General Rig

[ianp]

I'm quite new to carpin and have started with a rig set up with 12lb main line, 15lb Kryston Silkworm hooklength af around 8 inches and size 8 hook with hair rigged boilies over pva bags but am struggling with results.

Any suggestions where i am going wrong.

Fishing a water with fish upto low 20's.

Any help is appreciated.

[666carpcatcher]

How well stocked is the water and is everyone else catching or stugling aswell?

[ianp]

The water is around 6 acres in size and holds around 200 fish. Its not a runs water but people generally get 1 fish a session but so far ive had 3 sessions and nothing.

[666carpcatcher]

Dont get disshaertend just yet, you are still finding your feet on that water, if you are unsure of your rigs (hooking potentail) tie some up and go to a runs water and test them out, and you can play around with them allday untill you find what you think is the best rig etc,

[ianp]

Does the set up sound ok though.

[tonybranno]

Location, location, location.

 

Its the fundamental aspect of successful carp fishing.

[666carpcatcher]

Yeah sounds fine to me, have you had a look through the sticky at the top of this page called rigs and set ups or something like that

[ianp]

Cheers thanks for your help.

[salokcinnodrog]

The most basic simple rig will catch on the hardest water if you have the main 2 aspects right. The first and most important Tony has pointed out, and the 2nd is find a bait that the Carp want to eat.

 

The most imprtant thing that I have found is find your fish, Location is probably the most Important Part of Carp Fishing. You can't catch Fish that aren't where you are fishing.

 

Bait, find a bait that the Carp want to feed on. It may be a Boilie, Maggots, sweetcorn, luncheon meat or a number of other things. Grasshoppers, Slugs, Worms, Bread all work in the right situation.

You don't have to spend "silly amounts" on bait.

 

Rigs, keep them as simple as possible. A simple knotless knotted and/or line aligned hook to whatever hooklength you feel comfortable with. With just a standard rig you can adjust the length of the hair or the rig length, either of which can improve your catches.

 

 

That quote is from this thread:

https://forum.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=17661

(complete with my typo from when I first posted )

 

 

https://forum.carp.com/carp-forum/viewtopic.php?t=22185, This is the Sticky that 666 refers to.

Believe it or not for the majority of my fishing I still use a basic Line aligner rig. I don't think that I have changed set-ups for over 15years! The only thing I do change is the length of the hair and the length of the hooklink. This pic below is actually one of my rigs and I have caught many fish on this style of rig, to 28lbs from a variety of venues.

 

Braid Line Aligner with Shrink Tubing:

[boults]

I've got a theory that if youve got shrink tubing over the hook and a bit of the hair when the carp picks up your bait and spits it out because the bait is tight to the hook surely the hook will come out quicker meaning either the carp doesn't get hooked or you get a poor hook hold. Where if you haven't got shrink tubing over the hair and hook, the bait can move freely and when the bait gets picked up the bait gets spat out and because its not tight to the hook the bait will get spat out and the hook will spend longer in the carps mouth and then gives you better chance of hooking them.

 

anyone got any opinions on this?

[salokcinnodrog]

I've got a theory that if youve got shrink tubing over the hook and a bit of the hair when the carp picks up your bait and spits it out because the bait is tight to the hook surely the hook will come out quicker meaning either the carp doesn't get hooked or you get a poor hook hold. Where if you haven't got shrink tubing over the hair and hook, the bait can move freely and when the bait gets picked up the bait gets spat out and because its not tight to the hook the bait will get spat out and the hook will spend longer in the carps mouth and then gives you better chance of hooking them.

 

anyone got any opinions on this?

