Carp Catchers Blog

Congratulations to Andre Kormoniki from London on landing the world record carp. Andre used a  Greys Platinum 12ft 6” 3lb Carp Rod to land the 91lb, YES 91lb monster from Luke Moffats Le Graviers water in France last week. The leviathan is known as the scarred fish or the fish of two halves as it has a scar running round its body. The scar was caused by a rope which was tied around the fishes body to retain it, this was done many years ago before people were less concerned about carp care. The bait Andre used was the awesome Baitcraft T1 a bait with a track record for the bigger specimens. Andre used a blowback rig tied with a Kryston Super Mantis hooklink and a Korda Longshank X Hook to catch the carp of a lifetime. Not content on catching the world record Andre went on to catch ten more fish including carp of 63lb, 56lb, two at 50lb, 40lb, 37lb, 33lb, 32lb, 29lb and 27lb. Well done again Andre, Well done also to Luke Moffet for nurturing such a special water and such a colossal fish.

Best fishes,

John

Here’s the promised catch report and more photos’ from Rob O’Briens recent trip to Etang Rendevouz.

                                                                                                                               

In the second part of Which Hooklink we are going to look at Rig Maroles Hydro-Link  . It is in a category by itself because it is for the moment totally unique it has a fluorocarbon inner and a soft braid outer sheath. The fluorocarbon inner makes it extremely stiff (stiffer than coated braids) and heavy. The soft braid outer can provide a supple section to your rig. The heaviness provided by the fluorocarbon inner could give it the edge over coated braids most of which have a neutral bouyancy making them rise above the lakebed unless they are weighted. A photo sequence on how to use Rigmaroles Hydrolink is shown below and I am sure you will see it’s possible benefits in your rig designs. Hydrolink comes in four colours, Camo(shown in the photo sequence), weed, silt and gravel.

Step 1

Cut a length of Hydrolink to suit (camo hydrolink shown)

Step 2

Push the fluorocarbon inner out of the outer sheath to start and then pull out the required length

Step 3

Cut of the fluorocarbon inner section

Step 4

Pull on the braid section. You now have an ultra stiff section with a supple braid section to tie your rig.

I hope this gives you a clear idea on how to use Rig Maroles Hydrolink and that has sent your rig tying brain into overdrive.

Best fishes,

John

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The Domhoff/Dumhoff Knot is a whipping knot traditionally used to attach line to spade end hooks. However more recently it has become very popular in tying The Chod Rig and The Hinged Stiff Rig. These two rigs are normally tied using hooks with an out turned eye some good examples are, the ESP Stiff Rigger MK2  , The Korda Choddy Hook and the Gardner D-Ceptor Carp Hook.

Step 1

Form a loop in your hooklink material

Step 2

Lay the loop against your hook and grip firmly

Step 3

Wind the hooklink once round the hook away from the join in the hooks eye

Step 4

Grip the turn with your opposite hand and continue winding the line round the shank of the hook towards the point. Do as many turns as is necessary, at least five.

Step 5

Pass the end of the hooklink that you have been winding round the hookshank through the loop created in step 2.

Step 6

Lubricate the turns with saliva and pull the two ends of the hooklink.

Step 7

Trim the tag end.

Step 8

Finally bed the knot down to the eye and you’re done.

That’s it, hopefully you will now be able to add the Domhoff/Dumhoff Knot to your carp fishing armoury.

Best fishes,

John

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Which hooklink? good question, I’m going to run a little mini series featuring the most commonly used hooklink materials. I’ll also discuss the accepted wisdom as to their best use.

Coated Braids

Coated Braids as the name suggests are supple braid hooklinks covered with a thicker, stiffer material usually a plastic of some description. Some good examples are:-

    Sufix Camfusion             Atomic Jelly Wire             Super Mantis

These coated braids have a plastic coating. The coating can be stripped back to reveal the supple inner braid so that you have a stiff section running from the swivel towards the hook and a supple section near the hook. This is essentialy a combi link rig but easier to tie, which is the main reason coated braids were developed. Coated Braid Combi Rigs can be used with bottom baits or if you put some tungsten putty where the coated section ends, pop ups. Coated braids can also be used without stripping back any coating to produce a stiff rig with increased abraision resistance.

Cut your desired length of coated braid, decide how much coating you want strip and grip tightly with your thumbnail (if you have any).

Dig into the coating with your thumbnail and pull away till the coating is removed.

If you don’t have any nails get yourself a  Korda Strippa Tool  they strip away the coating quickly without damaging the braid, they’re brilliant.

korda Hybrid Stiff/Soft

Korda Hybrid Stiff  and  Korda Hybrid Soft  differ to the above because they have a fluorocarbon coating which is both stiffer and heavier than the plastic coatings. Because of their inherent stiffness the Korda Hybrids need to be steamed over a kettle to straighten them and to bed down knots though this is extra work it is worth it.

There are lots of different combinations that can be tied with these hooklink materials, imagination being the only limit.

Best fishes,

John

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The D-rig has many uses in carp fishing but the D-rig tied in this demonstration is best suited to a bottom bait, my chosen bait for this rig is a bunch of maggots tied onto the rig ring with bait floss.

The components used in the demonstration is the Korda IQ Xtra Soft Flourocarbon Hooklink with a Korda size 8 Wide Gape and a Korda Rig Ring.

Step 1.

Start by cutting a 10 inch length of the IQ hooklink, then attach the hook with a knotless knot leaving an inch above the hook. (See picture below)

Step 2.

Now slide a rig ring onto the IQ above the hook. (See picture below)

Step 3.

Then thread the IQ through the back of the eye to from a small D with the rig ring running on it, trim the excess and blob the end with a lighter being careful not burn yourself or the hooklink below the hook. (See pictures below)

Step 4.

