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- Rigs and Leads
RIGS AND LEADS
By Jeff Vaughan
It seems I start each one of these posts with a caveat, I guess
this is because I fish in Canada in a totally different way to
how I fish in Europe. I do everything for a reason, but guess
knowing so many carp purists back in the UK I know people will
read this and think I am either a “Noddy” or plain taking the
piss. I will simply tell it as it is. What I do and why I do it.
The only thing I can say in my defence is most of our visitors
from Europe start off fishing European style, and most have
adopted all or most of my recommendations before they go home as
a result of loosing so many fish on their normal rigs.
Leads

In England everyone has their favourite leads. Different shapes,
colours and types. In Canada I use only the above basic leads
and these are in the grey colour as shown. In fairness I did
order green, but the supplier is apparently colour blind. I
honestly do not think out here the colour makes any difference
at all. As you can see we stock the two basic lead types; swivel
leads and inline leads. In the main this is a matter of personal
choice and makes little real difference. I fish almost always
with a swivel lead, the main reason being I can change lead
types and weights very easily, if I do hook bottom, I can often
loose only the lead and not everything and as my rods are always
left “made up” I like to unclip the lead when not in use so it
cannot bang into the carbon blank.
A great many of my customers use inline leads and I especially
recommend them to people who are less experienced, as they are
very easy to use. I “feel” I can cast a swivel lead further than
an inline lead (although I can give no logic to this claim) and
some people say inline leads are prone to tangling in very deep
water. I must say I rarely ever see an inline tangle which is
why I recommend them. I stock all leads in 2.5oz. 3 oz. 3.5oz.
and 4.5oz. I stock the lighter weights for those who do not have
a “proper” carp rod. I almost always recommend fishing fixed
“bolt” rigs and 2.5 oz is close to the minimum to make a bolt
rig work and 3oz and above is better. Personally I use 3.5 or
4.5oz leads almost exclusively
GRIPPER leads: As the name implies both types of gripper leads,
are flattened to give the widest possible surface area for the
weight, they are also covered in “pimples” to help them grip the
bottom. The shape is obviously not very aerodynamic so they will
not cast as far as conventional leads. I use grippers in all
flowing water swims. I had the swivel gripper intentionally made
with a hole in the middle for two reasons. Firstly it again
increases the surface area so helps hold bottom better, but it
will also work like a method feeder with ground bait moulded to
it, They are also very quick and easy to tie PVA bags or mesh
too.
BOMB/INLINE TORPEDO. These leads are obviously more aerodynamic
than the Grippers, and most of the weight is forward in the tip.
They will cast much better than the Grippers but not hold bottom
as well. To be fair there are few swims at Long Sault where
these leads will not hold bottom but I will religiously fish
bombs/torpedo’s in still or almost still water and Grippers in
the flow.
DISTANCE leads: As you can see these are the jet fighters of the
lead world. They are shaped like, and cast like a bullet. The
down side being they will roll easily on the bottom in a
reasonable flow of water. I have some distance leads in my bag,
but rarely use them. The difference between distances achieved
between the bomb and the true distance lead would make zero
difference to 99.9% of my fishing. I prefer the bomb because I
“feel” it gives more resistance to the carp on the take and
therefore sets the hook better on a bolt rig.
TUBING/LEAD/HOOK ATTACHMENT

The above photograph shows the three basic rigs I use at Long
Sault. I will break these down into components as follows
TUBING; I would recommend always using some form of anti tangle
tubing for three reasons. Firstly the tubing will stop most
instances of the hook length coming back up the line and
tangling up. The thicker, more rigid and slippery tubing tends
to make the hook length “slide off” the tubing rather than catch
as it would with a bare mainline. The basic rule to achieve this
effect is for the tube length to be at least as long as the hook
length and preferably 2 inches longer. Secondly and perhaps most
important, when the fish is hooked and powering off the tubing
will be the main part in contact with the fishes fins and back.
We use a lot of braid in Canada, and this can easily cut into
the fish, or split its dorsal fin. The tubing helps prevent
this. Thirdly, for much of the time you are fishing amongst
rocks covered in very sharp mussels. The tubing gives protection
around the lead area which is the most likely part to be in
contact with the bottom. Tubing will cut down on the number of
cut offs.
