The MasterBlanker

If it looks cold - it was !

Well it is a very glad Quentyn who is back from the Bosbaan leaving 1/2 way through a 2 day session. Normally I would be annoyed about leaving half way through planned session but after the 1st night i though I would quit whilst the going was good.

Here is a tip for you, if you are packing to go fishing and you shake your cooking gas bottle and think “hmm I wonder if there is enough in there for 2 days” there is not. The meerest action of checking ensures that there is not. Now in the summer you can get away with no hot water, in the winter it could be deadly. Well you have guessed it, during the 1st night I went to make a cup of tea and found that in the cold my gas bottle was almost empty with not really even enough grunt to warm 1 kettle of water.  Lesson to be learned I feel and my thanks to Mick to popped along in the morning with a hot flask of tea which was very welcome.

On to the fishing, when I arrived at Bosbaan I was not surprised to find someone camped out in swim 1, under the tree as this is always a popular swim and as the wind was a NE wind I decided to fish the other end anyway. I was surprised to find a group of anglers at the other end however and as darkness was approaching and I knew it was going to be a cold night I decided to fish as far as I could towards the windward end whilst not fishing too close to either the over head lines or to the other anglers.

As it was really the 1st fish able weekend after the intense cold I decided to opt for highly flavoured boilies and only small PVA bags or single glugged popups. Whilst I was in my local fishing shop the other day I notice that Dynamite have just released a new tutti frutti flavour ( which doesn’t show on their website ) however I could smell them across the shop, subtle they are not. They brought back happy memories of using richworth tutti frutti boilies when I was very young, I decided I had to have them.

Dynamite Tutti Fruitti and small bag of boilie chops

The other rod was set up with a CCmoore 15mm perfect Pineapple pop-up that has been marinading in the pineapple booster liquid for weeks and so is fully saturated. This was then presented as a chod rig with no freebies or other baits around.

After a few hours of moving the baits every 30-40 mins searching for the fish I decided to place them both in some likely looking areas and bed down for the night. Just after I buried myself in the sleeping bag, Nico, one of the other anglers from up the bank popped over to ask if I had caught anything. I was just giving my reply when, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep ! the chod rig rod was away. After a strange fight ( wasn’t even sure it was a carp) the fish was safely ensconced in the net and it was time to dig out the weigh sling and the Korda carp care kit .

Bosbaan linear mirror of 18 lbs 8 oz

I was off the mark ! I always feel a great sense of relief when you have a fish in the bag, it is almost like you can relax as if noting else you have not blanked. My thanks to Niko for the pictures of this fish as it was really too cold to be messing around with self takes and I was glad for his help. One think I would like to point out was that this fish was caught on the exact rig that I made here, a lot of people show how to make rigs but never show you the results. Well this is the fish that that particular rig caught.

After about an hour it was the turn of the other rod, on striking this one felt a lot better. a heavy nodding fish that was quickly kiting to the right and straight into the bank. It is at times like these that I really appreciate the Fox Stratos big pits, on some reels you really have to wind fast and hard to recover line quickly, not these I maintained contact all the way throughout the run towards me.  The result was another rather pretty mirror of again 18lb 8oz ( they must have been brothers)

Bosbaan Mirror carp of 18lb 8oz

Not as pretty scale wise as the 1st but that huge tail really allowed it to fight hard. After a bit of treatment for a previous mouth injury the fish was returned to the water to get back to eating boilies. One thing that was strange was that this fish was really excreting a red bait, I don’t know who as fishing with red boilies but this fish loved them and was pooing then out all over the place.

The rest of the night was uneventful and the fish didnt return till the morning when a brace of 15lb fish made themselves known. As I had good pics of the 18’s and as it was really really cold I just snapped a quick pic on the mat before returning them.

Both were a welcome addition to the tally and along with another small common ( <10) that I released immediately brought the total for the session to 5. Not bad for less than 24 hrs and certainly not bad for a winter session of less than 24hrs.

To recap 4 of the 5 were on CCmoore pineapple popup’s fished chod rig style on a 3 inch chod and the other was on a tutti fruitti bottom bait with a small bag of chops.  Sadly It seems that I was the only angler to catch with based on my rather random swim selection has to be down to the bait or the rig

Do you fish the Bosbaan ? Do you fish in Amsterdam ? Why not tell me what you think, post a comment below

Image from http://www.telegraph.co.uk click image to go to their article

After the rather sad posting about Amsterdamse bos, it is nice to get a bit of positive news. Recently Martin Locke head honcho for Solar Tackle caught a word record mirror carp at Rainbow lakes in France. The beastie weighed in at 94lbs ( 42.6kg’s) and recently the video of the capture has been put up on Solar Tackle’s website here.  This carp beat the previous fish from les Graviers The size of the fish has to be seen to be believed and he struggles to lift it due to the sheer size and weight. Even if you are not into carp fishing check it out and marvel that fish that size swim in European waters. The fish was caught in the winter at 94lb, will it top the 100lb mark if it is full of spawn ? When will the 100lb barrier be broken ? Will if be from France or from elsewhere ? Will the 91 from Luke Moffats Les Graviers take the title again ?

