook as the top and the gape of the hook as the bottom, then the shrink tube sits at the gape of the hook directly below the eye of the hook. does this make sense? then i have a hair length of 0.5" from gape of hook to top of bait. then once everything is set, i steam the shrink tube down into place and its job done. as you drag the rig over the palm of your hand, or dangle it over your finger and pull it back, you will see that as soon as the hook encounters resistance, it flips over and digs in. i find having the hair in this arrangement makes it more "flippable" as it works best when the hook encounters resistance, a semifixed/helicopter rig arrangement works best. ouch.

esp raptors for my bottom bait presentations. the short shanked, beaked point inturned eye type - with rig tubing, curved slightly inwards, they can be used on braided hooklinks for small pop ups too. JRC do a pattern that is a long shank, inturned eye with a slight Kurv-shank appearance, they are good for pop ups but make really good universal hooks. kamasan B175 heavy pattern fly hooks were my favourite for a very long time, but cannot find a stockist of them at the moment. ESP do a Kurv-shank pattern that i use for pop ups and snowman rigs, but i love the use of shrink tubing, where as curv-shanks do not really require shrink tube. as a footnote, none of these are barbless as i prefer barbed hooks. i do have one pack of barbless ESP curv-shanks for waters that insist on their use, i find a curved shank presentation is the best barbless pattern as they tend not to move about or pull out as much as other barbless patterns tend to.

the lead that is good to use is a "tri-lobe" lead - they do not sink as fast due to their shape, and "plane" down to rest on the silt. pop up foam is a good addition, as it will suspend the hookbait above the silt for the length of time it takes for the foam to dissolve - where it will sink gently to rest on the silt rather than be pulled in deep behind a deep diving lead. - longer hooklinks are important in silt to preven the ame thing happening. ouchthathurt

many thanks. ouchthathurt

i dont see the difficulty in tying it, agreed, i just dont see the point of it. my rigs work fine, so i tend not to want to change what works for me. each to their own at the end of the day, so long as we are all happy with what we do, then its all good. ouchthathurt

i used to tie a length of dental floss to the eye of the lead and then the other end of the floss about 3ft up the line, so i had a length of dental floss running tight parralell to the line for the last few feet, then cast on tight line so when the lead sank into the silt, it would stain the dental floss so i could see the depth of the silt and make sure my hook links were long enough... i find that the problem with fishing over silt is that it has to be the right silt, not the thick black stinking rotting stuff as the carp do tend to avoid this as it does not hold any foodstuffs the light, fluffy "ouderless" silt is what your aiming for - looking for carp fizzing over it will give the game away, particles like hemp and pellet are good for silt as it has the carp rooting for hours looking for the particles, with dry boilies, when they adsorb the water when immersed, they can take on the flavour of the silt, which can make them unnattractive - so if you soak them in a booster, or better still the lake water or the water you used to boil the hemp, until they cannot adsorb anymore water, then they will hold their flavour better and resist the taste and smell of silt better as the baits cannot adsorb anymore water - plus they appear washed out which for pressured carp can be a real edge. shaun harrison called them "rehrydrates" and used them to good effect at the mangrove, a lake with metres of silt in places! the use of PVA nuggets on the hooklink to suspend the hook is a good idea, i used to buy old 1-2oz (lead) sea leads and lead sarsely bombs and hammer my leads flat, then rough the edges up so they sank slower, so they were less likely to bury deep into the silt, then by using the pva nuggets, the hookbait would remain suspended until the pva dissolved, then the hookbait would gently sink and rest on the silt, especially if using critically balanced baits. naturals such as maggots are good over bloodworm beds found in silt, i find braided hooklinks such as silkworm the best for use in silt, with running leds, but not inlines as they bury nose first inot the silt and drag the hooklink in with it. also dont forget the margins! i often find it easier to find clear, hard spots in the margins, and all carp love to explore and feed in the margins. also an edge if everybody else is casing out to the clay spots in the middle..., hope this helps. ouchthathurt

