Tag Archives: Pool

Carp Fishing Rigs The Hair Rig

Carp fishing Rigs The Hair Rig

Carp fishing has evolved over the years into what has become a highly specialised pass time.   I have read some where that more people go fishing at the weekends than go to football matches which is pritty astounding really, this just shows us how popular our sport is. You should also know that carp fishing rigs have also changed over the years and you must keep up with this technology if you want to catch more carp.

I remember being on holiday many years ago at warmwell, this was a holiday park with several fishing lakes of which one was a specimen carp pool. Warmwell became famous in later years as it was home to a 38lb carp and in those days that was out of the ordinary, there simply was not carp of this size that average joe could fish for. There were still many lakes that held fish of this size but there were top secret and very private, you never got to know about these venues and the carp fishing rigs that were being used,

I remember walking round the lake In the evening and feeling like I shouldn’t be there, non of the anglers seemed to want to talk to me.  I started talking to two lads who were quite friendly, the had caught a carp and had it sacked up, fior anybody who is new to carp fishing I will explain what sacked up is.

Carp fishermen usually sack a carp when they have caught a specimen fish during the night and want to take pictures in the morning in the light. They simply put the fish in a ‘carp sack’ which is a sack that the carp is placed in and tied to the bank, the fish is perfectly happy in the sack for a few hours.

The fish they had sacked was a 22lb mirror carp which they had caught on tutti fruti boile carp fishing rigs. At this time hair rigs were relatively new on the Market and were being used by all the top carp anglers.

There are many differnt types of carp fishing rigs,So just what is a hair rig?. Well in simple terms it’s a loop that hangs below the hook, this has a massive advantage of leaving the bait hanging just below the hook completely free. When a carp has sucked in the bait  
they cannot see or feel the hook, as the bait is sucked in so is the hook the carp is yours !.There are many variations of these carp fishing rigs and I will be explaining these in more detail in futher articles.

You may be asking how the bait (boilie) is attached to the hair rig?. Well a boilie is about the same size and shape as a marbel. The boilie is drilled with a boilie punch and the hair is threaded through the hole , now we need to ensure the boile stays on the hair which is done by fixing a boilie stop through the loop that has been threaded through the the hole in the boile, the bait is then pushed down on to the bait stop and will never come off,  this is just one example for carp fishing rigs.

The boilie stop is simply a very small piece of plastic or you can use a strand of grass, this will stop the bait coming of the hair rig. You can now cast your bait 150 yards plus knowing that it won’t come off. As I have already mentioned there are many variations of carp fishing rigs including many different types of hair rigs, these will be explained in future articles.

Steve Kempson is a fishing fanatic who has specialised in Carp fishing for over 21 years. His personal best Carp is 29lb 2oz from Horse Shoe Lake in the UK. For more information go to Carp Fishing Tips

The Carp Fishing Record – Will The Next One Count?

The emergence of Carp fishing as an expanding specialist sport during the seventies has grown ever more popular, one of the pioneers of carp fishing was the great Richard Walker who was a renowned Carp specialist in the forties and fifties. His record Carp Clarissa lived her days out in captivity after being caught at Redmire Pool, she weighed in at 44lbs and is possibly the most famous fish in the angling world.


But why was she so famous and why has Carp fishing continued to be so popular?


Well Clarissa was special, she not only broke the British record she smashed it, almost doubling the previous record of 26lb and this type of record breaking in fishing is unheard of in modern times. In addition to this apart from the Salmon caught in 1922 by Mrs Ballantyne it was the biggest freshwater fish ever caught.


She was possibly the most inspirational fish that a single generation has ever experienced and lived to the age of 34 before her death in Regents Park Zoo in 1971. It is probable that the death was premature and if left in the wild Clarissa may well have reached an age of 50 or 60 years. The tragedy here is that after her capture and transfer to the Zoo she never grew any bigger, contrast this to other fish in Redmire including the fish caught by Chris Yates at 51lb then a conclusion could be made that Clarissa never reached her true potential.


There is a train of thought that Clarissa could have eventually weighed 60lb had she been left in her natural home and imagine what that would have done for Carp fishing!


Add all this to this the fact that Richard Walker was a prolific writer as well as a prolific angler then the two combined factors would be the inspiration for countless young people to get into Carp Fishing. The next ingredient is the “air of superiority” and the atmosphere of secrecy that surrounds the carp world when you add this to the technical innovation and development of techniques and tackle then there is truly a magical draw for many people.


As time went by the growth of publicity for successful specialist carp anglers started to drive the potential to earn real money from the sport. Sponsorship, tackle design, bait evolution and syndicate waters started to provide anglers with the potential to earn serious money and many anglers either partnered or setup business around their success. Magazines and advertising then came on the scene and now there are many television programmes on SKY television and other subscription based media.


Tackle development has continued at an amazing rate and the industry continues to grow, its now more than 35 years since Clarissa died, there have been a string of new pretenders to her crown, bigger fish of course but none with the same aura and esteem.


Now as we move through 2007 we now see a new direction, the imported monsters that are coming into the country are being stocked at weights in excess of Clarissa when she broke the record!


These fast grown bloated fish are about to break and break again the Carp record but not one of these fish will ever match Clarissa no matter how big they are caught at. Of course the original strains of Carp were brought to the UK by the Romans, monks also farmed them and many stately homes were stocked with a new strain of Carp in between 1930 and 1940, it is known that some of these fish reached ages of 60+ which is amazing.


I liken this latest crop of imports to comparing a true diamond with Cubic Zirconia, you can have the biggest rock in the world on display on your finger but if its not a true diamond it is worthless!


Where will this end? Well the first issue will be whether to accept these new fish as true records (a dilemma already faced in the trout fishing world), secondly identifying the fish as a true contender or not, these are two very difficult questions which will now rock and divide the Carp fishing world over the next months and years.

Shaun Parker has been a Carp fisherman since 1970 the year before the world famous British carp record Clarissa died. The modern era enables him to get his Carp bait and Fishing Tackle online.

Episode1 Carp Fishing For Beginners with Harry on his very first day on Turners Pool


This short video covers Harry’s new Carp Fishing set up, and his first ever days Carp Fishing. Where he’s put through his paces and gets to grips with new equipment on a Cheshire water, Turners Pool. This video contains screaming runs, plenty of fish on the bank, and explains the method he’s using to put them on the bank. A young Chris Yates in the making. A good first day was had, well done Harry.