The MasterBlanker

Preamble,  I originally wrote this for Spiegel magazine last year and it was archieved in the articles section, however looking at my hits I can see that no one was able to find it so I thought I would recreate here as a post so that people can find it.

Introduction – CV Safety Rig
Please note I am not the originator of this rig, I am merely someone who cares about fish safety and wants to get the knowledge out to people that there are safer ways to fish leadcore helicopter rigs. On some of the lakes I fish I have seen some horrible contraptions all under the banner of helicopter rigs.
There are some disadvantages to this rig. Unlike the original CV safety rig, which used a piece of metal called “the bit” which was free to rotate around the lead core, and allow the hook link to spin ( hence the name helicopter rig), this is impossible with this setup. I have not, however, had tangle issues so far so I am not sure if it is worth investigating incorporating a piece of wire into this setup. I have found a source of the original “CV Bits” ( called rather helpfully – the bit ) from Harefield tackle the originator of the “CV” or Colne Valley brand. Check back here for a follow-up article on a rig using “the bit” and recreating a bit of history

Materials Required

From the picture you can see all of the materials and tools that are required to make this rig. Some of them are optional but this is how I make it so I thought I would leave them in but mention along the way when they can be left out depending on your preferences. Please note that all of the rig components can be swapped around with other manufacturer’s parts depending on your locale but I would strongly suggest that you use the best quality bits you can find. Remember that the attitude “it’s good enough” is never enough and will cost you fish.
Labels
1, Leadcore, I attempt to match the bottom or go brown
2, Scissors, good quality pair
3, Closed gate baiting needle
4, Leadcore splicing needle, you can not use a baiting needle
5, Ring swivel
6, Helicopter bead
7, Quick change link
8, Tear drop link
9, Beads – need to have a bore great enough to slide freely over the lead core and the end
splice or knot to the main line.
10, Rubber tubing
11, Lead

Step 1

Cut a length of lead core to the desired length about 80 Cm is enough, but this is personal
preference, and splice a loop in the end. Note if you like to use a needle knot or other
kind of knot to link the lead core to your mainline, this loop is not required.

Step 3,

At the other end of the lead core remove about 15-18 cm of the core and splice a smallish loop. The loop needs to be about 3mm in diameter.

Step 4,

The small loop should be large enough to comfortably slide over the leadcore and loop knot / needle knot but not big enough to allow one of the beads ( item 9) to pass through. The reason we remove so much of the inner core is so that we can tie a knot in it and leadcore with lead in it is really hard to tie knots in.

Step 5,

Taking your quick link, tie it with a 3 turn half blood knot so that the top of the knot sits against the inner lead core.
Step 6,

The free “tag” (the short end of the lead core that has the inner lead removed as per point 4) now has the small spliced loop at the end of it. A 3 turn half blood knot should be perfectly fine as we are using 35lb braid.
Step 7,

Take your closed gate baiting needle and put the helicopter bead on it and thread it on to the lead core.

Step 8,

Once the helicopter bead is almost at the end of the lead core, thread the closed gate needle through the bead again and bring the tag of the half blood knot through the bead as well.

Step 9,

Put on 2 beads, the ring swivel and another bead. Make sure that the top bead has a bore sufficient to pass over the lead core with out effort. If it does not use a sharp knife to bore out the bead further until it will pass along the lead core and over your chosen method of connecting to the main line ( ie needle knot or loop to loop). Once this is done pass the loop on the tag end over the main section of lead core and pull tight. I also find it handy to add a quick change link to the ring swivel at this stage as well.
Step 10,

Note that the loop on the tag end of the half blood knot is over the main lead core link.

Step 11,

Add a hook link and you are done. I find that a small piece of rubber tubing is superb at stopping tangles and making sure that the hook link does not move out of the quick change swivel. If you use component 8 (a tear drop link) you get extra security on the quick change link.

