willi4692

The tubing makes no sense to me, it takes away the whole point of the multi rig. Ask yourself, why have I attached the hook with a loop? If you're not going to use it as a method of changing your hook, why have it at all? You could get the exact same rig as this fishing with the hook attached knotless knot style with a break in the coating at your desired place acting as a hinge.

I think a lot of it is due to how most of their "tips" are just product placement. I also think a lot of their products are overpriced, their hooks aren't sharp (I also don't like the beaked points) and some of their products are promoted as "safe" when I don't believe they are. I don't hate Korda, I actually use and rate a number of their products and I appreciate their attempts to educate young anglers.

Is it just braid you are after? I'm not a big fan of braids, but I would recommend using any of the Kryston braids. Really strong and reliable.

It's worth noting that what happened to this fish can just as easily happen with a barbed hook. A couple of times before I have had hook pulls and the hook has caught hold in the carp's pectoral. It's a part of fishing that is out of our control, it is a rare occurrence but something that is always possible.

It can happen very easily, although it usually doesn't cause damage as severe as this. If a hook pulls with a fish facing any direction other than straight at the rod, the hook has a chance of hooking another part of the fish. Unless rules dictate otherwise, I always use a barbed hook. Barbless hooks can move during the fight creating larger holes in a fishes mouth, where as a barbed hook will lock in place and won't slip. The only danger a barbed hook poses to excess mouth damage is when they are being used by anglers that don't know how to remove them.

To combat crays I either use a heavily glugged hookbait that has hardened the bait or I use plastic. Korda's extender stops are quite useful as well, it helps to prevent the little devils pulling the stop out. The rig is usually a semi stiff mono or flurocarbon, something that is too supple just gets tangled up as they play with it. I also use a blowback rig, this helps to stop the crays tangling the hair around the shank of the hook.

I think it looks fine. I would swap the ring for a ring swivel but otherwise it should be presented ok. The chod is a viable option, but I have experienced the chod to be completely ineffective on some silty waters. Although the rig is presented where the carp can always take it, a pop up can be above where the fish are feeding. Remember on particularly silty waters the carp are used to feeding deep into the silt to find food, a pop up on top of the silt is just not where they're used to feeding and can be counter productive. Last winter I did a lot of my fishing on Walthamstow 2 and 3, the bottom is almost entirely silt and I went straight in with chod rigs. I fished bright single hookbaits and blanked four consecutive trips despite seeing signs of activity in front of me. I had a rethink and it was clear to me the fish preferred feeding deep in the silt and my chod rigs were presented above where they were feeding. I switched to bottom baits straight out the bag on a simple knotless knot rig using soft flurocarbon hooklinks, fished on a helicopter set up like yours. The next trip I caught three to 27lb+.

Use any lead set up you wish, although I prefer a lead clip, straight on the main line to a swivel that then connects your hooklink. Bish bash bosh...

I use helicopter rigs for 90% of my fishing and I don't have too many issues with hook pulls. Of course I suffer the occasional lost fish, but I wouldn't consider this a higher percentage than if I had used an inline lead or lead clip. In my opinion there are two things that can be done that increase your chances of having a hooked carp stay on when using helicopter rigs. Firstly, I always use a barbed hook, obviously rules don't always allow this, but with the nature of a helicopter rig and how the hooklink can slide up and down the line or leader it is very easy for a hooked carp to find some slack and a barbless hook can just slide out. Also, I don't use a long piece of silicon to cover the top of the lead, If the piece is too long the lead has far more of chance of hitting the lake bed or getting snarled in weed and cause the hook to pull out. All I do is trim down a tail rubber for lead clips and squeeze it over the top of the lead. This gives something for the bottom bead to buff up against and leaves the lead to behave in a similar way to an inline or lead clip would. With regards to chod rigs, I believe we will just have to tolerate aborted takes and the occasional hook pull. The rig is a long way from the lead and there is no real weight to drive the hook home until the fish has picked up all the slack line and brought the lead into play. I believe there are a few things you can do to reduce the aborted takes and light hook holds though. I know not everyone has the time or patience (neither do I a lot of the time) but you could try sharpening your hook points. A very sharp hook point won't need as much force to drive the hook home and will reduce the need for the lead to come into play. Secondly, I fish the chod rig with a short boom section of semi stiff flurocarbon or coated braid, almost like a hinged stiff rig. The boom section is only 3 or 4 inches long but it gives the rig some slack line to play with during the battle, rather than a lead bouncing around just 3 inches from the carp's mouth on a hooklink that has no give. The boom section also allows you to keep the putty off the chod section, by applying the putty to the boom section just below the swivel the chod hooklink becomes very light and able to spin into the carp's mouth and catch hold far easier. I hope some of this is food for thought. I've experimented for years with helicopter rigs and chod rigs and these are the solutions that have reduced lost fish and increased the number of bites for me.

I had a little chat with Ali Hamidi, via twitter, about this product. He was quick to state that it's just like using a lead clip and that fish trail line regularly (doesn't really answer how that's safe). I then mentioned the fashion of using leadcore with helicopter set ups and my fears of fish trailing long lengths of the stuff, to which he replied "never use more than 2ft of leadcore. None of us do". I think the "None of us do" remark meant the Korda team, which is clearly false as Danny Fairbrass has a video on the Korda site of him using a six foot length of leadcore for a chod rig and the packaging of Kable (Korda's leadcore) recommends five feet! I replied stating this and Mr Hamidi hasn't responded since.

Korda recently announced their new "Heli-Safe" system and are touting that it revolutionises the safety of helicopter rigs. For anyone that doesn't know, it is a form of clip that drops the lead on the end of the helicopter set up. People have been dropping leads on the end of helicopter rigs for years, but I have always considered doing so as unsafe. My thoughts are that the lead acts as a vital piece in allowing the fish to be able to free itself from the trailing line or leadcore in the event of a cut or crack off. The lead pins itself to the bottom, leaving the fish and the rig to slide up the trailing line and off the end. Without the lead on the line, there is no counter weight to aid the fish in freeing itself and the fish could be left trailing long lengths of line that can lead to them becoming tethered, and ultimately condemned to death. Please let me know your thoughts and let me know if I'm missing some information about this product that makes it safer than it seems.

I don't think it matters, size 8-4 would be preferable. One of the best rigs I've used incorporates a 20mm bottom bait with a size 10 hook. Whatever you're confident with will do the business.

I used to fish Vinnatrow back in 2007/2008 and I didn't experience too much trouble. You do get some people walking around that you wouldn't want to talk to, that comes with the caravan park. The rumours put a lot of people off, which is a shame because the fishing that can be had around there is excellent. The main annoyance for me was people leaving empty bivvies to secure swims. I think that would have been sorted now with it being a syndicate and properly baliffed. I have had cravings to get down there again but the travel is too much for me at the moment. Runcton has always tempted me.

I can't add anymore than what has already been said. What I will say is even with Mono hooklinks you will have issues with floating. Mono's will only sink once they have taken on water, so soak your mono lines before use.

A tiger nut can be used with almost any hook pattern. I tend to use ESP Big T's or Nash fang twisters for bottom baits. I sometimes use ESP Curv Shanx and Fang X's as well. Try any hook with a wide gape and you can't go too far wrong.