zander1

You sure willow Im going to go and create a better one, just for the sake of it ,

How messy can a rig get Talk about overcomplicating a rig I found it on the screaming delkims website, there are other rigs which are messy on their but nothing quite like this I dont think that the swedish have got the hang of rig tying yet

My setups are very similar to Tony's but i do use IQ Xtra soft aswell as standard IQ some less complicated some more complicated but basicly the same , I use the Xtra soft not to aid the anti-ejection properties of the rig but too aid anti tangle, I try to use this setup to act as subtle as standard braid links but minimise the tangles. Normaly with a snow man/ ballenced hook bait. for my normal combi rigs i use the normal IQ in 15lb braking strain and this is for the anti-ejection properties they are fiddley to tie but worth the effort of tying.

Handy post jemsue

Sometimes the weight of the hook isnt enough to sink the bait especially if you use just a pop up on its own. If you put the weight on the hair and have it balanced such that it only just sinks, then this has the same effect of using a snowman arrangement with a trimmed down pop up on a whole bottom bait. oh right, thanks for clearing that up tony. much appreciated.

surely adding putty or shot to the hair defeats the object of criticaly balancing a rig, i thought that you ballanced the hook with the bait so that the bait and your rig pick up off the botom easier than the freebies around it when a carp feeds over it, wouldnt the wheight on the hair have an adverse affect to this as it is the shot that anchors the bait rather than the hook so then the rig acts the same as just using a bottom bait ???? i dont know if i have worded that well but i hope you can see what i am trying to say

actually he has got a good point.. it is quite a dark brown more silty than gravel until you strip the coating back then its more of a sandy colour. i catch over gravel with it normally so it cant be that bad.

I've got to be honest with you goblin ive never used a pop up that big. i think 18-20mm at most is the biggest ive used, home mades so they were all different sizes Roughly all the same size though.......honest

I realy like Fox Armapoint ssbp hooks for popups or Gardner talon tips. Although lots would disagree as they both have in-turned eyes and hook points.

I just tie a grinner knot to the loop on the leader or tie a large rappala loop knot and pass it through the loop in the leader over the lead ect and back up to the loop in the leader (quicker to change).

fox coretex is very similar to the esp strip tease, suffix sheath skin is marginaly better camoflaged as the coating and the braid are almost the same colour (the inner braid in the fox/esp is yellowish in the gravel brown variants), the coating is also slightly stiffer than the fox/esp ones. each to his own. i like korda hy-brid but you waste a lot of it practising getting the knots right

i am a bit camo-mad, coulouring in tubing and moding my leads and the rest of it and if one of the hooks that i am using is a bit on the shinny side then ill black it off, i dont black off the teflon coated ones or things like that, and like you said "confidence" is the key, ino im a bit OTT

pm replied

what does the hydro link set you back then and is it worth the money

why is it then that people use coated hooks, or black off their hooks with a marker, if everybody agrees that when the hooks on the bottom it normaly gets covered by the bait or debris surounding it

i like the fox coretex but the diffence in stiffness between the coating and the inner braid isnt enough, much the same as the suffix sheath skin, thats why i favour the fox reveal and the korda hybrid even tho they are quite thick

is that the multi strand one???

what do you think is the best coated braid and why?, i favour korda hybrid and fox reveal to anything else this is more of a personal opinion post rather than anything else, gratefull for all replys

i am however amazed at how thick IQxtra soft is tho, still, its almost invisible underwater.

cheers mate

how do u find this sort of thing out????

Thanks for the info guys, mutch appreciated

its one of those trial and error situations as is nearly everything in carp fishing,sounds like youre on the right tracks but dont use to powerfull addatives and dont put a lot of bait in your swim. to be honest i havnt had a winter session this year but i have found over the winters that i have fished to keep a constant but small amount of bait going in, on the waters i fish, i normaly hair rig a 10mm halibut pellet and a peice of plastic corn (in case the pellet comes off) or a 16mm halibut boilie (going against the general rule of winter fishing) and i put a few 6mm halibut pellets in a PVA bag the size off a 50p whith every cast, use a small lead ,1.5oz-2.0oz, so you can re cast more offten than normal, say every hour and catapult the odd boily here and there over the course of your session say 3-4 boilys every 30 mins but no more as too many freebies can be worse than having no freebies at all. thats my tactics any way, different things work for different people on different waters. dont be to concerened about the efficiency and how fancy your rigs are ,just make sure you use a good, sharp, reliable hook like korda wide gapes or fox arma point ssbp, you want to use the smalest hook you can get away with so try size 10-12 to begin with. Thats my thoughts any way, im sure there are loads of more experienced anglers on here that you can get better info off

Like the other chap said, it depends on the waters you fish, personaly i would go for the 12lb one as it takes some breaking and you can still cast it a good distance . I use 10lb sensor clear for fishing on the Top and the normal browny coloured variant in 12lb for fishing on the deck.

I would advise that you use a tried and tested main line like diawa sensor, its a very reliable line that wont cost the earth ( rrp £6.99 but you can probably get it for less), and has very good knot strenghth. depending on what the bottom of your lake is like you can get a way with the simplest of rigs,For you hook lengths you could probably get a way with tieing a Knotless knot hair rig out of your main line untill you find out about what others are catching on where you are fishing, or get some korda IQ xtra soft 10-12lb and tie the same rig (this will catch almost anywhere) , avoid using un coated braids untill you have got your casting and feathering right as it can tangle very easily.