The photographs show three rigs. The top two using rigid hard
plastic tubing, and the bottom one using the more conventional
soft silicon tube. All three rigs can be used with either soft
or hard tube. In England I use only the soft tubing, although I
used to use the hard stuff “back in the day” as my partner Bob
Sloan invented it (along with the monkey climber and the stiff
rig……a bit of useless information for you) I often tell Brits
fishing Canada “think the UK carp scene 20 years back” The fish
are not at all rig shy so cheap and easy is the best way.
Mostly we are fishing 65lb or more commonly 80Lb braid. It is so
much quicker and easier to thread the rigid tube than the soft
tubing. Soft tubing is also slightly more prone to tangling.
Personally I use the soft tubing, but only because it looks
better (I am supposed to be a professional after all) However I
always have the rigid tube in the bag and if I get cut off
whilst fishing I will immediately change to the rigid to get
back in the water fast.
I have repeated many times, if you have a shoal of fish in front
of you it is about speed, the faster you get back in the more
you will catch before they move. The fish do not know the
difference between hard and soft. I usually recommend to my
visitors to use the hard stuff simply because it is cheaper and
easier for them. This year I have ordered the plastic in two
lengths 12 inch and 14 inch and have ordered 1.5 mm inside
diameter silicon in two meter lengths to cut to whatever size
you like. Generally I use about 14 to 18 inches of soft,
sometimes longer if fishing over very rocky areas ( to avoid cut
offs) Another thing everyone should buy is a stainless steel
stringer. These are lengths of twisted stainless wire like a
giant 3 feet long baiting needle it makes threading your tubing
so much easier. I sell them in the shop for around $5.00 they
are worth their weight in gold. Another tip with tubing out here
is to trim your tail rubbers down a little. The tubing we use is
thicker than the standard (because we use thicker lines) normal
tail rubbers are too small at the end to fit easily over the
tube. Trim back the end a little and the hole gets bigger.
LEAD ATTACHMENT: The Inline rig is self explanatory; you then
have the rigid tube with the built in wire lead clip and the
safety rig. This is one of those funny ones. Visitors to my shop
know I do not really recommend safety clips, Yet I often use
them myself!! The reason I do not recommend them is because used
properly you will loose a lead on almost every fish (this is
what they are designed to do.) This is OK back in England when
you are getting 4 fish in 24 hours. It gets bloody expensive
over here. When I use the safety clip I use tight tail rubbers
and really push them hard over the sleeve. Once you have done
this it is no longer a safety clip, so you may as well use
something cheaper anyway! In essence it makes very little
difference how you attach the lead to the rig, as long as you
are not causing damage to the mainline, making a rig that
tangles easily or creating a “Tether Rig” which can lead to the
damage or death of a fish.
You will notice all three of these rigs are fixed Bolt rigs. I
almost never fish anything else in Canada. If you fish running
leads or very light leads you will hook maybe 6 out of 10 runs.
If you use a good bolt rig you will hook 9 out of 10. So the
only reason to not use a bolt is if this leads to a lot more
runs. This almost never happens here. I always have the
“makings” of a running rig in my bag. If I am getting a lot of
twitches or short aborted runs I will try a running rig. I think
I did this once last year. Normally you get one or two “taps”
and then the reel is screaming and the fish hooked.
I mentioned above a TETHER rig. It is important I explain this.
If I did not care about the fish I would simply use a three way
swivel, the hook length and mainline tied to two of the swivel
eyes and the lead clipped onto the third. This is a great rig in
every way, but it is a Tether rig. If for any reason the
mainline breaks or gets cut off the lead and hook is firmly
embedded in the fish. With such a rig it is easy for the fish to
become “Tethered” whereby the lead gets caught in some e rocks
or weed and the fish is stuck hard. If the hook is in firmly the
fish cannot escape and will either rip itself to pieces or die.