Anyway click here to see the video in all its glory

Cold and Grey….

Bosbaan can be a cold grey place at times, especially in the winter so it is with a heavy heart that I will drag myself out of bed tomorrow morning and head on over. Only joking I can hardly wait, I haven’t been on a proper carp session in months and I am itching to get out. I was meant to be out last weekend but it rained from 06:00 – 21:00 and the wimp in me won out. I consoled myself by believing that my PVA would just melt

Anyway here’s to a 2 day session on the bosbaan, which thankfully was not affected by the recent weather unlike Amsterdamse Bos which seems to have been completely wiped out.  Tactics will be small bags of ccmoore bloodworm pellet with either a Meteor popup or a small fluro pop-up. Will scale everything down to size 8’s and lower and will probably use the rather excellent Fox Illusion fluorocarbon in 15lb bs.

Here’s hoping the fish are hungry !

It is with a heavy heart that I make this post. Today I was told by a colleague that when she was horse riding through Amsterdamse Bos that she had seen a lot of dead carp,  so as I couldn’t get over to the water during the daylight I asked a friend of mine Marcel if he could pop by and see what was up. We knew that there were issues in the water in Amsterdamse bos but not to the extent that greeted Marcel.

Hundreds and hundreds of dead carp. When Marcel popped round to the other part of Bos to check the main pool he was greeted by an even more grizzly sight. What he thought were white birds popping up on the water were carp, bream and other fish dead as far as the eye can see.

All of the white spots you see on the water are a dead fish. It is hard to believe that this was once a prolific water producing my best pike of 2009 as well as numerous others. Many anglers got a great deal of pleasure from fishing these waters. I even had the honor of watching a grass snake hunting in the margins late last year the 1st time I had ever seen this in Holland.

Fish sizes ranged from an estimated 15-20 lbs ( Average size)  to at least three 30lb + mirrors and even a huge eel of 5-6lbs which is a rarity that will be caught no more.

Anyway I leave you with a pic of Amsterdamse Bos in happier times as the pic below will not be repeated for quite some time to come.

What do you think ? Should the Bos have been dredged earlier ? should it be restocked ? should it be left for a year to recover ? use the posting button below and make a comment.

If you have other pictures of the Bos that you would like to share please send them through or post me a link and I will include it here. For more pictures of the disaster click here

UPDATE 05/03/2010

I have just returned from the water and I can confirm that the forest authorities have removed most of the dead carp. Loads still remain however along with dead eels and pike, more of the grizzly pics can be found in the new gallery here.

For while a while the only way to attach your bait to a chod was to use the time honored tradition of tying it on with bait floss, however times have changes and as I posted here solar have got a really nifty way of attaching baits to rigs and not just for these kinds of rigs.

So with that in mind, as I hate tying on baits lets explore the different kinds of ways that we can attach baits to chod rigs.

Tying them on

This the the time honored tradition, quite simple you simply “lasso” the pop-up with 2 double overhand knots making sure that whilst the boilie is held tightly the floss does not cut into the surface of the bait.

Some people even go so far as matching the colour of the bait floss to the colour of their bait. I have to say that I am not one of them as I doubt that the carp really notice anyway. Once you have the bait lassoed as above use the 2 tag ends of the bait floss to tie it to the ring of the rig.

Advantages

best for keeping pop-ups buoyant

Pop-up skin is not pierced

No baiting needle needed and so if baits are super rock hard no danger of injury

Disadvantages

Quite fiddly

Needs bait floss

Solar Spiker

As discussed in a previous article this is one of my favourite ways of attaching a bait to a chod rig. It is simple and easy and I am really surprised that this has not caught on more with other manufacturers seemingly reluctant to produce their own versions of the product. Essentially a spiker is a small piece if metal that you skewer the bait on to. When you are assembling the rig, instead of attaching a ring to the loop as above it is substituted by a spiker like so:

To bait up all you need to do is push the spike into your chosen boilie and you are finished. If the boilie is quite hard it is worth noting that you will need to put something hard behind the loop of the spike to help you push it in as else if you do not the loop can start to be quite painful against your thumb. I use the top of my bait box and just push the bait down onto it impaling it on the spiker.

