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THE TRICKY CARP RIG

In the evolution of new rigs and finding ways to trick the wariest of carp it sometimes pays to take a step back in time.

I have always been an advocate of just using one of 3 rigs for the most part not including PVA bag rigs and chods because I think you can get to bogged down in rigs and development.

For the most part if you find a carp and put a half decent rig in front of it presented well with a good bait you are going to get a bite. That changes a little on pressured waters where those 1% changes I go on about really make a difference and you will get bites when the fish are in front of you. Then you get to the next level… Old wary carp that have seen it all, they laugh at your ronnie and shake it off with ease, your Withy doesn’t stand a chance and your slip-d does nothing. This is where rig mechanics get really interesting for me. Trying to fool those carp that can use the lead to shake off any rig. That carp in your lake that no one can stop ejecting their rigs.

I feel I encounter that problem on every lake I fish. I tend to want to catch the oldest fish in the lake, I like the characters, the ones that don’t come out very often. They don’t have to be the biggest or the best looking. In fact, the older and crustier the better for me. These can tend to be the carp that have seen every rig going and have figured out how to get rid of those rigs.

I remember years ago trying a hooklink called TRIGGALINK from Nash, I liked it, it seemed ‘edgy’ but I hated the colour of it and I would rub it in the dirt before using it to try and conceal it.

You see Triggalink is a bit of a special hooklink; It is a supple braid interwoven with PVA. Triggalink becomes ‘primed’ and elasticized when it gets wet but amazingly once dried the hooklink reverts back to the characteristics of a normal non-stretch braid. This means it Loads the hook point differently, when a carp tightens Triggalink to the lead the hook is almost catapulted in, carp simply don’t know how to deal with the elasticity of it.

Giving the Carp a bungee like hooklink to deal with whilst trying to use the lead to get rig of the rig is pretty much checkmate. The crazy thing about Triggalink is that it’s hardly ever used by anyone! Even when the likes of Jim Shelly is a huge advocate of it.

So I have decided to give it a go again.

Before I show you the rig I use it with it is worth noting that it will probably change over time until I am really happy with it. It is also worth noting that the first time I used this rig about 10 days ago I did catch on it… Probably the oldest crustiest fish in the lake…. And I also have a sneaky suspicion that the fish had the rig in its mouth for about 5 minutes before it ripped off. You can see what happened as it is all filmed for an upcoming Feature video due out in a week or two over on our YouTube channel.

I am currently using this rig with the baiting pole and bits of loose feed like flake and pellets. So a short rig of 6 inches to a big heavy 4oz inline lead and a small wafter hookbait to blend in with the loose feed. You can use this stuff for any rig though so experiment with it.

Lets get on with the rig…

Firstly you need to tie your hook section… Yes it is another combi style rig…

Take your uncoated braid, tie a hair loop in the end and thread on your chosen bait…

Next you need a medium rig ring. Tie this onto your hooklink 5mm away from your bait with an overhand knot. Than pass your hook through it like so.

Finish this off by tying a knotless knot on your hook.

 

Cut a section of shrink tube about 10mm long, thread it onto your hook section then shrink it down with an aggressive curve in it to create a ‘claw’.

Next up is the Triggalink.. Cut a length off (My rig is going to be 6 inches when finished so I probably cut off about 12 inches). You can see how bright it is! Don’t worry about that yet, we have a fix…  Fold over the end section and get ready for the Albright Knot.

You want to tie your knot as close to the hook as possible so when you tighten it down the hook section is quite short.

The finished knot ends up around 15mm from the hook so it can have some flexibility.

I then slide a Tungsten weight over the knot to add some counterbalance for when the rig is picked up. This ensures the hook point is pointing down.

Tie a figure of eight loop knot in the other end at your desired length and your rig is almost finished.

Here is the trick with the brightly coloured hooklink! I use the Nash TT Marker Pens…. you get three colours for different lake beds, I generally always go with black, It is odourless once it is applied and doesn’t come off. Making that stand out material blend in. I’ve tested this stuff in a tank for 3 days and it still doesn’t come off.

The lead arrangement for this application is one one of my pre-tied Cling-On leaders with a drop off 4oz inline lead.

The rig then loops on to the spare ring on the double ring swivel. This ensures maximum effect of the leads weight until the point that the lead discharges.

One thing you have to ensure, before you put your rig out make sure the Triggalink is already wet and retracted, other wise it will pull your hook back to your lead when it shrinks possibly hooking debris or masking the hook point.

Measured out hook to lead it is 6 inches when dry…

When wet it retracts to 5 inches. It will go a little further than that over time. Giving it an inch of stretch and movement for the carp to deal with.

The finished rig in the water with the wafter.

The black coloured hooklink really helps disguise the rig on the lake bed.

And the Carp that slipped up on the rigs first outing.. The exact type fish I wanted to try to catch wit the rig. Old, Gnarly and seen it all!

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