ALL the rigs above are ANTI THETHER rigs. On all of the above
rigs the swivel is the correct size to push tightly, but not too
tightly into the lead, silicon rubber or safety clip. If the
main line breaks and the fish gets the lead caught it will be
able to pull the swivel out of the rig and free itself from the
lead. A fish will loose a hook fairly quickly (particularly a
barbless hook.) This is many times harder trailing a lead. As an
added precaution, I normally fish lighter hook lengths than the
mainline, so any direct break will happen at the knot between
the hook length and the swivel. However at Long Sault and I
suspect many other places in Canada there are a lot of Zebra
mussels so it is quite common to be cut off above the lead.
Please make sure you are fishing anti tether rigs.
There are of course dozens of other rigs you can use. For
example I used Helicopter rigs for several years, as I like
these back in the UK. The helicopter rig has the lead tied
directly to the mainline and the hook length tied to a swivel.
The swivel is on the mainline, in such a way that it can revolve
360 degrees around the line (Hence the name helicopter) There
are various gadgets to make a Heli rig and I have several such
items in the shop. The reason I went off Heli rigs is the same
reason all my rigs end up simplified. The fish here fight so
hard and the action so fast you quickly break or buggar any rig
or item of tackle that has a weakness. In the case of a Heli rig
the pull of the fish, by the nature of the set up is at a slight
angle, and therefore not a direct, straight line pull. Over the
course of several fish, eventually this unnatural angle of pull
weakens or breaks the rig. Normally Heli rigs have a form of
thin tube on which the swivel with the hook link revolves. This
is held in place with two fixed beads. No matter what brand I
have tried, the tubing will fairly quickly crack and break. You
can see all the rigs I am suggesting are straight line rigs.
Logic dictates this must be the strongest way to fish. If
someone knows better I am always happy to learn.
Before I leave rigs, some small tips re casting. There is
nothing worse than casting and fishing for 30 minutes or an hour
without action only to bring in a tangled rig. (Except fishing
with a tangled rig in England or France where the bait may have
been out for 6 hours) Two simple things will ensure very few or
zero tangles. Where possible cast a little harder than you need
to hit your spot, and get used to slowing down the lead (called
feathering) before it hit the water. What this does is allow the
bait to catch up and pass the heavier lead before it hits the
water. It only takes a little practice to lightly “cup” the
spool with your hand, sufficiently to slow down the line leaving
the spool but not stop it. You will see all good carp anglers
doing this without even being conscious of it any more. The
second tip, again where possible is to try to let the lead and
rig sink under some pressure. Once you get used to feathering
the cast your line will automatically be in a nice straight line
to your rig. If you tighten down immediately the bait hits the
water and wind slowly you again will straighten out the bait and
avoid tangles. Letting it sink under pressure is more important
in deep water. If you want you can also use soluble rig foam on
the hook. The very buoyant nature of the foam helps straighten
the hook link on the drop avoiding tangles I do not want to make
a big thing of rig tangles, with simple rigs such as the ones I
have shown tangles are fairly rare. Personally I also use a
stiffish hook length which again cuts down the possibility of
tangles.
HAIR RIGS

The above photographs show some close ups of three hair rigs
based on the simple knotless knot. The first photo is straight
off the wall of my UK shop and is an ESP rig. This is the
standard hair rig we all know and love. The two L/S (Long Sault)
rigs are what I use and, as always;) I have modified the basic
rig to suit Canada.
The first comparison to make is the position of the knot used to
form the loop of the hair Normally we tie the knots to produce a
very small loop; this knot can therefore be hidden inside the
boilie and is very neat. I tie my loops much larger so the knot
sits behind the bait, not inside it. The reason I do this is
because we use a lot of maize/corn out here and the standard
method of the knot going inside the bait tends to split the corn
and you have to change baits more often. As I have said before I
fish mainly boilies, but still tie my own rigs this way as it
makes no difference to my boilie fishing but a huge difference
if I switch to maize.
The L/S rig with a knot, I claim no credit for, it was shown to
me by Gary Bayes of Nash Tackle and is I think a great tip.