Conclusion
As you can see this method of constructing a helicopter rig, if completed as indicated should produce a very safe rig capable of detaching the hook link from the lead core / lead if the line snaps at any time.
For more info on this and other rigs please see the FOX guide to rigs available from Amazon ( and others ) at this link. Please note I am in no way affiliated with FOX or Amazon.

Let me begin this article by stating, for the record, that there is no original thought in this rig. This is not to denigrate the article or my thinking in the 1st line but there is very little “original thinking” in 99% of carp rigs today. Almost all carp rigs are just an evolution on someone else’s ideas or are designed to encourage people to buy more rig components. The main exceptions to this in recent years ( after the hair rig) have been the Drig, the Chod rig the combi rig ( and coated braid ) and the now ( thankfully) banned “bent hook” rig. There have possibly been more but these are the ones that I can think of and the ones that I use or have used on occasion.

This rig is the product of several years of thinking and would not have been possible with out ” a little help from my friends”. To explain, earlier in 2009 I was a little annoyed that I couldn’t get a good hook hold which was strange as when I 1st started to use long shanked hooks that is all I got but over time I managed to migrate to short hairs and stiff flurocarbon and the hook holds got poorer and poorer. Then a chance discussion with a mate ( who is sponsored) and an impromptu rig clinic on the bank and I was set straight. later in the year whilst on a fishing holiday I had the chance to have a good look at a mates rigs and ( with his permission) incorporate a good chunk of what he was doing into my rig design.  Not only did catch rates improve but also losses decreased which was crucial at the time due to the hard fighting nature of the fishing the lake.

Without further delay lets go into the main components of the rig.

Starting from the top left,

Fox 1mm Silicone tubing, Fox Armapoint size 6 LS, Fox Coretex 20lb in Weedy green, Fox Shrink tubing (1.2 -0.4mm)

Braid blades, Fox braid stops, Baiting needle’s ( at least 1 needs to be a pointed end type)

Korda boillie stops, Fox tungsten rig putty.

Please note that this rig works best with a long shanked hook, you just need to match the size of the hook to your bait.  As I am using a 20mm boillie and a small dumbell a size 6 is fine. If I were using  two 20mm boillies I would drop to a size 4 and remember to scale down if you drop the bait size.

Step 1,

Take you coretex and strip the coating from about 6 inches, Cortex is lovely in this respect as you only need to use your fingernail rather than having to buy a “stripping tool”  which may or may not cut into the braid. I have chosen weedy green as bottom of the lake I want to fish it on, whilst hard, has a lot of odd stalks of weed floating around.

Step2,

Next slide on a piece of the 1mm rubber and a Fox braid stop. I would really suggest using the Fox stops rather than the cheaper “float” stops you can buy as once it has locked onto the braid it really is locked in place. The cheaper stops you can get will move under pressure and with water ingress which really messes up the whole point of having it on the rig. More on the use for this stop later. Once these 2 items are on your braid, tie the normal loop in the end of your hair. Bait up as you normally would at this point :

Note that this rig is designed as a multi bait rig, it doesn’t matter what size of bait you are using but if you are using 2 baits and you don’t use the braid stop there is a huge danger that the baits will separate and the bottom bait will drop down the hair and sit against the hook ie

If this happens the whole mechanics of the rig will be affected and when the angler reels in the bottom bait will move back to its original position, leaving the angler completely unaware that his rig was not fishing as effectively as it might. Anyway one with the rest of the rig instructions.

Step 3,

Take your chosen hook, in this case a Fox Armapoint size 6 Long Shank, and slide it through the silicone tubing. Position the hook to give the correct hair length and tie a knotless knot ( see the articles section – basic rigs for the knotless knot).

