The Theory Works...

[louismiller]

Just sat at my desk tying up some rigs and tried fiddling about with these fake bloodworm jobbies I picked up the other day; Didn't really pay much attention in the shop but found out now they're semi buoyant, so made up the following hooking arrangement...

 

Note: The bait is not fished that high off the bottom, the hook sits on the bottom in the position pictured; thought I'd make that clear

 

When in the water the hook sits as it is in the picture, just on the bottom and the cut down boilie slides 'down' the hair to sit against the hook leaving a gap between it and the pop up corn.

 

Now my thinking is this is gonna nail em slap bang middle of the bottom lip everytime due to the hook point being the heaviest part of the hook and should a fish try to eject it, the weight from the bottom bait sitting on the hook will push it down towards its target; but before I test it out next wednesday/thursday I'd like some thoughts or if someones tried this arrangement before some first hand accounts.

 

Cheers,

Louis.

[zammmo]

I see no reason to doubt,this rig would work..But I'm not sure about the way the fake blood worm thingy protrudes beyond the shank of the hook.IMHO this may actually impede a clean hook hold..Good luck

[canontroop]

Doesnt look much different to a 'standard' stiff rig made famous by Terry Hearn. Would have to say the fake bloodworm for me is just complicating the rig too much for me. The stiff rig is a good little rig on its own without adding more 'stuff' to it.

Needs some putty at the base of the link to hold it all on the bottom tho

[nash_gadgeteer]

I see no reason to doubt,this rig would work..But I'm not sure about the way the fake blood worm thingy protrudes beyond the shank of the hook.IMHO this may actually impede a clean hook hold..Good luck

 

I agree, you are not going to get good hook holds with this one, and i think it might tangle because of the protrusion.. but the rest looks great...

 

But give it a try and see what happens, that is what it is all about, ringing the changes, and putting extra fish on the bank.. Keep trying..

[louismiller]

Doesnt look much different to a 'standard' stiff rig made famous by Terry Hearn. Would have to say the fake bloodworm for me is just complicating the rig too much for me. The stiff rig is a good little rig on its own without adding more 'stuff' to it.

Needs some putty at the base of the link to hold it all on the bottom tho

 

The rig itself is almost exactly the same, however I don't fish pop-ups directly off the hinge which brings me onto the fact that no putty is needed, I stated clearly as it is it sits on the bottom point parallel to the bottom; similar to the shot on the hook rig, minus the shot.

 

I agree, you are not going to get good hook holds with this one, and i think it might tangle because of the protrusion.. but the rest looks great...

 

Good point about the tangling, it should be fine on the cast as all my fishing uses dynamite sticks, but if it gets moved around on the bottom I could see the supple section possibly looping up round the 'tail'.

 

I'm not too convinced over the hook hold scepticism; I may pull the fakeworm up the shank a bit to stop it reducing the gape of the hook, other than that i can't see how it will impede, rather than improve hooking.

[salokcinnodrog]

The idea is interesting, obviously camouflaging the hook may or may not be important .

 

I did try the plastic maggots to create a line aligner effect on a bottom bait rig, but I noticed a couple of hookpulls as I think the rubber on the shank impeded hooking.

 

It may depend on how the fish pick it up, or it may depend on whether the plastic/rubber is the "bait" itself or whether you have a separate hair.

I simply didn't do enough playing to be sure either way, although I do seem to think that the Mag aligner is fished as an indivdual item over maggots (DOH! pretty obvious )

 

I also remember that Phil Bunyan in his series on Wraysbury (a series of articles in ACF that I DID find interesting) used the outer braid from Leadcore to create a weed effect camouflage over the hook.

 

I wonder if the buoyancy of the bait will make any difference, because that seems to cover suckers and pick it up feeders depending on what fish are feeding?

 

Just my thinking that if Carp are feeding over particles, then you don't need a Pop-up that high off the bottom (only to get it in first; attention grabbing), but if you are not feeding in an area then the Pop-up may be better.

 

I do know that when I use the Combi link with or without a Pop-up that my hookholds are bottom lip

[louismiller]

The idea is interesting, obviously camouflaging the hook may or may not be important .

 

I did try the plastic maggots to create a line aligner effect on a bottom bait rig, but I noticed a couple of hookpulls as I think the rubber on the shank impeded hooking.

 

It may depend on how the fish pick it up, or it may depend on whether the plastic/rubber is the "bait" itself or whether you have a separate hair.

I simply didn't do enough playing to be sure either way, although I do seem to think that the Mag aligner is fished as an indivdual item over maggots (DOH! pretty obvious )

 

I also remember that Phil Bunyan in his series on Wraysbury (a series of articles in ACF that I DID find interesting) used the outer braid from Leadcore to create a weed effect camouflage over the hook.

 

I wonder if the buoyancy of the bait will make any difference, because that seems to cover suckers and pick it up feeders depending on what fish are feeding?

 

Just my thinking that if Carp are feeding over particles, then you don't need a Pop-up that high off the bottom (only to get it in first; attention grabbing), but if you are not feeding in an area then the Pop-up may be better.

 

I do know that when I use the Combi link with or without a Pop-up that my hookholds are bottom lip

 

Camouflage was the initial reason for using the fake bloodworm, then after noticing its buoyancy led me onto this low pop-up arrangement.

 

I've had quite a lot of success in the past using the shot on the hook rig, I was however always concerned about the shot getting caught somehow and stopping the hooking of the fish altogether. This rig works exactly the same way: how the bait sits in the water, pulling the point of the hook down towards the bottom lip although with the absence of the shot means the bait will behave more naturally, or as naturally as a yellow piece of plastic can behave.

 

Planning on fishing this rig over a mainly vitalin mix with a little particle and boilie in, hardly any real food in there, hopefully won't have them feeding too hard on the bottom, ignoring the pop-up, despite it only being popped up 3/4 inch or so; with any luck they won't be constantly up-ended, instead moving down on the small patches of food that will be present, with my hook bait being one of them.

 

Two worries at the moment are the fake bloodworm lessening the gape of the hook and the buoyancy of the fake corn lifting the hook over the lip.

 

I'm going to pull the bloodworm off the shank a little, so it comes off just after the hair; hopefully keeping the camouflage but not narrowing the gape at all.

 

With the buoyancy issue I think it shouldn't be too much of a problem, just a bit of experiment with various bait sizes to get it critically balanced so it shouldn't pull the hook above the lip should it get ejected.

 

 

Maybe I'm thinking too far into this, but I can't help it.

[louismiller]

Just following this thread up. I haven't really tested it out that much and haven't caught a carp on it yet but did have a 5lb 7oz snotty on it first time I used it.

 

It was well hooked at least