Advantages

Quick and easy

Bait can move naturally

Secure

Disadvantages

Extra rig component

Can be difficult if you have rock hard baits

Pierces skin of bait

Spiker is bait size dependent

The Rubber Band

This is a a method that I used only a few times at the end of last year but initial results are encouraging, it combines the ease of use of a spiker with the cheapness and simplicity of bait floss. Essentially what you do is take a small rubber band ( hint ladies hair bands, check in Boots, Etos etc in the hair accessories section) and loop it through the ring on the rig like so :

Note that to make it easier I have stretched the ring out with a baiting needle.

To attach a bait all you do is treat the band as if it were a hair, I know that some of you will be thinking “why not just stretch the rubber band around the boilie?”  well trust me it doesn’t work… at all and I have tried.

Advantages

Quick and easy

Cheap

Secure

Disadvantages

Extra rig component

Pierces skin of bait

Can be fiddly to attach the rubber band to the ring

Summary

Well I hope you have enjoyed this look at how you can attach you pop-ups when using chod rigs, the best way to learn is by doing so stop reading articles on the Internet and get out there fishing !

What do you think of this article ? did I miss something ? Did I get something wrong ? Let me know post a comment or if you prefer to contact me privately use the “Contact me”  section above.

The Chod Rig, where do we start ? At 1st glance it seems to be against all known rig principals. The hook link is super short and can be very stiff ( in the original format), there is a popup fished straight off the bottom, how can a fish be fooled by it ?

Well they are, and in large numbers. If you fish lakes with silt issues, with debris on the bottom ( often know as chod hence the name of this rig) that will get tangled in a normal rig… then this is the setup for you !

Effectively it is a standard helicopter rig with a very short hook link and a pop-up. It is worth pointing out that the rig has to be fished with a popup if the anti “chod” capabilities are to be realised else with a bottom bait the bait may lie in the detritus that you are trying to avoid.  The anti silt capabilities are also helped by virtue of the helicopter rig in that you can fish the rig as far from the lead as you desire and if you add on a Solar bag clip with an in-line lead you can even fish a bag of freebies close by.

Another use for the rig, and certainly the one I have put it to most use, is that of a “roving rig” ie a rig that you want to cast out to showing fish, or one that you want to regularly move about in open water when you have little idea what the bottom composition is. If you cast in a rig using a lead clip with a short hook link and you end up casting into 2ft of silt then you are unlikely to catch. With a “chod rig” you know that the rig is working as designed no matter what the bottom is. This was a tactic that I put to good use in France last year and my “roving rod” was set up with a chod rig and single Ccmoore strawberry pop-up. This rig with no freebies and just by moving it every few hours ( or when ever I remembered to be honest) picked up 1-2 bonus fish per day. Anyway onto the rig…

This example will be on leadcore, I have been playing with the Fox adaptive camouflage lead core for a while and I find that the brown colour really matches the lakes that I am fishing as the colour varies from brown to black to sand. It really is an improvement on the standard woven in patterns that we used to use before. First start by making up a length of lead core with your chosen lead attachment clip on one loop and a simple loop at the main line end. Put on a helicopter bead to cover the clip ( alternatively you can just use a piece of 4mm silicone tubing but a bead is neater). Then take a complete length of your chosen shrink tube and shrink it down approximately where you want the rig to sit in relation to the lead,

don’t worry about getting this exactly right as with some pressure you can get the shrunk down tubing to slide up and down the lead core. Note the size of the shrink tubing, you want a fairly tight fit and I have found that on the 45lb leadcore the 1.2 – 0.4mm shrink tube works perfectly. If you you too large tubing you will notice that it will start to slide up and down too easily.

Once this is done you are now ready to tie the rig. There are literally hundreds of ways to tie a chod rig, and as this is my article you will get to see my way.  The thing that is different between how I tie this rig and most others is that I use a Domhoff knot rather than a knotless knot. There is a good reason for doing this on a chod, namely that it is virtually impossible to tie a good knotless knot with really short hook links. If you then try to tie the swivel end with a short length of line it too is really challenging. I know that some people like to use a 2 or 3 turn blood knot and blob the end with a lighter but I believe that my way is better as all knots used are tied to full strength. The Domhoff knot has the huge advantage that the “tag” end of the knot ( the piece that you use to tension the knot)  is the hair, meaning that the hook link length remains constant during tensioning.

