garysj01

Should be ok with the length your using, i try to stick to three slightly different presentations, pop up, bottom and balanced. The bottom i like fairly close to the hook, the pop up i like really close to the hook and the balanced i have a bit of separation between the hook and bait.

The little piece i just use to pull the bait closer to the bend of the hook, if i use multipal baits ill attach some bait floss to the loop and pull through the top bait, my pop ups are a little different. What bottom are you fishing over?

I would probably ditch the tubing, bigger size 6 hook, knotless knot, 7 turns round the hook. How long are your links, and what are you fishing over.

Try a wider gape hook, and maybe not such a bright boilie, some waters respond well to bright boilie's some don't, apart from that, thats all i would change

Here's a question, i heard many years while photographing fish, you should use a red t shirt for mirrors and a black t shirt for commons, its meant to make the fish stand out better. Is there any truth to this, maybe useph could answer this one for me

Keep it simple fella, it'll pay off,

The chimney sweep comes in handy

Id like a Ferret for my new gynaecological practice

I used to use a helicopter rig fella, but one i could adjust, simple one korda sinker each side of the hooklink, with a bead gently pushed over the back of the sinkers, you can adjust this up and down the line, depending on how deep the silt is, i wouldn't be tying another knot into your combi's fella, i would just switch to a coated braid

Every time i watch the slack line demonstrated on tv i can't help but wonder, is it the line sinking that is raising the indicator or under tow.

You would be amazed how small a weight you need to sink the line, when its semi slack

Would the line tight but through a back lead be enough to give this effect? The swim I'm in right now is quite tight, and really playing a fish in would be a nightmare unless the lines were on the bottom from a few yards past the tip. I usually fish semi-slack through a back lead to make sure it's all down. Sorry to fire a bunch of quotes and questions at you. Thinking many things at once here! Right use the lightest back lead you can, when pulling into a fish you are actually pulling against the back lead first, a lot of the back leads on the market are to heavy, i use 10 gram back leads and i also know someone who uses 6 gram backleads, if your not careful with backleads it could cost you fish. Plus if your lake is weedy don't bother at all.

In my opinion 2 feet of leader is no more dangerous than 2 feet of mainline trailing behind a fish. But when you are using a leader and you get a break you are guaranteed that the fish is trailing round 2 feet of leader, the mainline will 9 times out of 10 break at the knot, so it stands to reason that when using mono straight through it will snap at the swivel, so the fish should just be trailing the hooklink.

Ill address the leadcore issue for you, the inner lead strip can kink, thus, stop any bead that may otherwise come off, most leadcore are very abrasive by nature and i have seen reports and pictures of fish that have been damaged with some leadcore. The thing is the damage doesn't often appear until the next day or two. Also the inner lead strip can pierce the outer skin again stopping any beads that would normally come straight off. You would be better either using the solar contour or the avid pindown. Both of these are softer than leadcore, and believe it or not these leaders are very supple and hug the bottom a lot better than leadcore. As for the barbed or barbless debate, many believe that barbless hooks cause more damage, as during the fight of a fish the hook can come out and set back in causing multiple wounds in the mouth where as a barbed hook goes in and stays in. My only thought on the issue is i think all newcomers to the sport should use barbless hooks until they are comfortable with taking out hooks without damaging fish.