another "fashionable rig then... can see what knorty is saying, the KD rig is designed to make the rig act "point heavy" so as it is being sucked into the carps mouth boilie first, the hook is "supposed" to hang so the hook is near-upside down? this would mean the hook is hanging as a grappling hook almost, so if a point heavy hook was to be dragged accross the outside of the carps mouth on its way in, then it is conceivable that it could hook up on the outside of the carps mouth. after all the hook is following the boilie as it is propelled out of its mouth. so surely its conceivable that the hook will act the same regardless of which way its being sucked/blown as it is being forced in a particular direction by the propulsion of the boilie. the KD rig is designed to be point heavy - so the point is designed to drop into the floor of the mouth, and the point to hang low down to snare in the bottom lip, floor of mouth, surely if this action is snaring fish on the way out, as the hook point is hanging so it is the lowest point of the rig, then the same action would be true when it is being sucked in? when the hook point would (perhaps) drag along the chin and hook up. if i'm honest, i couldnt give a monkeys about these so - called wonder-rigs, i find good bait application in the right location is much more important, you can catch a carp that is not there, no matter how hi-tec the rig is, i think the more hi-tec rigs are to catch anglers and make money - in my experience, the more hi-tec the rig is, the more likely it is to fail. i've used the simple silkworm - knotless knot - ESP/JRC hook for years, sometimes with the addition of shrinktube to flip the hook, which has always outfished the complicated hi-tec rigs i've used. i went through a phase where i hadnt been fishing for a while due to work/family commitments. when i got back onto the lake, i struggled to get a fish, so convinced my rigs were at fault, so i trawled the mags and tied up all these complicated wonder-rigs and all i did was get increasingly more confused with each rig change, on the end my confidence was shot, i didnt know what i was doing, what would work, nothing - but i had the best hi-tec in vouge wonder-rig by the mags, so surely that couldnt be it? maybe it was my location? - no, there were carp over my spots, the bait? no it was a bait i had used lots of time in the past to brilliant success, so what was it? i reeled in and looked at my rigs and they were rediculous, shot and tubing and rings and swivels everywhere - but the magazines had raved about these rigs as the next best thing since sliced bread, but in the cold light of day - on the bank in a real life situation, they looked clownlike, cluttered, a useless mess really! so i cut them off, tied up simple knotless knot hair-rigs on silkworm, to simple running rigs, exactly the same rigs i'd started with over 12yrs before - and had been using ever since - as they worked a treat, cast back tothe spots and finally, the alarm went into its warcry - i started to catch again, the bait and location were the same, but the rigs were different, the ironic thing is, if i had looked back to my previous successes on this rig/bait combination, then i should have had the confidence to stick to my guns and ride out the blanks safe in the knowledge that they worked, and worked well, but i fell into the trap of believing that my rigs were at fault and i needed to "upgrade" them to the wonder-rig of the day, which ended up destroying my confidence and doing much more harm than good, that was about 3yrs ago, and i still use the exact same type of rigs now, and have done really well on them wherever i've taken them. its the correct bait application and the correct location that will produce the goods, not the spinning/cutting/blowback/flipper/rythymisadancer rig. in fact, i can think of many occassions when i have been tempted to use more compicated rigs than the situation dictated - because the mags say its the wonder-rig when the simple rig would have been much better - and my catches have suffered as a result. i now refine my basic rigs to suit, silkworm or amnesia - shrinktube or not, and i'm happy with my success rate now. ouchthathurt

yeah your right, i still like to test all my rigs by laying them in the margin beforehand, sometimes we can really overcomplicate matters. theres something that gives you a good feeling when you look at your rig in the margin and it looks good, it really does help. ouchthathurt

i tend to just hair rig my pop ups using a fine mono hair and micro needles, i tend not to worry about pop ups up staying up for 24hrs+ my sessions are only about 6-8hrs long... secondly, a pop up that dont float is a critically balanced bait is it not? i do like to test my pop ups both on casting and on retrieval, to make sure they are still floating. however we do need to be mindful of wether the pop ups are really floating as we would like in the lake - what with all that water pressure bearing down on it. it is easy - and perhaps wrong, to assume the pop up behaves the same way in 10feet of water as it does in 1ft of margins where water pressure is much less. ouchthathurt.

i used to hate using pop ups, didnt really see the point, my analagy was if you "came across a plate of chips and one was hovering above the rest, you wouldnt eat it would you?" now recently, looking back, i'd say approx 75% of my 20s and 30s have fallen to pop up presentations. usually fished about 3/4" - 1 1/2" off the bottom, usually on their own or with a light scattering of whole boilies about - i'm a fan of the big boilies approach, yet, for years i hated pop ups. these days, when i put a pop up out, i know that there is a good chance that the bait will be presented over the bottom debris, and that the presentation will suffice until i can suss out the best course of action, indeed when i caught a 27 + 31lb common i was fishing red plum double strength pop ups over pva bags of micro pellets over a large - plain silt bed, now i'm sure the micro pellets didnt last long, either dissolved - eaten by silvers or snk into the silt but the bright red stinking pop ups did the biz(za) twice that night, so they do work. ouchthathurt

yes i agree, recently there have been many improvements in fluro technology, i even saw in a magazine to steam your fluro, something a few years ago would've weakened it. i am currently using ultima powercarp fluro as a mainline, its really thin for its strength, reasonable abraision resistance and knot strength, its not too bad, however i do need to contsantly clean the line off. ouchthathurt

if all else fails, go back to the good old trusty amnesia! much cheaper than these modern fluros and seems stronger too, modern fluro is a really delicate material, you need to tie rigs with kids gloves, inturned eyes cause flat spots on the fluro which can really weaken it, as can friction if you tie it too "roughly" or forget to moisten it, and by that i mean "coat it in so much spittle that its dripping off" - i find this keeps the friction down! out turned eyes are brought about as they lessened the acute angle caused by the "no-knot" styles, of which many people were experiencing the same dramas you describe. ouchthathurt