To start the knot take a length of fluorocarbon ( you can use stiff bristle or even stiff mono for a slightly different effect)and tie on a ring swivel with your favourite knot such as a trilene knot then thread the hook on the line, set the correct length of hook link and form a loop in the hair side like so :

Then taking the upper most piece of line ( which will form the hair) whip back down the shank from the eye about 6-8 turns

Thread the tag end through the loop and pull tight like so :

Whilst this knot does not look as neat as a knotless knot, it really wont let you down and the one above is perfectly fine, trust me.

Your final rig should look like so :

This rig is a 3 inch rig which is a very good starting point for most chod rigs, however you may want to experiment with longer or shorter. I have certainly seen rigs that are 1 inch in length as well as ones that are slightly longer. I wouldn’t go too long ( past 4 inches) as else you are starting to go into the realm of zig rigs

Now take the hair, put on a small ring ( see the pic above) and thread the hair back through the eye of the hook from top to bottom so that the hair exits out of the bottom of the hook’s eye. I suggest cutting this length of hair that protrudes to about 6-8mm and “blobbing” with a lighter. A note of caution, I am not sure what harmful chemicals may be produced when you burn fluorocarbon to I would keep the length that you melt with the lighter to a minimum. You only need to form a small blob on the end to stop the hair from passing back through the eye of the hook ie

Be careful when you melt / blob the tag end that you don’t melt or damage any of the rest of the rig. If you do you will have to start again as the lighter will quickly destroy the line if held too close the main rig. It should now look like this :

As the line cools you can use the back of the lighter to carefully flatten the blob, be careful the line is hot and will stick to flesh if you use your finger rather than the back of the lighter.

Now to assemble the rig, take your length of leadcore as above and thread on a rubber bead, the ring of the ring swivel from the rig, and another rubber bead:

Thread down onto the leadcore and, after attaching a bait you are done ! it is that simple. Should you have an issue with the beads moving on a powerful cast of if you are using a PVA nugget or large bait then you can fix them using a length of PVA tape. This will dissolve in the water leaving the rig totally safe ie

The final rig should look like this :

For the observant ones amongst you, I know that there looks to be an elastic band on the rig ring… stay tuned for a a follow up article where I go through the different options that you have to attach the bait to the rig.

Some of you will also be thinking to themselves ” I am sure that you are supposed to curve the hook link with steam” well I have experimented with both curved hook links and straight and to be honest I am not sure if it make a difference. The hook holds seem to be the same on both and I really don’t like steaming mono / fluorocarbon as I am not sure if the heat weakens it or makes it more brittle. Your mileage may vary,

As they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating, here is a picture of a fish taken on a chod rig in open water on a roaming rod last year in France.

Let me know your thoughts, post a comment I do reply and read every comment, if you want to contact me via email please use the “Contact me” link at the top of the page.

Please note, this article was originally created as a PDF, I have posted it here as convenience and to make it more web friendly

All of us at one stage started somewhere in our carp fishing lives, and I think that it is sometimes easy to forget that there are beginners coming to the sport all of the time. Recently we have seen many people starting Carp fishing who have not had an apprenticeship from catching skimmers as a child under a father’s watchful eye to later, migrating to carp or another specimen species.

This leads beginners to  wonder “ where do I start ?” and often they start by pouring through the magazines for the latest wizz bang rig that uses £8 of swivels and tubing and then they end up blanking. They blank not through lack of enthusiasm but because they didn’t have the confidence to realize that simple is most likely better. Some of the rigs you see in the magazines have been designed for really specialized applications that 99% of us will never see. The cynic in me also suspects that they are to sell magazines and tackle .

Carp fishing is all about confidence, confidence in your bait, tackle and rigs, in this article I want to cover some really basic rigs that I wish that I had known when I started carping some 24 years ago ( though with a 10 year break). A lot of what you will see here might have been covered by other anglers but I want to boil the rigs down to the very essence of what they need to be. Once you have gotten experience with these rigs feel free to move onto other more complicated rigs as if you have the basics right then you can’t go too far wrong.

The rigs / methods I will be covering will catch you carp from almost any water from weedy to weedless, from close range to distance. They are:

1. Basic mono rig
2. Hybrid rig
3. Basic running ledger rig ( plus lead core version)
4. Bolt rig  ( plus with lead core )
5. Inline lead ( also on lead core)

I know that this is not an exhaustive list but if you are starting carp fishing and want to know where to start this is a good place.

Components

The picture below shows some standard components that I would expect all carp anglers to have in some form or another, manufacturers might vary but the components are the same.