BEFORE you start your knotless knot, tie a simple overhand loop
(half hitch) as close as you can to your loop for the hair. Put
the point of the hook through this half hitch, position the knot
where you want it and tighten down BUT DO NOT TIGHTEN FULLY. You
must then pinch the knot on the hook with your fingers to stop
it moving, put the end of the hook length without the hair, up
through the eye of the hook and tie as normal. This extra knot
does several things. Like all my fishing is a very quick, cheap
and easy way to achieve what I want. The small knot on the line
acts in a similar way to shrink tube, where you can align the
position so that the hair leaves the shank of the hook closer to
the hook point, which can aid fish hooking. It also acts in a
similar way as a blow back rig, traditionally these are made
with small stainless rings in pace of the half hitch, and are
fiddly to tie, but work well. By not tightening the half hitch
fully, when the fish tries to blow out the bait the knot will
slide up the shank of the hook giving the fish less leverage to
eject the bait. I personally, have a thing about the angle a
regular hook hangs when using pop ups or critically balanced
baits. This rig stays in a nice straight line with these baits
and gives me more confidence. I fish this hook rig 95% of the
time now, but only started last year (2007.) Before that I
happily used the standard L/S rig for years.
I have mentioned hook link materials else where but I would like
to again make some points. I strongly recommend 50 lb Fire line
for hook length material. When I tell good carp guys this, I can
see in their reaction they think I am an animal. Look at the
above photos, the shop bought rig is tied to 20 lb uncoated
braid, mine are tied to 50 lb fire line. Bearing in mind that
99% of the fish out here have a never seen a hook, do you think
the extra thickness makes a difference? If you use coated braids
like Snake Skin or Snake Bite, it is even thicker than the fire
line!! I started out using 25lb coated hook lengths like the
Kryston stuff, because that is what I was used to. I had
problems. On a good day here you can expect over 20 to 30 fish,
these will be between 17 lb and 39 lb on average and most of
them plus 20`s. They also fight like mad. What happens to your
tackle is the first 5 or 6 fish take all the strength out of it:
The stretch has gone, the line, rigs have been dragged amongst
the rocks, your knots have been jammed tighter and tighter etc.
A 25 lb hook length is fine to catch even a 60 or a 70 lb carp,
BUT NOT AFTER IT HAS BEEN KNACKERED BY A RAPID SUCCESSION OF
BATTLES.
A few tips when tying a knotless knot: When you start your
winding down the shank first check the position where the wire
bent to form the eye meets the shank, and wind your line so the
first turn is against the smooth side i.e. NOT where the wire
meets the shank. Next, do not be afraid to put plenty of turns
down the shank, in theory the closer the point where the hair
leaves the shank is to the point of the hook the better the
hooking potential ( the added knot solves this of course) Lastly
something I see a lot of. When you pass the line through the eye
of the hook for the final part of the knot, the line should come
out towards the point NOT away from it (see photos) You will
note the hooks shown are barbed hooks, I prefer to use these
with the barbs crushed down ( just squeeze down the barb with
pliers or forceps) , I prefer this to a totally barbless hook,
as it leaves a tiny micro barb, is fish friendly and easy to
use. Lastly once fishing, get fanatical about checking the point
of the hooks, it is amazing how often the point will get
“turned” or damaged on the rocks. I check my hook every single
cast, and have a sharpening stone or a new rig at hand all the
time.
LEAD CORE: I would like to mention briefly lead core and back
leads. In my opinion in MOST swims at Long Sault the very worse
thing you can do is use lead core or back leads (I too use these
when I am in the UK.) The reason I say this is that the bottom
is covered in rocks which in turn are covered in very sharp
zebra mussels. Most of the time I am keeping my rods as high as
possible, and as much line as possible off of the bottom. The
fish here are not spooky with line, and also very curiously we
do not get many line bites. However lead core and to a lesser
extent back leads do have a place in Canada. In the early spring
when the fish at Long Sault are in the shallow weedy bays I use
lead core. The bottom is crushed shells and fairly flat, the
water only 3 to 4 feet deep and lots of fish are moving around,
so I like my line as close to the bottom as possible. I am sure
elsewhere in Canada lead core and back leads also have a place,
but not in most of the swims we fish
So that is my rig bit. No mention of Chod rigs, Swimmer rigs,
Zig rigs etc, etc, etc. If you want to know how to make or use
other rigs ask me and I will tell you, but my honest advice is
the good old KISS system…. Keep It Simple, Stupid!!
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