Carp Catchers Blog

The advantages of this rig is that it provides all the anti eject properties of a normal fluorocarbon rig but the bait has a lot more movement to help with the flipping and hooking process. The soft hair material also allows the weight of the hook to come into play when the fish picks up the bait.

For this demonstration I used Korda IQ Fluorocarbon, a Korda Wide Gape Hook, a Korda Ring Swivel and ESP Hair Braid.

Step 1.

Remove about 4-5 inches of Hair Braid from the spool dispenser and tie a small overhand loop in one end.

Step 2.

Thread the tag end through the back of the eye of the Korda Wide Gape and hold the hair at the required length.

Step 3.

Moving away from the join in the eye whip round the hook shank 5 times and pass the tag end through the back of the eye again.

Step 4.

Now trim the hair braid in front of the eye, then repeat steps 2-3 with the Korda IQ Fluorocarbon but whip up the shank 7 times and twice on the way back down before passing the tag end through the back of the eye and tighten down gently. Then trim the fluorocarbon above the knot leaving just a little fluorocarbon pertruding.

Please note for the purpose of this knot demonstration the Knotless knot with the fluorocarbon was done without the hair braid already on the hook, when tying this rig you will be tying the fluorcarbon over the hair braid Knotless knot.

Step 5.

Using a palomar knot tie the fluorcarbon to the ring on the swivel setting the rig at your desired length making sure to moisten the knot and tighten down gently before trimming the tag end.

Double over the fluorocarbon at the end of the hooklength.

Now tie an over hand knot round the swivel with the doubled over section of fluorocarbon.

Then pass the swivel through the loop created with the fluorocarbon.

Moisten the knot and tighten down gently. Then trim the tag end.

The finished rig should look like this.

All the knots used in this demonstration can be found by using the search bar in the top right hand corner of the blog. The knot used for the hair braid and fluorocarbon at the hook end was a Knotless knot.

If you have been using fluorocarbon rigs but have been getting funny hookholds then this rig could be one solution to the problem.

Give it a go.

Tight Lines

Dave

The Seaguar knot was specifically designed for attaching fluorocarbon to monofilament. Fluorocarbon has become very popular in recent years with carp anglers due to its sinking and invisibility properties when submerged in water. However fluorocarbon has a very poor tolerance for incorrectly used and poorly tied knots. The Seaguar knot forms a reliable connection between fluorocarbon and monofilament, is easy to tie and the finished knot is neat and does not compromise the strength of either material.

Below are two ideal products for tying fluorocarbon leaders with.

Korda IQ Fluorocarbon

Step 1.

Hold the monofilament and fluorocarbon leader together.

Step 2.

Form a large loop in the leader and mainline.

Step 3.

Twist both loops anticlockwise three times.

Step 4.

Pass the tag end and the entire leader through the loop.

Step 5.

Moisten and pull all four ends to tighten. Trim the tag ends and your done.

Give it a go.

Tight Lines

Dave

Its getting to that time of year again when maggots are becoming more widely used due to them being such an effective winter bait. Have a go at tying this rig and see how you get on.

The components used in this demonstration were the Korda IQ2 Xtra Soft Fluorocarbon , Korda Wide Gape  hook size 8 and  Korda Micro Rig Swivel.

Step 1.

After cutting your required length of fluorocarbon tie on a Korda Wide Gape using a knotless knot making sure to whip round the shank twice on the way back down to the eye. 

Step 2.

Now thread a micro rig swivel onto the tag end above the hook.

Step 3.

Then pass the tag end through the back of the eye to the front and trim the tag end down to about 3-4mm. This will have created a D shape on the back of the shank for the swivel to move on.

Step 4.

Holding the hooklength out of the way slowly blob the tag end with a lighter to secure it in place. Make sure not to burn the hooklink as this will damage the fluorocarbon and increase the chance of it breaking. Also take care not to burn yourself.

Step 5.

To finish the rig tie a figure of eight knot in the other end setting the desired length of rig you require and trim the tag end.

The finished rig should look like this.

This rig works best with a large bunch of maggots and a couple of imitation pop-up maggots to help counter the weight of the hook. This rig isn’t strictly a maggot rig and can be used with other baits as well. 

The knots used in this demonstration can be found in previous blogs by using the search bar on the top right hand side of the page.

Give it a go.