The items are:

1. Selection of leads, ranging from inline to flat pear, to tri pear to a grippa lead
2. Lead clips, always get them from a reputable manufacturer rather than shop own brands.
3. Ring swivels
4. Swivel
5. Running lead clip
6. Tear drop link
7. Beads
8. Rubber tubing
9. Lead clip
10. Tension tool, knot picker
11. Lead core splicing needle
12. Latch gate baiting needle
13. Leadcore
14. Hybrid braid
15. Standard 10lbs monofilament line
16. Selection of hooks in various sizes

Basic Mono Rig

This rig is the 1^st rig I would start with, there are no fancy components needed and once mastered you can also swap to fluro carbon or any other hook link materials. At is heart is the knotless knot which since its development has revolutionized carp fishing almost as much as the hair rig. Almost every rig you see today uses this knot in some form. Firstly start by identifying the size of bait that you will be using on the rig. Size of boat affects both hook size and hair length. In the picture below you can see a selection of boillies a 20mm, a 15mm and on the far right a 10mm. It is easy to see that if you swap bait size you will also need to swap hook size and hence rig.

Next take a length of monofilament and form a small loop knot in the end like so

This does not need to be a figure of 8 knot as it will not be load bearing and so a simple granny knot will do. Pull this knot tight with you tension bar or equivalent. Trim the tag end and put a boillie on with a baiting needle. It is important that this boillie is the same size as you would be using with the finished rig.

Next take your chosen hook, in this case a size 4 Fox SSBP which perfectly matches a 20mm bottom bait and due to the slightly in turned eye gives a lovely almost “bent hook” effect to the rig. Position the hook at the correct location on the mono allowing for your chosen distance between the bottom of the hook bend and the bait. I like to set this distance to be about 5mm which I feel allows the bait to move effectively whilst avoiding the tangles that can occur with longer hairs.

Trapping the mono to form the correct length of hair start to whip the mono up the shank of the hook from the eye. There  has been a lot of discussion about how many turns to whip but I personally think that as long as you go for more than 7 you are fine.

Once you have whipped the desired number of turns (in this case 10 turns), take the line and thread it back through the eye of the hook from the top so that the line emerges from the bottom nearest the point. Congratulations you have now tied a knotless knot ! The method is exactly the same no matter what material you are tying it with be it, mono, fluorocarbon or some type of braid.

Next tie a swivel on to the other end of the hook link. I use a 5 turn trilene knot which is very similar to a blood knot but you pass the line through the eye twice. So to start the knot, thread the line through twice and keep the loop open. I find that if I stick my thumb through the loop it works the best.

Take the tag end and pass it round the main link 5 times and then pass it through the loop formed by passing the line twice through the swivel eye, moisten and pull tight.

You have now just formed the most basic hair rig possible and it is a guaranteed carp catcher. Keeping with the simplicity theme the easiest and some would say best way of attaching the lead is in a “Running lead” setup. To do this simply thread the lead onto the mainline, then a bead then tie on the rig you just made. It should look like this :

This running ledger rig with the exception of the knotless knot has been used for almost hundreds of years in one guide or another and can not be beaten if you are fishing close range or you are stalking. If you are just starting carp fishing (or any other kind of specimen fishing such as tench or bream) this is the rig I would recommend you stick to at the beginning. It is simple and affective and allows you to concentrate on more important things such as watercraft and bait placement.

Hybrid Link

The running monofilament rig is simple but it has one issue, it can tangle quite easily and the stiff mono can make the bait behave unnaturally in the water which may or may not be what you are after. Once you have more confidence in your rigs and rig making ability I would recommend you can use one of the coated braids should you want to eliminate potential tangles as well as have a softer hook link.

For this example I am going to use Fox cortex in 15lbs breaking strain. It is a good representation of the kinds of modern coated braids that are around today.

Start by cutting off a piece about 40 Cm long and stripping off the coating for about 10 cm from one end. In the above picture you can see the coating partially stripped from the braid.

Continue stripping until you have a 10 cm section at one end that is free from coating.

The thing I love about to the Fox coated braids is that you can strip it with your fingers, no need for a stripper tool and the risks of damaging the braid here. It also helps to have a thumb nail that resembles a claw

Next repeat the steps I showed you in the monofilament rig with a small hair loop, thread on a boillie, set the hair length and finally tie a knotless knot. The tension bar is pointing to the end of the stripped back section. Notice also that as I have chosen to use a 15mm boillie I have swapped hook size to a size 8 Fox SSC. As the braid is more supple than the monofilament I prefer the SSC as it is more curved. This I feel offers a far better hooking angle than a straight hook. Next to finish the other end of the rig.

I like to finish coated braid hook links with either a tear drop link (item number 6 in the components picture) or use a figure of 8 loop. For simplicity here we will use a figure of 8 loop. Start by making a loop and passing it back on its self as if you were going to tie an over hand loop ( AKA “Granny knot”)

Then before passing the end of the loop through the loop you just formed twist the new loop round 1 turn as in the picture above.