Pull the rig ring gently so the blobbed end sits against the eye, it should look like this.

Step 5.

Now tie a figure of eight loop in the other end of the IQ and trim the tag end. (See picture below)

The finished rig should look like this.

Tight Lines

David

Customer Rob O’Brien used Korda Hybrid Stiff to hoodwink these French beauty’s weighing 32lb and 36lb respectively. Rob was fishing Etang Rendevouz in France and also caught carp of 25lb,22lb,18lb and 15lb in his week long session. Using a snowman blowback rig consisting of size 4 hooks tied to a Korda Hybrid Stiff hooklink Rob cast tight to the margins of an Island. Hookbaits were 3 pieces of maize topped of with a piece of Enterprise Pop-Up Sweetcorn these were put into a pva bag along with 20 freebies. Rob reports that he encountered every weather condition possible on his trip including hail and snow and winds from all directions. This week see’s Rob back at Etang Rendevouz, so hopefully we will have some more photos’ and catch reports from him soon. Good Luck Rob!!

Best fishes,

John

This rig is a slight alternative to a normal knotless knot fluorocarbon rig and has a very good hooking ability. I’ve found this rig to work best with two bottom baits on the hair.

The components used to tie this rig are Gardner Super Soft Fluorocarbon and a Gardner Incizor Carp Hook.

Step 1.

Cut about 12 inches of the Subterfuge hooklink and tie a small overhand loop in one end for your hair. (See picture below)

Step 2.

Thread the other end through the eye of the hook so the hair is sitting up the back of the shank and hold it to you desired length. (See picture below)

Step 3.

Now whip the flourocarbon up the shank 7 times making sure that the 1st turn goes away from the join in the eye. (See picture below)

Step 4.

Then hold the hair away from the shank and whip the flourocarbon another 6 times up the shank, this holds the hair off the back of the hook. (See pictures below)

Step 5.

Now whip one time back down the shank before threading the hooklink though the eye from back to front. (See picture below)

Step 6.

Finish the rig off with a figure of eight knot so it can be attached to a clip or a five turn grinner knot to a ring swivel, the rig needs to be able to move freely at the lead end.

Tight lines

David

This rig can be used for a variety of baits, such as boilies, plastic baits, maggots and pop-ups when weighted down with putty or shot. It looks like a very complicated rig to tie but it is infact simple but effective when used correctly. The components used to tie this rig are Korda Hybrid Stiff Coated Braid, a Korda Wide Gape Hook, Korda Weed Green Shrink Tubing, ESP 0.5mm Silicone Tubing and Kryston Heavy Metal Plus.

Step 1.

Cut about 10 inches of the stiff coated braid off the spool strip about 3 1/2 inches of the coating off and tie a small overhand loop knot in the end for your hair stop.

Step 2.

Now thread on a 3mm length of silicone tubing. (See picture below)

Step 3.

Being careful not to snag the braid thread the point of the hook through the silicone tubing with the point heading towards to hair loop and slide the hook round so its sitting with the silicone on the top of the bend on the shank. (See pictures below)

Step 4.

Now thread the braid through the back of the eye to the front and adjust the length of the hair to suit the bait you intend to use, then tie a knotless knot making sure the silicone tubing is still sitting at the top the bend on the shank, this is done so that the bait weighs down the point of the hook helping to drive the hook in but obviously move the silicone tubing down the shank a bit for pop-ups. Remember to whip the 1st turn of the knot away from the join in the eye. (See picture below)

Step 5.

Cut a small piece of the Korda Safe Zone Shrink Tube so its long enough the cover the knot and give about 8mm of shrink tubing below the eye of the hook. (See picture below)

Step 6.

Using the Solar Rig Cone steam the shrink tubing over the kettle to give the shrink tubing an inturned curve, but be careful not to make the gap between the point of the hook and the tubing too small as this will actually hinder the rigs hooking ability rather than enhance it, also make sure not to burn the hooklink if your steaming it over your stove on the bank. (See pictures below)

Step 7.

Now tie a figure of eight knot at the other end of the hooklink for faster rig changing, i prefer to make my rigs around 6 inches in length. The figure of eight knot is used for this as it won’t cut into the coating under tension. (See picture below)

Step 8.

To finish the rig steam it straight over the kettle or pin it straight on a rig board but be careful not to straighten out the shrink tubing by pinning it too tight, then complete the rig with a couple of blobs of Kryston Heavy Metal plus to pin it down to the lake bed. (See picture below)

The rig is now complete and ready to cast out.

Tight Lines

David

The next part of How To Tie A Chod Rig will demonstrate how to tie the hooklink to complete the rig. ESP components were used in this demonstration.

Step 1.

Tie your ESP Stiff Rigger MK2 Carp Hook onto a 6-7 inch length of ESP Stiff Rig Bristle Filament using a knotless knot which can be found in a previous blog. Make sure to leave a long enough length of bristle filament above the hook to make the D-Rig loop. (See picture below)

Step 2.

Now slide an ESP Oval Rig Ring onto the short length of bristle filament above the hook. (See picture below)

 Step 3.

Then form a loop by passing the tag end through the back of the eye of the hook and trim it down to right length, then blob with a lighter but be careful not to burn the hooklength or your fingers. (See picture below)

Step 4.

Now tie the other end of the bristle filament to an ESP Big Eye Swivel using a 3 turn blood knot, make the rig about 3 inches in length. Then steam it gently over a kettle to create the curved hooklink, the Solar Rig Cone is ideal for this job. (See picture below)

Now remove one of the beads from you helicopter leader setup and slide the swivel down to the other bead before threading the top bead back on. Here is what the finished rig you look like.

Adjust the distance between the lead and the beads on the leader to suit the lake bed you are fishing. 

Tight Lines

David

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