Carp Catchers Blog

Knowing how busy it was likely to be over the bank holiday weekend I planned to fish Elsons from Wednesday to Friday of the previous week. Upon arrival at the lake it didn’t appear to be too busy but I decided to slip in behind someone who was just leaving, opting for a swim that Ive fished before that would give me control over a lot of water. I placed one rod out to a far margin, another to a clear area in the weed and the third was slipped a short way down the margin on a clear area that I could clearly observe from the bank. After a very uneventful 24 hours with little to show for my efforts, I decided I was going to up the bait a bit and put around 100 baits over the far margin rod. For the next night I recieved no indication of any fish feeding or moving around for that matter, but at around 11 o’clock the last morning I recieved a single bleep on the far margin followed shortly by another two then a very stuttery take which left me a tad confused as when I lifted the rod the culprit hit the surface between the snags. To begin with I thought it was a coot but then as it rolled I saw the distinct sight of a carps flanks, it had just come to the surface as the lead had discharged on the take. After a short fight I netted the smallest fish landed from Elsons this year, at 13lb 6oz it wasn’t massive but it was definitely a stunning little mirror that could one day be a gorgeous looking 30 or even 40lb’er. 

The going bait was a single 16mm Baitcraft T1 fished on a simple ESP Soft Ghost fluorocarbon hooklink, lead clip setup and 3oz distance lead with around 100 free offerings baited tightly to the gap in the trees.

The KD Rig is named after Kenny Dorset the angler who developed it. The KD rigs advantage is that it increases bait separation and kicks the hook out at a more aggressive angle than the standard knotless knot. I have seen it tied using braid, but in my opinion a soft hooklink and a soft hair will negate the supposed above advantages. However many of the braid tied variations that I’ve seen are pop up rigs with a shot on the hair. In this demonstration I have used a soft fluorocarbon, which is still stiff enough to provide the above advantages ie. increased bait separation and an aggressive hooking angle. If you want to use a pop up with the stiffer version shown here you will need to put some tungsten putty on the hooklink itself. This will make this version of the KD rig an even better hooker in my opinion than the braid tied one. If anyone would like me to expand on the bait separation issue which I think is crucial to most rig mechanics please leave a comment. The components I used to tie the KD rig are ESP Soft Ghost  and Gardner Incizor Carp Hooks 

Step 1

Cut a length of the Ghost Fluorocarbon and tie a small overhand knot for the boilie stop

Step 2

Thread on your boilie and put a boilie stop in the loop. The reason for putting the boilie on before you tie the rig is to enable you to set the hair to the correct length.

Step 3

Set the hair so that there is a 10cm gap between the bottom of the bait and the top of the hook

Step 4

Thread the end of your Ghost hooklink through the eye of the hook

Step 4

Whip two turns of your hooklink around the shank making sure to whip away from the join in the eye of the hook

Step 5

Now let the bait drop and whip a further 3 to 5 turns under the hair

Step 6

Thread the tag end of the Ghost as per photo

Step 7

Moisten and bed down the knot here I am using The Korda Pulla Tool

Step 8

Tie a figure of eight loop knot at the other end, moisten and bed down. If you don’t know how to tie this knot see previous blog

The finished KD Rig

Best fishes

John