Rigs

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Carp rigs

 

Carp rigs have changed immensely during the last few decades. Since the early days of floating crusts and parboiled potatoes, more and more anglers have begun to specialise in catching carp, new specialist venues have appeared on the scene and carp rigs have become an important element in catching carp today. With this increase in popularity comes an increase in the amount of pressure on our waters. The fish become increasingly wary and to carry on catching specimen carp, we must continually come up with more and more ways to outwit them, and carp rigs play an important role.

The key to this is in bait presentation and to achieve this, we must be able to create and tie our carp rigs correctly. This section is dedicated to explaining the many types of carp rigs available today and to show you just how to get them right.

With the right carp rig and the right bait, presented correctly in the right place, you will stand a much greater chance of putting that personal best on the bank.

 

 

Types of rigs

This article will explain the different types of basic carp rig and their uses. Rigs tend to be treated as a bit of a science, and some people think that they cannot catch carp because they don't understand the technicalities of rig tying. As carp wise up to more and more of the methods anglers use, we do have to attempt to outwit them with the latest gadgetry, but don't let that put you off. With just a few basic tricks up your sleeve you will soon be tying your own rigs and catching those carp. And if you really can't tie your own or simply don't want to, then there are some really good ready tied versions available on the dealers shelves these days, although they will cost you a bit more. However, you will still need to know how, where and when to use them.

Ledgering rigs

So, what are the basic types of rigs? Years ago, the only form of ledgering I knew was the sliding ledger. This basic rig was simply a hook on the end of my main line with bait directly attached to it, with a sliding pear shaped lead or drilled bullet stopped a short distance from the hook by a single split shot. This was occasionally upgraded to a swivel to stop the weight, usually when I wanted to use a lower breaking strain line on the hook length and needed some way of attaching it. The carp would take the bait, swim off with it and pull the line through the weight, thus registering a bite. It was a very basic rig, but it used to catch me fish. The firstdrawback of this rig was that the split shot would sometimes come off, causing me to hook a lead weight if I was lucky, or it would damage the line to a stage where it would break on hooking a fish. This of course was another good reason to replace the shot with a swivel. This basic sliding ledger rig will of course still catch fish today, and I still use it where a simple technique is sufficient.

Hair rigs

Carp though became a bit more clever, and on picking up the bait, sensed that something was wrong and let go before registering a single movement back on the bank. Carp could also feel either the line itself as they picked up the hookbait, or the resistance of the line due to monofilaments springy nature. As the carp takes its food straight into the back of its mouth where it is crushed, anglers believed that they could also feel the hook and would eject the bait. And so the hair rig was developed. This involved taking a very thin piece of line and attaching it to the end of the hook. The bait was attached to the hair so that when a carp passed the bait into the back of its mouth the hook was still at the front near the carp's lips. Anglers also started to use a finer trace length of a softer material, such as Dacron, believing that the fish wouldn't feel resistance from the trace. This helped a lot and today many rigs are still tied with these basic principles, using hair rigs and soft trace materials.

The bolt rig

However, one more innovation was to change rig technology as we know it today and that is the bolt rig. Even with the softer trace materials and hair rigs, carp were still believed to be mouthing the baits and ejecting them without any indication of a bite. The bolt rig involves having the weight fixed to the line so that the line cannot slide through it. When the carp picks up the bait, it senses something is wrong and panics or bolts. As it does so, it immediately gets resistance from the heavy weight, which causes the hook to penetrate the carps mouth and it is hooked. This is the reason for the so called "screaming runs" we often see today, where the carp is already hooked and racing for the nearest safe haven it can find, meanwhile on the bank it is pulling line from your reel at a vast rate and your bite indicator is screaming.The problem with fixed weights is that if a carp runs into snags and manages to break your line above the weight, it could end up towing a lead around until it becomes snagged, and if it can't get out of it, then it may stay snagged until it starves to death. To prevent this, anglers use what we call a semi fixed lead, where the lead is trapped to the line by some mechanism, but if it becomes snagged it will pull free. OK so you lose a lead, but that is always preferable to harming and maybe killing a fish.

 

 

Helicopter rig

Many Carp anglers associate the Helicopter Rig with long-range fishing because of it's excellent anti-tangle properties, but in recent times the Safety Bolt Rig has equalled this. The Helicopter Rig still has it's place in the modern Carp anglers rig selection - for it's unequalled ability for bait presentation when fishing in silt or weed. The bead on the tubing/leadcore can be adjusted to the depth of the silt, preventing the lead pulling the hooklength & hookbait into obscurity. A trick we have been using to find the depth of silt, is to use a rig without a hooklength & attach a length of light coloured wool between the lead clip & the bead (This can be positioned as far up the tubing/leadcore as you see fit). This is then cast into the area you intend to fish & left for a few minutes. When the rig is wound in you will see that the silt has stained the wool - giving you an accurate measurement of the depth of the silt. Some anglers find fishing in silt difficult, using the correct presentation can bring rewards - try it!

 

Inline Rig

In-line lead set-ups are probably the most commonly used rig's on Carp waters today. Many manufacturers produce quality in-line leads and rig components. I use leads & products form Korda, Essential Products, Nashy & Fox. The in-line rig is best suited to weed free, hard bottomed waters, although I have found them useful when fishing with PVA bags in lilly pads. There are some leads available now that allow the lead to be removed without breaking down the entire rig, although supposedly the slot which houses the spigot can get 'closed' up in extreme circumstances - so the lead cant be discharged easily

 

Running Rig

Running rig's can be used to your advantage when everyone else is using fixed lead rig's. We have found that on waters that have had fixed lead rig's used extensivly for the past few years, the Carp have become 'used' to them, feeding cautiously whilst feeling for resistance as they straighten the hooklength, avoiding being hooked. This has been witnessed by many anglers on lots of different waters - it does happen! Using a running rig fools the Carp for long enough for the hook to prick them, by which time it is too late, the run ring hits the back bead the Carp panics & bolts off.

 

Running rig

Bolt rig	Inline rig

Helicopter rig

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helicopter Silt Rig