Finally pass the loop through the twisted loop and you will see that the line now forms a number 8. If it doesn’t start again, the knot strength of a figure of 8 loop is far greater than a granny knot or over hand loop.

Moisten the knot and pull tight, then trim the tag end. Congratulate yourself as you can now tie 2 of the rigs that I guarantee have taken most of the carp swimming today, no matter what the magazines tell you.

Free Running Ledger Rigs

This rig was shown at the end of the mono hook link rig and I want to expand upon it here to show what can be done to solve the tangle issue by adding Lead core. Everything I am about to show can be done with tubing should your lake have a lead core ban. As all of the ones I fish don’t I will continue to use it as I prefer lead core to tubing just for simplicities sake.

I will not cover lead core splicing here as there are several other articles on the subject and if you don’t feel confident you can buy lead core leaders ready made. In order to fish the rig with a free running lead simply attach your rig to the ring swivel with a loop to loop knot ( see later) thread on a bead and then your running lead clip ( item number 5 in the components). Attach the lead core to your main line (see later) and you are done. The rig is simple, effective, doesn’t tangle and is 100% carp safe. If you snap the line the lead will simply fall off.

Fishing with Lead clips (Bolt rigs)

There has been much controversy surrounding bolt or fixed leads. They have been heavily demonized which is unfair as a modern lead clip will eject the lead every time. I would strongly suggest only buying big name branded clips, some of the “shops own brand” clips have been in my experience slightly less effective.

As we will fish this one with lead core, we start by taking the lead clip and threading it on to the lead core. This can be tricky and a little tip is to thread a piece of stiff mono through the clip, then through the loop in the lead core, and then back through the clip. You can then slide the clip straight down the loop of line and on to the lead core.

Once you have pulled the clip down onto the swivel it is critical that the little peg that is provided is placed into the recess in the main lead clip body.

Once this has been done it will look like this

The next job is to thread the tail rubber for the lead clip onto the lead core, this can be done with a closed latch baiting needle or using the piece of mono I mentioned earlier.

Next put a lead on to the clip and after moistening the ridged back section of the clip, put the tail rubber on. It is important to only put it on half way as the clip might not eject as easily otherwise. It is also critical to check the tail rubber after each fish and each carp, it will work loose and if you don’t check it (as I have failed to do several times) the lead will either eject on the cast or eject as it hits the water. One of these scenarios is embarrassing and one could be dangerous if a flying lead were to hit someone. I have never had a “flying lead incident” happen or heard it happen but it is good to be careful. Put your hook link on and you are read to go.

If you want to tie this with tubing instead of lead core, simply thread the tubing onto your line, then the tail rubber and finally the lead clip. Tie on the ring swivel, pull the lead clip over the back of the ring swivel and place in the peg. Put on the lead, pull the tail rubber on and push the tubing into the back of the tail rubber.

Lead Core with Inline leads

Inline leads are perhaps the ultimate in an anti tangle setup and fly very well if you need distance. They are available in kinds of shapes and sizes to suit the lake / river bottom and the marketing departments of major tackle developers (only joking). See the initial components picture for a small selection of the patterns available.

First we need to start by removing the central rubber tube from the center of the lead. This can be tricky but a pair of forceps can be useful especially of the lead is brand new.

Next using the mono trick above, thread the center rubber onto the lead core and pull it down to the swivel.

Next thread the lead down the lead core and pull it over the center rubber. Attach your rig to the ring on the swivel on the lead core and you are ready. If you want to fish this with tubing simply thread the tubing on you mainline, thread the lead and center rubber as normal. Tie the mainline to the swivel and pull the tubing into the back of the center rubber.

Attaching lead core to main line.

There are many ways of attaching lead core to mainline however I prefer a simple loop to loop knot. It is easy to tie and can be tied in the dark in a force 8 gale with the rain pouring in your face.

To attach the lead core, tie a figure of 8 loop (see above) in your main line. Push this loop through the loop in the end of your lead core and then drop the rig, lead and lead core through the loop. As long as all of the components threaded on the lead core can pass over the figure of 8 on the mainline you are fine.

Conclusions

Just like bollie flavours some rigs are designed to catch the angler rather than the carp. By keeping to simple rigs that you have full confidence in you will increase your catch rate and you will enjoy your fishing more. You want to buy fewer quantities of end tackle but better quality, trust me quality counts then it comes to hooks, swivels etc.