Tight Lines

Dave

Some interesting news for those of you experiencing problems with knots for fluorocarbon. One of the big American line manufacturers has done some research on knots and fluorocarbon. They found that one of the most popular and strongest knots the palomar, weakened fluorocarbon by up to 30%. Gardner Tackle who have considerable knowledge on fishing lines, suggest using the blood knot, which is usually considered one of the weakest fishing knots. So you might want to consider doing some knot tests yourselves armed with this information.

Best fishes

John

Here’s the final two pictures from Adams great french catch they weighed 46lb 2oz & 37lb 5oz respectively. Adam landed all his carp on P Line Fluoroclear Mainline which we supplied to him recently. The venue was Maison Du Lac Blue. Well done again Adam and thanks for the photo’s and catch report.

Best fishes,

John

While on work placement in June last year at Richworth Linear fisheries I was lucky enough to catch a few nice fish from various lakes, but one capture that will stay with me for a long time was a fish I caught from St Johns. It was a hot friday afternoon and we had been given the afternoon off to go fishing, I got back to my swim on St Johns and set about getting the rods out. I had moved into the swim the night before seeing as it had come free and I liked the look of it. My left hand rod was to be placed towards the car park just off the corner of the opposite bank under the only bush along that stretch, I walked round before putting the rods out and baited the margin with a few handfuls of mixed pellets and maggots then set about getting my rods in positions. The rig I was using on my left hand setup consisted of a 6ft Kryston leadcore leader, Korda 3 oz square inline lead and a 7in flourocarbon hooklink with a bunch of maggots tied to a ring on a loop on the back of a size 8 korda wide gape hook with a small stocking bag of maggots. My middle rod consisted of a 15mm Mainline  Pro-Active Pineapple bottom bait on a simple line aligner rig with a stocking bag of pellets cast to a clear spot and the last consisted of zig rig position 6ins under the surface with a 14mm Solar flouro pineapple pop-up hookbait.

Once all my rods were in position I sat back to watch the water happy that my rigs had all landed cleanly. About half an hour after positioning my rods the left hand rod screamed into action and I was into my 1st fish for over a year due to a lack of time to get any fishing in. I had to walk out into a gap in the reeds to play the fish so I was stood out in the lake knee deep in water. My heart was racing as I managed to draw the fish closer to the bank and my nerves were slowly settling as I managed to gain control over the fish and settled into the fight. After a reasonably long battle with the fish putting up a good account for itself I slipped the net under my 1st fish for over a year and my 1st of 2007. After making a couple of phone calls to my college mates to get some photos taken I looked into the net to see a stunning old mirror sitting in the folds of the mesh. After weighing the fish and settling on a weight of 25lb 4oz we snapped a few photos and returned the lovely looking mirror to fight another day. The rod was then placed back out on the spot along with another few handfuls of pellets and maggots, I sat back for the rest of the afternoon with no more action to come to my rods until the early hours of saturday morning when I landed a rather funny looking common of 18lb. The following day also bought me more action with me losing a fish on the zig rig and landing a small mirror of 10lb 4oz on the maggot rod again.

I will never forget that friday afternoon as the mirror landed is by far the best looking fish I have ever banked and what a way to get back into my fishing after a year out.

David

In the last blog I suggested that now would be a good time to change your Mainline in preparation for your first session of the year, but which one should choose? There are a number of factors to take into consideration, due to the cooler temperatures of winter the presence of weed should be minimal so out and out tugging line probably won’t be needed. The cooler temperatures will also kill off most of the micro organisms and algae, this results in the water�becoming gin clear. Another consequence is the metabolism of the Carp and silver fish population slows down so they do not root about in the silt as much as they do in the summer, this further contributes to the water being crystal clear. We therefore need a line that is not easily visible to the Carp.��Fluorocarbon Mainline fits this bill admirably as it has the same Light Refractive Index as water. What this means�is that light passes through the fluorocarbon line at the same rate as it does through water, making it virtually invisible.�Fluorocarbon has further advantages for Carp Fishing, it has much less stretch than mono mainlines making it much better for bite registration. This�can be of particular benefit at this time�of year as the Carp havn’t fully woken up yet and bites can be very timid so bite registration is of paramont importance if we want to catch these crafty critters. Fluorocarbon is also much heavier than nylon line so it’s really good for�those of you who like to fish slack lines, but bear in mind my comments regarding timid bites.�Another advantage is that Fluorocarbon is impervious to water�making knot strength more reliable, it also�does not deteriorate due to the effects of�sunlight so it can last longer than Mono Mainline�

Happy Fishes,

John