We all can relate to casting out a line and hearing the ”crack” as the line gives way to allow your mainline, lead and hook link to fly further than ever before into the distance to be never seen again!. Maybe you lose your leads like I do whilst fishing close to lilies or near ‘snags’, or you may lose them as a result of the lead being far to heavy and once entering the water, continues rapidly down and ‘sinks’ into the soft bottom and literally buries itself!
There are many ways to minimize the risk of losing expensive rigs and tackle, one way is to use a ‘marker rod’, by casting a marker rod out into the desired swim you have the advantage of knowing how deep the area is!, also by slowly pulling back with the rod, making certain that the rod tip is angled to your side, you can feel the bottom texture!, this is not the easiest task and needs lots of practice to be able to read with efficiency the lake bottom. If the rod tip ‘jolts & jigs’ around then more than likely you are pulling your lead across gravel or stone, If the rod feels sluggish and heavy then you’re probably pulling the lead across ‘silt or weed’, This technique has been in use for all the years I’ve been angling and I suppose it will be around when my grandchildren are fishing!
Well I’ve stumbled upon a new idea concerning the leads, I’ve realized after studying them that they are rather big and bulky and even with the additional shrink tube, silicon or lead safety clips which are supposed to minimize the cause of tangles whilst casting seems to cause a whole new area of problems again!, The problem is that if you are fishing near any lake feature i.e.: Lilies, rushes and snags, once the Carp picks up your bait it will run like hell…,and of course the carp knows the lake 100X better than any of us could, so the carp on instinct will run for the lilies and snags to try and free itself from the hook. (This can only be achieved if using a ‘fixed lead’ or ‘semi-fixed lead)
The carp will suck in the bait and begin to move away until it feels the lead (which is unable to move once clipped in the safety clips) and runs like hell for the nearest place to free itself, This is where the problem starts, If your not quick enough to the rods then the carp will be where it wants to be (leaving you in dead lumber!), On certain occasions I make it to the rods in time and manage to turn the carps head away from the danger.
Once a Carp has swam into the snags you have three things to contemplate:
1: Keeping pressure on the rod to reduce the ability of the Carp ‘pulling free’
2: As the line will most certainly not be in a direct line with the fish, being extra alert to where the fish is within the snag.
3: If the fish has reached a far distance inside the snags then the problem then changes from “Have I got direct contact with the fish?” to.., “has my lead managed to become wedged in the snags?” (This means that your pulling the line and instead of feeling the fish, it feels stuck and this causes many Carp anglers to snap their line or to pull the hook from the Carps mouth!)
The basic rule of fishing is to keep the rod high in the air so that there’s a direct line straight to the carp. If the lead has tangled itself amongst the snags then all control is lost and the only thing you’ll be fighting with is the lead!
I have been in many situations such as this and have lost an incredible amount of leads and other expensive items, It was time to think of an alternative method to ensure more fish on the bank!.
As you are aware, once threading your line through the eyes of the rod the next stage is to thread on a rig set-up, I decided that as I’m fishing on the margins of snags or lilies that a ‘bolt rig’ was a necessity as I needed the carp to hook itself once picking up my bait, for this I choose a ‘Korda safety rig’, this item can be used in two ways, one way is to mimic a ‘Helicopter rig’ with the lead being permanently attached to the mainline and the rig being clipped into the ‘Korda’ device, this in itself causes more problems than people imagine as the ‘hook link’ is attached by a small plastic clip which the Carp could easily break to leave me standing on the bank with a slack line dreaming of what could have been!.
The other alternative is to thread the mainline through the ‘rig tube’ and through the ‘Korda safety clip’ before finally tying the ‘Hook link’ to the mainline leaving the lead to be attached using the clip on the side of the ‘Korda safety clip’, this creates advantages when playing fish as:
1: Your mainline is connected directly to your ‘hook link’ so your only worry would be that you have tied your knots correctly!
2: Direct contact with the fish means you have more control over where it moves and how fast. Unfortunately this still doesn’t eliminate the big risk of getting your lead
Tangling whilst fighting the carp within the snags, even though the line is connected straight to the ‘hook link’, leads tend to easily catch snags under the water resulting in a very high risk of never seeing the fish (unless you have a boat), After systematically taking into consideration all the problems I’ve encountered before (as I’ve written above) I came upon a solution which I’ve been using myself with fewer loses and more Carp on the bank!
The solution is rather simple and could save you many leads in the future, here is a list of what you need to approach this tactic:
Wire Cutters, Pliers, Safety Clip Lead
1. Take the ‘Wire Cutters’ and remove the extra swivel from the lead (if attached), Leaving the lead and the original ‘loop’ intact. (below)
Once done it will look like:
2. Now take your ‘Wire Cutters’ again and clip the brass loop that’s positioned on the top of the lead, make sure you clip it close to the top of the brass ring but to one side. (below)
Now it should look like this:
3. Take your ‘Pliers’ and gently squeeze back together the loop as though it hadn’t been cut before, (below)
Now it should look like this:
4. Now all that’s left is the simple attachment of the lead to the safety clip as shown (below)
Now you have the finished product I will explain to you how it works, you’ve run the mainline straight through to the hook link after passing through the safety clip, Once the hook link is secured to the main line (I use a ‘grinner knot’ as it’s the strongest I’m aware of), You can then ‘clip’ on the lead by threading the plastic clip through the brass eye on the lead….Your Done!
Now all the circumstances have changed, If you are late to the rods when a fish is running with your bait then it will automatically hook itself as it’s a ‘semi-fixed’ lead (the hook link swivel can pull out of the safety clip sleeve if under enough pressure), the beauty of this new tactic is that if the lead ‘sinks’ during casting or becomes ‘snagged’ whilst playing the fish….no worries!, the result of cutting the loop on the lead and bending them back to the original position allows for the ‘loop’ to open if under enough pressure, thus releasing your lead and leaving the main line and the hook link left…straight through to the carp!
Minimal resistance is achieved once the lead is free leaving you to enjoy playing the fish with FULL sensitivity with a much greater chance of landing the fish!. 
Observe that the lead even though being manipulated will not just fall off or easily separate itself from the ‘safety clip’, I have tested this on many occasions and have never lost a lead whilst casting, even if you become snagged it can take some force to release the lead (depending on how you cut the loop and how far you squeeze it back together), that’s something you will have to learn yourself, trial and error is the game when designing the perfect rig!
We at SCREAMINGDELKIMS strive to keep you updated with all the latest gossip and news in the CARPING world, and of course would like to thank all of our visitors, Its because of you that we take the time to make your stay here enjoyable, ALL VISITORS we want to hear from you!, If you’ve caught a Carp or wish to share a tactic then we would be delighted to hear from you (please include photo’s if possible).
Email to: colin@screamingdelkims.se
By Colin Goodey
