Rigs

[Anderoo]

I went through a kind of carpy, riggy stage a few seasons ago, tying up all kinds of fanastic rigs and catching fish on them. Since then I've gradually become more and more cynical about what actual difference in a real fishing situation many of the bits and pieces made, to the point where I no longer use any leadcore, tubing, shrink tubing, tail rubbers, silicone tubing, lead clips, flying backleads, coated braid hooklengths (for combi-rigs), or any other little things you can think of.

 

Do you think any of that stuff makes any difference to the effectiveness of various rigs? Am I now too cynical?

[Guest tigger]

Do you think any of that stuff makes any difference to the effectiveness of various rigs? Am I now too cynical?

 

 

I agree the simpler the rig the better. Regarding peoples worries about hooklengths getting wrapped round your rigs etc, your bait could just as easily be hidden in weed or behind rocks etc so I like to re cast quite often rather than sit and waite for hours on end. Just my prefered method.

[chavender]

I went through a kind of carpy, riggy stage a few seasons ago, tying up all kinds of fanastic rigs and catching fish on them. Since then I've gradually become more and more cynical about what actual difference in a real fishing situation many of the bits and pieces made, to the point where I no longer use any leadcore, tubing, shrink tubing, tail rubbers, silicone tubing, lead clips, flying backleads, coated braid hooklengths (for combi-rigs), or any other little things you can think of.

 

Do you think any of that stuff makes any difference to the effectiveness of various rigs? Am I now too cynical?

 

 

only occationally as a alternative

[Steve Walker]

There's a whole industry based on selling a bewildering array of bits of very expensive plastic. My tackle shop has about twenty feet of display stands of it. I can see the point of some innovations for rig safety - although I'm not actually convinced that a split shot is as unsafe a back stop as we are sometimes told. Much of it just bemuses me. Sea angling is the same. This is the modern way to make a two hook paternoster rig (it's called a "flapper" now, though):

 

 

As you can see, it requires one clip, three swivels, four beads, four crimps, two hooks and a lead. I've tried making these rigs up and they work. But I don't think they work any better than the old fashioned way of doing it, which would require one lead, two hooks and a couple of blood loops.

[BoldBear]

In the 70's my mates and I used to develop and test all kinds of mad anti eject & anti tangle Carp rigs using elastic, hard and soft tubing, drilled leads, bristles, tiny split rings etc. when there was nothing similar available on the market. We didn't even need most of the rigs we developed but we still used to develop new rigs 'just-in-case'; to us it was all part of Carp fishing.

 

Over the years we have all gone back to basics using simple rigs and we seem to catch a lot more now using these than we ever did using any of our over-complicated rigs. I think that it's very easy to get dragged along with new fangled ideas, but in the end simplicity is normally the best option.

Edited May 8, 2009 by BoldBear

[Anderoo]

Interesting.

 

How about some specifics:

 

1. Shrink tubing used to make line aligners. Does this help turn the hook, increasing the chances of hooking a fish with a bolt rig? I know it does when you test it on your hand, but I'm talking about real life fishing situations.

 

2. Heavy tubing/leadcore. Really any better than letting your line sink properly, maybe adding a blob of putty a few feet behind the rig?

 

3. Adding a little bit of silicone tubing to trap the hair against the bend of the hook. Is this better than letting the hair hang free of the knot in it's devil-may-care abandon?

 

I am genuinely interested by the way, and willing to change things I do.

 

(This relates mainly to tench, bream and carp I suppose.)

[Guest tigger]

Interesting.

 

How about some specifics:

 

1. Shrink tubing used to make line aligners. Does this help turn the hook, increasing the chances of hooking a fish with a bolt rig? I know it does when you test it on your hand, but I'm talking about real life fishing situations.

 

2. Heavy tubing/leadcore. Really any better than letting your line sink properly, maybe adding a blob of putty a few feet behind the rig?

 

3. Adding a little bit of silicone tubing to trap the hair against the bend of the hook. Is this better than letting the hair hang free of the knot in it's devil-may-care abandon?

 

I am genuinely interested by the way, and willing to change things I do.

 

(This relates mainly to tench, bream and carp I suppose.)

 

 

1. I've never used shrink tubing and I've never had any prob's with my hook ups when using bolt rigs.

 

2. I don't use anything to sink my line as when ledgering my line will all sink on the bottom anyway in a short spell.

 

3. I think the hair is better hanging free of the hook without the tubing.

 

All JMO but I think all the tubing is just extra tuff to be seen by the fish and maybe spook it off.

[BoldBear]

1. Line aligners: I'm pretty confident that line aligners work and as long as they are unobtrusive and give the angler confidence then I think thats fine; but I have never needed them for fish other than Carp. and I don't remember needing them for Carp in the old days, so although they may give you confidence, are they always really necessary or are they just another 'just-in-case' idea?

 

2. Heavy tubling/leadcore: I think you said it when you said "Really any better than letting your line sink properly, maybe adding a blob of putty a few feet behind the rig?"

 

3. Silicon tubing to trap hair: I personally think that using a knotless knot or a dab of superglue can be less obtrusive than some silicone tubing. I do admit to whipping some of my hairs to the hook shank using a piece of fine cotton which occasionally matches the bottom and which I think makes the hook less visible?. this means that I can tie them in advance and keep them in a small bag ready for tieing to my hooklengths on the bank. But a lot of the time I think you can leave the hair just dangling from the hook eye.

Edited May 8, 2009 by BoldBear

[3DoorsDown]

I've tied every rig under the sun, just because I enjoy it, and have tried most, but without a comparison it's hard to know if a simpler rig would have worked anyway.

 

Fortunately, Elton and I quite regularly fish the same place/ time/ bait for Tench. Elton has always used a straightforward knotless knot hair rig and he doesn't catch any fewer fish, if anything, for some reason I seem to pick up nuisance bream more often.

 

So, I like you have gone back to basics on the rigs and decided to make sure it's the right bait, in the right place, at the right time !

[Angly]

Oh to have the time to fish two rods in the same swim, same bait, one with all the fancy mod-cons, and one with Sensor straight through to a plain hair-rigged cheapo Super Specialist. Be an interesting experiment.