Tag Archives: Carp Rig

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Discover a Secret Amazing Carp Fishing Rig

Hello!

Like a lot of keen carp anglers I carp fish throughout the fishing season as much in winter as I do in the summer months, it was during one frustrating fishing session that I came up with this rig by pure chance last winter.

After an hour or so walking around the lake, I managed to find the carp, got set up found some likely areas to place baits, once baits were cast out and freebies scatted in the same area, all that was left was to have a fresh brew and soak up the early morning winter sun.

During the course of the morning I had carp activity in the spots that I was fishing, but to no avail the carp were not having it, the bait I was using was a proven home made boilie mix that always worked well for me in the winter months.

What was up with those wily carp?

Later in during the morning a pleasure angler friend turned up for a days fishing and set up in the next swim to mine, at least I could have some good company even though I was pulling my hair out!

While my friend set his gear up, I made us some much welcome hot tea.

Walking over to him with mugs of tea in hand, he was just finishing catapulting some maggots around his float. This is when I had a ‘light bulb’ idea – what about maggots for the carp?  They were used years ago but nobody seemed to use them for carp these days, so I thought I’d give them a go on one rod as I had nothing to lose.

After scratching my head for a rig to use the maggots with I came up with a rig along these lines…it has since proved a great success summer or winter.

How to make the rig – I tied a normal hook link about 18 inches long, the hook link was made from 12lb fluorocarbon line, the hook being a korda hybrid teflon coated wide gape size 8, at the other end I tied a size 10 berkley swivel.

Obtain a length of 2lb mono line about a foot long and a 12mm cork ball.

I simply threaded the length of 2lb line through the middle of the cork ball using a sewing needle, tied a slip knot around the cork ball, cut the short line tail off, now I tied the remaining 2lb line with cork ball attached, to the eye of the hook and whipped the 2lb line around the hook shank, the distance between bend of hook and cork ball was about 25mm. (this can be a little difficult with the cork ball in the way – you should be able to whip it around once and knot it so the 2lb line and cork ball follow directly from the back of the hook shank)

Now I picked up four maggots with one hand, holding the taper end of them, with my other hand I have a tube of super glue which I just dab on the maggots at the other end and stick them to the cork ball! Repeat this until the entire cork ball is covered in maggots – this hook link can be tied to any terminal tackle / lead weight combination of your choice. Now not forgetting your putty weight as this is a pop-up rig, place a small piece of lead-free putty or lead free shot on the hook link just below the hook eye and test it in the margin water, just so it sinks slowly, once it does you’re ready to go!   You may laugh at this rig – but it sure works.

During that winter session I caught a 23lb mirror carp within 30minutes of casting the rig out! Also in the early morning I landed a 25lb common carp on the same rig.

Yes maybe small potatoes in today’s carp fishing scene of forties, but I have shown this rig to other friends and they have done equally well, one chap who was really struggling on his venue used it and second time out, fished the ‘cork ball maggots rig’ over his bed of boilies and caught the lake record!

One of the main reasons I think this rig works so well is, presently most carp anglers I see have their baits so close to the hook, and they’ve done this for many years now, the carp learn very quickly especially the older bigger monsters, this rig gives more bait movement near the hook, and of course it is something different that the carp have not seen, imagine if you glued pink maggots to that cork ball what a sight – pop-upped just off the lake bottom, blimey just irresistible for those finicky carp!!

For more Carp Fishing Secrets – check out my website.

To Your Success, Good Luck and Tight Lines…

Dennis

Dennis R. Black…A Keen Carp Angler with over 30 years experience. To find out more about Big Carp Fishing Secrets and obtain a FREE ‘How to Guide on Modern Carp Fishing DVD’ visit:
http://www.carp-fishing-techniques.co.uk

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