SlowSteve

I try to have as little resistance in my rigs as possible - so I rarely use leads and prefer shot attached to a piece of line on a ceramic ring to be totally free running with as little weight on the line as possible. I use rig foam to off set most of the weight of the shot as well - so if I need say 4 AAA's to get to 50 yards or so, then I will counter-balance 3AAA's worth of mass. If I do use leads (rarely ) or swimfeeders ( occasionally ) then I always fish a pulley rig made of 25lb amnesia line and a gemini rotton bottom widget connected with 2lb line - it's WAY safer than a semi-fixed rig - the sea fishing guys are very advanced in rig making. Rig length is Kryston SuperSilk for most fishing situations, although I dye it green. It's the softest braid I have found. If I'm in heavy weed I will use Spiderwire microbraid all the way through the rig from hook to reel in 50lb. If I'm using a pulley rig then I use 8x 10mm beads between the swivels and it acts like a boom For hooks I use drennan super specialists with the barb flattened most of the time. For really big baits like bread or big pieces of fish I use Sakuma 541 Mini Manta's. Hook is tied in a knotless knot with lots of different hair lengths. I like to keep a big gap between the bait and the hook - so if I was using boilies it might be a 35mm hair, and if I was using bread then it might be perhaps 4 inches or more. I really do like the quick stop widgets for most baits. With huge baits I use pieces of cocktail stick - mostly because I loose the little hair rig barbell chaps too easily.

I use a trangia - you can get them for £15, and they pack up very small. Perhaps it takes another minute or two to boil the kettle, but if you're at the bank, there is no rush.