Step 4,

Take a 3cm section of the Fox shrink tube and using a pointed baiting needle push the needle through one wall of the tubing about 3mm from one end. Use the needle to pull the Cortex through the tubing. Make sure that you use the extreme end of the braid to hook the needle “barb” onto so that if you do damage the braid it will not matter. Next work the tubing up the braid to the knotless knot on the hook and ensure that the shrink tube covers the whole of the knot. Align the braid coming out of the shrink tube so that the braid exits the tube opposite the hook point as per the picture above.

Step 5,

Shrink the shrink tube over a kettle and holding the hook with a pair of forceps, pull the braid so that the tubing cools at a 45 degree angle. Finish up the other end with a figure of 8 knot and you are done. You now are the proud owner of a proven fish catching rig that will allow you to fish 2 boillies snowman style with no danger of the boillies slipping down the hair and changing the mechanics of the rig.

Once the rig is in the water it should sit like this :

Both baits nice and tight to each other presenting themselves as one enticing morsel of food.

Do you have any comments on this rig ? Do you think it can be improved ? what ever you think scroll to the bottom and post a comment I try to reply if I can and if you have any suggestions for improvement I will make them and repost the results here.

Well some of you may know that I was unhappy with my rods, don’t get me wrong they were fine rods but 2 3/4 lb tc middle / tip action rods were not actually cutting it where I was fishing. I have lightweight rods in my stalking kit so I decided that to go with my new Fox 12k reels ( well not so new now) what better than a set of Fox rods. I had the advantage of a “try before you buy” when I met up with Mark for a quick session earlier in the year and I was very impressed. So armed with this knowledge I bought myself a 3 some of rods off of the Internet.

When the rods arrived it was like Xmas and I couldn’t wait to get on the bank with them, I popped out to Bosbaan for a quick session in August. Well I was noting but impressed. As you can not loose feed in the lake I tend to fish with largish PVA bags or sticks. This used to present an issue to my previous rods as they lacked the backbone to really punch out a 3 Oz lead and bag. Not so with the Fox rods, they load up nice and slow and release all that power exactly where you want them. Some of the casts in the lake are 85-90 yards and with a big bag it is a difficult cast. Sure, anyone can punch a single hook bait out to 150 yards but add a bag and you really sort out the pack.

As I wanted to cover more of the power range I opted for the 3lb TC versions. I had never used such heavy rods before but I decided to push the boat out so to say as I already has other lighter rods in my stalking kit. I was a little apprehensive that the rods would be too stiff and would be merely casting machines and not really for playing fish. I need not have worried, on that 1st night I caught 5 carp to low 20′s and each one of them gave a spirited account of its self. The rods had turned out to be real boon in playing fish. The extra backbone meant that there was far more power to be brought to bear when a fish turned powerfully on a run.

The handles need to be specially mentioned as they are a really nice touch on an already superb product. The reel seat has what appears to be a massive bulge at the front, which seems ungainly at first. That is until you hold it. The bulge neatly fills the palm of your hand giving you far more to hold onto and giving bundles of confidence when laying the power down in a cast. Additionally when you are playing a fish, with to-days ultra slim blanks, i find that my hand used to get very tired as it is like I am trying to grip a long pencil with a carp at the end the bulge really makes that a thing of the past.

On a recent holiday to France in August / September I was faced with a huge expanse of water in my chosen swim with no real features. So I decided to make my own feeding zone on the only hard bit of gravel I could find. Then fish 2 rods on and near by with the 3rd rod as a rover. This roving rod caught its fair share of fish and it was largely due to being able to punch out a single hook bait / tiny stick to huge ranges in front of me to explore where the fish might be lurking. The power of the rods was really bought home to me however, when I landed my new PB at 39lbs. The fish was so powerful it really strained the kit to its limits and was not a “plodder” at all but a super charged Ferrari of a fish. I really doubt that I would have been able to maintain the control I did given that I had a massive snag right next to me.

In conclusion, a superb product at an amazing price. They have really put extra fish in the bank for me and I am certain that they will for you too.

A 39.15 taken at the end of the holiday on a Fox Horizon SFD 3lb TC rod