Get out there and have fun and catch some carp

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Fluorocarbon, when it was first released to the angling community several years ago it suffered from many issues namely that it was brittle and super stiff. The brittleness was resolved but the stiffness remained. Recently Fox released their new product, Illusion soft fluorocarbon and i am pleased to say that stiffness in fluorocarbon hook links is a thing of the past. The hook link is softer and more supple and like all fluorocarbons is practically invisible in water as it is a refractive index close to that of water. Some anglers mistakenly fish with red coloured lines believing that as red is the first colour to disappear the deeper you go that their red lines are therefore “invisible”, the anglers who know a thing or two use fluorocarbon as it truly is invisible.

So what other properties make this a superb hook link, well the slight stiffness ( note it is not as supple as the softest mono)  is very useful at preventing tangles especially if there a nuisance fish such as Poisson chat or bream about. There is no use casting in a well made “Big Pig Rig” or a blow back rig made in supple braid if with in 5 mins the attentions of nuisance fish have completely tangled the hair and destroyed hooking properties the rig. This was a massive issue in France a while back when we attempted to fish a lake that was boiling with big black shoals of Poisson chat. The slight stiffness means that when the smaller species have finished playing about with the bait, the rig generally pops back into shape ready for mr carp. Another useful property is that of is abrasion resistance, compared to mono of the same breaking strain the Fox fluorocarbon is fairly thick which is no bad thing in my humble opinion as it will only add to fluorocarbons already impressive abrasion resistance as well as protecting the carp from cuts that can be caused by super thin mono or super fine braid. Additionally it is worth noting that fluorocarbon naturally sinks meaning that you do not have to use tungsten putty on your hook link to keep it pinned to the bottom.

Rig wise, hook selection is critical when using fluorocarbon, a lot of anglers make a very critical mistake. Embarrassingly I also made the same mistake in the past and it cost me fish, it was only an impromptu rig clinic on the bank with a fellow angler that pointed out the error of my ways Allow me to explain : one of my favourite hooks is the Fox SSSP or SSBP both are similar hooks with one having a “beaked” or in-turned point. However both have one feature that makes them unsuitable for using with fluorocarbon hook links ( but very suitable for braid hook links) which is the in-turned eye. This is where the Fox SR hook come into its own. If we compare a SSSP and an SR hook :

You will instantly notice the left hand hook has an in-turned eye. This is exactly what you are looking for if you are fishing with braid such as Fox Coretex however not what you are looking for when using a slightly stiffer material such as fluorocarbon. Indeed, if we look at a link that has been made with fluorocarbon and an Armapoint SSSP hook :

The first think you notice is the rather extreme hooking angle. The in-turned eye produces too sharp an angle as it exits through the down turned eye which whilst will hook fish will often hook them too far forwards in the lips meaning that you can loose your hook-hold during a prolonged fight. I once lost the only chance that I had in a week long session due to this and to say it was frustrating was an understatement.

If we look at the hooking angle that an Armapoint SR hook gives with the same breaking strain fluorocarbon you will see a marked difference:

Notice the aggressive but not too aggressive exit angle of the fluorocarbon from the hook ? well that is due to the Armapoint SR having a slightly out turned eye, not as out turned as a a dedicated “Chod rig” hook but out turned none the less and this makes them perfect for bottom bait setups. This makes the hooking angle absolutely perfect and not a piece of shrink tube in sight. To complete the rig all you need is a simple figure of 8 knot in the other end of the line and you are done, yes fluorocarbon links are really that simple, just a hook and some fluorocarbon and you are set. Combine with the new Fox lead clips and you have a simple, effective setup.

Overall, I will make no secret of the fact that I really like fluorocarbon hook links, I have caught a lot of big fish on them and if your water is loaded with nuisance species, and you don’t like to recast every 30 mins this is the hook link for you. Fox have brought the best of both worlds in that their new product is fairly limp ( but not too limp) and is memory free with a quick tug between tension bars.

24lb+ almost fully scaled mirror carp caught at close range from a water loaded with bream on a fluorocarbon hook link, part of a multi fish haul made possible by this material.

I have posted several times on my love of leadcore and have even written an article about it that was published in “De Spigel” magazine, a local Dutch Carp fishing publication. So you all know that I love leadcore and have been using it for that last few years.  My love of leadcore is tempered by the plain fact that it can be so dangerous if used in the wrong hands (see an upcoming article on the safe use of leadcore) and due to this some lake owners have banned it out right. Whilst I might not agree with the bans I will always respect the rules and where it is banned I will use of of two solutions, either plastic leaders or tubing. For a long time I always used the plastic leaders as they ape lead core in almost every way but recently I was tempted to try going back to tubing. I also like to use lead clips, they are a wonderful invention and they really come into their own when distance is not the primary issue bit getting rid of the lead is. If you are fishing a weedy swim the lead clip will allow you to loose the lead should the fish embed its self into a weed bed. Also should you loose the fish the lead clip will alow the lead to be discharged ensuring that the carp is not trailing a heavy lead as well as the leader.