Just an extension on this topic, sorry im hijacking a little but i didn't want to start a new thread. I would just like to address the issue with dumping the lead again. Take a look at the inline drop off system, once the lead is dumped the fish is still trailing round a length of leader as well as the lead clip systems, now if you have used a barbed hook on these presentations the fish is going to struggle off loading what ever the hook is attached to. I have also looked into helicopter systems that are also designed to dump the lead, and these also have the same problem. I have always thought it better to use a helicopter or chod system that is designed to come apart from the lead upwards. As you can see in the pictures above, both the helicopter rig and the chod rig there is a korda small size sinker with an esp bead pushed very lightly onto the bead. The esp bead has one slightly bigger hole in one side than the other, this is what is pushed over the sinker, so if the rig has snapped and is laying on the lake bed and a carp does pick this rig up, you have to rely on the weight of the lead or even the lead getting snagged for the hooklink to be pulled hard enough to move the bead off the sinker and up the leader, hopefully leaving the fish with just the hooklink in its mouth. Now i have seen these same rigs tied in such a way that the lead is meant to come off, ie the leader usually has a ring tied to the end, and the lead is tied on with a very weak piece of mono. But the fish is still trailing round a length of leader, that at best may come off or it may not. So which is best, the one where the lead hopefully does the job for you or the rig that just merely dumps the lead still leaving the fish trailing a leader. Im not picking on leaders at all, all i aim to show is that no rig is 100% safe even the rigs that are tied naked. 9 times out of 10 mono will usually snap at the knot, but there are times when you will get a kink or a weak point further up the line. I have seen fish trailing massive lengths of mono so mainline isn't 100% either, even tubing when using a semi fixed lead, your hoping that the line again breaks at the swivel, but what if it doesn't, and the fish is left with a lead and a length of tubing. No rig is 100% safe all if we are all honest have the potential to tether fish.

All i will say i am doing some more experiments at the moment, on some rigs the lead coming off actually doesn't help the fish get rid of the leader at all, there's pro's and con's to every rig. I won't comment yet as i haven't completed the experiments yet.

Adam carp fishing isn't perfect, as anglers we all have a responsibility to ensure our presentations are as safe as we can possibly get them. First thing i will say, i used to think that using a lighter hooklink material was safer then a heavier one, but the fact is, in order for that to work you would have to use a hooklink 6lb or below. I did an experiment a while back to see how much pressure i could put into a hooklink, using my rod and a pair of scales. Now my rods are 3 1/4 tc, i simply tied a loop at the end of my mainline and asked a friend to hold the scales while i pulled as hard as i could using my rod. I couldn't exert over five pounds of pressure, no matter how hard i pulled. I think its far better, (if you are going to use a leader), that you should make sure all of the components you are using for your rig all pass over the knots used to attach the mainline to the leader with relative ease. As nine times out of ten the line will always snap at the knot in your mainline. This way if your rig was to snap the fish has a good chance of getting rid of the whole lot and just being left with the hooklink.

I have to say i agree with gaz, its so easy to blame the bait, you might need to do some pre baiting for a while, but stick to one bait, if you can see carp at close quarters just watch their reaction to the bait, or spend a few weeks baiting up the same spots, and then fish over the baited area's, work = fish the more effort you put in the more likely you will catch.

Anyone still using it?

Oil rig ???? They're a bit big

There are so many rigs out there it can sometimes be hard to know which one to use in the right situation. We have all heard of the Stiff Hinged Rig, the Chod Rig, the Blow Back Rig, the 360 Rig, the list is endless, it must be so confusing for the newcomer so i thought i would put it to the forum and see what we can all come up with. We all know that there is no one rig that will cover all situations, one lake may have a clear gravel bottom another lake maybe absolutely stuffed with weed, both need a different rig or presentation, so my question is. What leads you to the rig you use, im not just talking the hooklink side of rigs i mean the whole presentation, whether it be running, a helicopter or a drop off system, what factors do you take into consideration when you decide on a rig? and what kind of rig would you use?

I think the main concern with leaders is they can still tether a fish, regardless if a lead is attached or not, granted they are more dangerous with the lead attached and yes for extreme casting maybe a leader is necessary in some circumstances. Obviously the longer the leader the more likely it will get caught up on something. Which is why i emphasized the question, do you really need one?

All i would say is ask yourself why you want to use a leader, if it is purely for inconspicuous reason's then you probably shouldn't use a leader.

have you actually tried the rig with braid on testing i have found the hook spins the same as it would if you used the ring swivel