Carp Catchers Blog

The Mag Aligner rig was first thought up by Harry Haskell if memory serves. But it was Rob Maylin that tweaked it to its’ present form and consequently published his devastating results whilst using the Mag Aligner Rig. The rig itself incorporates both artificial and real maggots into its design. It is the way the Mag Aligner is tied that gives it the edge over other maggot rigs. The Mag Aligner rig is best fished with a big pva bag of live maggots over a solid gravel bottom.

The rig components used in this demonstration consist of the Enterprise Mag Aligner Imitation Maggots,  Gardner Mugga  size 10 hooks and  Sufix Sheath Skin  hooklink. (See picture below)

Step 1.

Cut an 8 inch length of the Sheath Skin hooklink material and strip back enough coating to tie on your desired hook with a palomar knot leaving an inch of stripped hooklink material below the hook. Remember if you don’t strip enough coating off to begin with you can always strip a little more off after tying the hook on. (See picture below)

Step 2.

Now thread an artificial Mag Aligner maggot onto a thin needle, going in at a slight angle from the thick end first and coming out towards the top of the thin end on the same side. (See picture below)

Step 3.

Thread the artificial maggot onto you hooklink material and then up over the eye of the hook so the eye sits just inside the thick end of the artificial maggot. (See pictures below)

Step 4.

Now tie a figure of eight knot with the other end of the hooklink for fast hassle free rig changes. (See picture below)

Step 5.

To add the final touch to the rig before casting out add two live maggots to the hook. (See picture below)

This rig is best presented on a helicopter setup with a large pva mesh bag of live maggots tied to the lead and nick the hook through the bag making sure the point faces out so not to mask the hook point.

Tight Lines

Dave