 

Boults,

 

Nice to see that you are thinking your way into your fishing. (thats not a sarcastic remark, just that not enough people try to think their way around a problem before diving straight onto the local source of "free" knowledge)

 

I see what you are saying, but the hair length need not be short and the bait tight to the hook with Shrink Tubing. That is just the way that the majority of people are fishing at the moment. If you look at my other rigs on the Sticky, you can see that I change the hair length dependant on my findings

 

The Rig I have pictured is one I have been using with a 15mm Boilie on the hair; When the Bait is on the hair it actually comes to just past the Loop Knot, so I have a longer hair than standard (or different to other anglers). When I get to a New Water I tend to find out what has been used before and then go on from that. If the water is lightly fished then I have a very short hair, the bait almost "shank mounted" (tight to the back of the hook on a short hair), then as I check hookholds and possible dropped runs etc I lengthen the hair and or the hooklink.

 

In the same way a poor hookhold can be caused by too short a hooklength, the hook and bait is prevented from going into the Carp's mouth because the hooklink (hooklength) is not long enough. This too short a hooklink can be responsible for not getting a good hookhold, or even for not getting takes or a series of individual bleeps that don't develop.

 

If you look at your hookholds when you land a fish and even on lost fish you can decide whether your rig is right. If the hook is embedded firmly at the back of the bottom lip, then your rig is just about perfect. If its close to the front or you are losing fish then the hook may be pr1cking the fish too early. If the Carp is hooked at the back of the mouth then the rig may be too long.

[tonybranno]

I've got a theory that if youve got shrink tubing over the hook and a bit of the hair when the carp picks up your bait and spits it out because the bait is tight to the hook surely the hook will come out quicker meaning either the carp doesn't get hooked or you get a poor hook hold. Where if you haven't got shrink tubing over the hair and hook, the bait can move freely and when the bait gets picked up the bait gets spat out and because its not tight to the hook the bait will get spat out and the hook will spend longer in the carps mouth and then gives you better chance of hooking them.

 

anyone got any opinions on this?

 

Boults,

 

Nice to see that you are thinking your way into your fishing. (thats not a sarcastic remark, just that not enough people try to think their way around a problem before diving straight onto the local source of "free" knowledge)

 

I see what you are saying, but the hair length need not be short and the bait tight to the hook with Shrink Tubing. That is just the way that the majority of people are fishing at the moment. If you look at my other rigs on the Sticky, you can see that I change the hair length dependant on my findings

 

The Rig I have pictured is one I have been using with a 15mm Boilie on the hair; When the Bait is on the hair it actually comes to just past the Loop Knot, so I have a longer hair than standard (or different to other anglers). When I get to a New Water I tend to find out what has been used before and then go on from that. If the water is lightly fished then I have a very short hair, the bait almost "shank mounted" (tight to the back of the hook on a short hair), then as I check hookholds and possible dropped runs etc I lengthen the hair and or the hooklink.

 

In the same way a poor hookhold can be caused by too short a hooklength, the hook and bait is prevented from going into the Carp's mouth because the hooklink (hooklength) is not long enough. This too short a hooklink can be responsible for not getting a good hookhold, or even for not getting takes or a series of individual bleeps that don't develop.

 

If you look at your hookholds when you land a fish and even on lost fish you can decide whether your rig is right. If the hook is embedded firmly at the back of the bottom lip, then your rig is just about perfect. If its close to the front or you are losing fish then the hook may be pr1cking the fish too early. If the Carp is hooked at the back of the mouth then the rig may be too long.

 

Top advice once again, that post even got me thinking about my own set up which i will play about with later today when i make some more rigs for next weekend.

[boults]

yh fair enough

 

good point salokcinnodrog

 

I dont tend to fish with shrink tube over the hook and line I just fish a straight forward knotless not and a long hair.

 

My mate and I fished our local lake and we both had the same amount of carp (I think it was 20 each) we were fishing similar rigs but different hooklengths, I was fishing a coated braid hookink with a long hair where as my mate was using a mono hooklink with a short hair and we caught the same amount. I thinks its about what your confident in fishing with and I don't think theres a certain way you should fish just whatever you feel is right.

 

Oh carp fishing is a funny sport.

[jake5]

I take it was a runs water then.

[boults]

yh i suppose so, but they were all averaging 9lb with my biggest that day being 22lb 8oz