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
Continue reading “Attaching your hook bait to a Chod rig”
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… Continue reading “Tying the Chod rig using a Domhoff knot”
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. Continue reading “Beginners rigs – Where to start if you are beginning carp fishing”
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.
Continue reading “Flurocarbon rigs – the ultimate in simplicity”
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.
Continue reading “Using anti tangle tubing – for those places that lead core is banned”
Disclaimer – I am an admin of http://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.
Over the years I have owned quite a few leatherman tools from the wave to the micra and have bought many more as presents for friends and family. I was a little surprised when I came across this little gem in my local outdoors store and as they had it reduced to 32 Euro’s I decided I had to indulge. Continue reading “The Leatherman Freestyle”
When you 1st start fishing there are a multitude of knots that you have to learn, indeed when you 1st go out ( hopefully with someone who knows what they are doing) each piece of end tackle seems to require a different knot. Someone people who are “self taught” and seem to go through life with only a few knots using them whether they are appropriate or not. Once in Morrocco I witnessed a local fisherman using nothing more than a series of over hand knots to secure everything… no doubt he had plenty of stories about ” the one that got away”
Anyway I have compiled here a series of how to guides to each knot and a little explanation as to why you would use that particular knot, due to the numbers of images in each guide I have created each knot page as static page in the “Articles” section and each of the paragraphs below links to each of the knots.
Figure of 8 knot
Regular readers will recognise this knot as one that was the subject of its very own article. This knot is the jack of all trades, if you want a loop in almost anything from fluro carbon to soft braid and anything in between go for this one above all others. It forms a really strong loop that will not slipand one that the loop naturally lines up with the direction of tension. Click here to see how to tie the figure of 8 knot
Loop to loop
Any match man worth their salt will know this one as it is the normal way that you will join the pre tied hook links to your main line. When it an essential knot in carp fishing ? well if you use plastic or lead core leaders this knot is essential for linking the leader to your mainline. Some people scoff at linking this way and use a grinner knot however the loop to loop is (in my opinion) stronger than a grinner and can be disassembled without cutting your line. For example, I will often swap rigs and lead systems by preparing a new leadcore leader, lead, rig etc then when I wind in it is just a matter of removing the old system from the main line and replacing it with the new. Easy. Click here to see how to tie loop to loop knot
Knotless knot
What can I say about this knot that has not been said before ? it is the basis of 99% of al of the carp rigs out there, it simultaneously combines a knot with a method of attaching and positioning the hair on the back of the hook. A word of caution, tie it properly as the instructions show as if you begin the whipping of the shank the wring way you will cause issues. Additionally if you are using this knot with flurocarbon check the knot regularly and do not reuse hook links between sessions ( especially if you have caught heavily). I have never lost a fish with a flurocarbon failure but I have spotted several dodgy knots before I cast out that failed with even moderate pressure.. you have been warned. Click here to see how to tie the knotless knot
Trilene knot
This is the knot that I use when ever I need to attach a line to a metal loop of some kind ie a swivel, a hook ( assuming I am not using the knotless knot) and is is also 100% reliable especially with coated braid as it does not slip. Basically it is a modified blood knot which I am sure that we all know from our youth however by passing the material through the eye twice and then passing the tag end through that loop the issue with slippage is removed. Good for all kinds of lines. Click here to see how to tie the trilene knot
Water knot
This knot initially looks very hard to tie and for years I dismissed it as being an oddity and only useful for mono to mono deployments. This is not the case however, I use it almost exclusively for mono to braid situations whether it is for joining a shock leader to my main line, joining a combi link together or attaching a length of fluro to my braided mainline for zander fishing. This knot does it all. A small tip, if you are attaching a shock leader bundle 90% of the leader together as otherwise you will spend your time threading 5m of leader throught the loops when you are tying it. Click here to see how to tie the 4 turn water knot
Stop / marker knot
This knot is an essential to any carp fisherman. Some people use tape to mark their line however as I have no idea what the chemicals in the adhesive of the tape will to to my mainline I will stay well clear. The knot is a very simple knot and can be used not only for marking distances on your line but also as an anchor point on a hook link for putty if you need. When you are tying be very careful that you don’t trap the main line. If you do you could weaken it and if you have just cast out 100 yards, that is 100 yards of line you will be putting in the bin. Click here to see how to tie the stop / marker knot
In summary whilst there are far more knots out there that I have not covered here, if you can tie all of the above then you are well on your way to becoming a proficient fisherman. Other knots might do some specialist tasks slightly more efficiently the ones above will cover almost every situation that you will ever experience and by the time you need one of those you are past this guide any way 🙂
Tell me what you think, either post a comment below or if you want to contact me more privately drop me a mail on the “Contact me” tab above. I’m listening !
Normally when I review products it is when I have had them for a short while and I have used them long enough to formulate an opinion on them, this review is different in that I have had the item in question for 2 years now and I have used it heavily hence I feel that it is now long overdue for a comment here. Continue reading “Long term Review – Trakker Pioneer Ultralight”
Jake Langley Hobbs, his continuing five year mission to seek out new carp and new carp waters, to boldly go where no carp fisherman has gone before.
It has been a while since I posted about another blog but I just wanted to post about The Big Carp Hunter buy Jake Langley Hobbs. What makes this blog different you say ? well it is a blog written almost entirely from the bank side about a man who is spending five years on the bank. I think that if he has not done so already he should put himself down on the Guinness book of records for the longest session ever. He posts one blog item per day unless he is travelling and covers the trials and tribulations of life on the road in Europe.
In the blog he covers he doesn’t just cover the fish he has caught but also the ramifications of fishing a 36 day blank. Lets just go over that again, he has a 36 day blank… some anglers don’t do 36 sessions per year and yet he still remains up beat after 36 days with no fish. I think it is also worth pointing out that unlike the rest of us ( well me) his European sessions are not to over stocked puddles but mainly to what could be considered to be an inland sea to most. Due to the stock densities it might take 30+ days before the carp can even be found and to keep you enthusiasm up after all that time with out a fish is admirable. Only last April I was a little depressed after spending 1 week with out a fish ( well loads of poisson chat). He also has several posts going over the finer points of how to survive long term on the bank, to anyone who is considering fishing even one over night session it is essential reading.
Anyway head on over to http://thebigcarphunter.com and give it a read, the humor he injects and his upbeat attitude even in the face of massive adversity is heartening and a lesson to us all. The next time you are doing a session at your home water , 30 mins from home and it gets a little cold, have a thought for Jake on the bank through out the winter with only his laptop and his 2 dobermans for company.
The Masterblanker 