As Fox has just released a new range of tubing in several different colours I though I would give it a go and see how it can be incorporated into my fishing.

So what do you get in the packet ? well you get 3 fully complete rigs complete with tubing, lead clip and quick change swivel as well as 6 anti tangle sleeves. Top marks to Fox for including 6 of them so that you can leave them on rigs without having to buy more. Anyway lets look at how they can be used in an effective setup.

The above picture shows the “business end” of the lead clip and the anti tangle sleeve. It is worth pointing out that the tubing is only pushed into the back of the tail rubber and does not need glue. If you glue it, the rubber will become brittle and the tubing will snap ruining the rig. Before you can use if for the 1st time you will need to dissable it to be able to tie the mainline on to the back of the kwick change swivel.

To do this pull the little plastic peg out of the clip as in the picture above. Do not loose it as you will need it very soon and Fox do not ship spares Once you have the swivel removed thread your mainline down the tubing so that it comes out at the end that is pushed onto the tail rubber. In order to do this smoothly I suggest that you cut the mainline with a pair of scissors / cutters at an angle like so

Note that the line I am using is 17lb mainline and it threads through the tubing with ease so I doubt if you will have any issues given that this mainline is so limp I have had issues i the past with tubing from other manufacturers. Once the tubing is threaded, thread on the lead clip ( make sure that you put it on the right way around ) then tie on the swivel with you favourite knot, I have used  a Trilene knot which I blogged about recently like so :

Once this is done, the next step is to replace the little plastic peg. Pull the mainline firmly to pull the swivel back inside the lead clip and once it is back in place properly ( it should virtually disappear back in side) push the little plastic peg back in :

It is critical that this peg goes back in ( you will hear a little “click” when it is in properly) as if you do not then the swivel could pull out of the clip and allow the whole rig to turn into a “running lead” setup which would prevent the lead from discharging. Speaking of leads to attach a lead to the clip slide it onto the bottom of the plastic lead clip “prong” and before replacing the tail rubber make sure that you moisten the back of the lead clip with saliva.

It is important that you moisten the back of the lead clip before each and every session if you leave your leads attached to the rods when not in use. If you do not it could lead to the tail rubber getting caught onto the clip and failing to discharge – which in the best case could cause you a lost fish. If you fish with PVA sticks (and if you don’t you should ) you might notice that occasionally the lead clip may discharge on the cast, ie it might eject the lead when the PVA stick hits the water due to the sudden drag of the PVA. If this happens to you it is easy to solve ( and appear to only be apparent on big casts) by tying some PVA string around the back of the lead clip like so

This will prevent the issue of the lead ejecting on contact with the water with a big cast whilst keeping the rig safe as the PVA will dissolve off after a few minutes in the water.

Anyway putting it all together with a rig involves attaching a rig to the Kwick change swivel and placing the anti tangle sleeve over the swivel. It is critical that you use the anti tangle sleeves as they keep the loop of the rig in place and stop it “riding up” and potentially coming off in a prolonged battle. Once it is all in place it should look like this with the rig on the right and the mainline going through the tubing on the left :

For the purists amongst you, I could have trimmed the PVA but as it is going to melt off any way I normally leave it where it is. Please also note the position of the tail rubber, I have not pushed it completely on as it only needs to be be on about 5mm, any more might stop the lead ejecting when you need it.

Did you like this post ? Do you want more ? Do you want me to cover other areas ? Please let me know either by posting a comment below or my mailing me using the “Contact me” section at the top.

As Fox has just released a new range of tubing in several different colours I though I would give it a go and see how it can be incorporated into my fishing.

Disclaimer – I am an admin of www.carp-forums.com

It has been a while since I wrote a review of a site but as I spend so much time at carp-forums.com I thought I would just drop  a post here to tell you all where I go  if I want to discuss carp fishing or other related topics. If it is to do with fishing, it is discussed here.

If you have not already done so pop over and create an account, we don’t bite and there is a whole wealth of information sitting over there on loads of topics. The people are friendly and the chat is lively, and unlike other forums we are not ban happy ( perhaps we have better clientele ) and who knows you might end up talking to some one famous on the boards.

Recently there has been a section on DIY, a rig clinic and a discussion about a potential new British record carp from Mr Nash’s lake…

See you over there  get on over there you know it makes sense.