Carp Catchers Blog

The Atomic Tackle Maggot Rig uses the inline lead setup fished helicopter style allowing a large PVA stocking of maggots to be tied to the swivel at the base of the lead. This enables the hook to be secured to the PVA stocking so once cast out the PVA bag will melt leaving your maggot hookbait lying in amongst the other maggots.

For the purpose of the demonstration I used a Gardner Readymade Mag Aligner Rig.

Step 1.

Pull out the large ring swivel from the base of the lead.

Step 2.

Now thread your mainline through the lead. ( If using leadcore or a leader, you will need to splice or loop the swivel on)

Step 3.

Tie your mainline to the swivel, I would suggest a palomar knot. To tie a palomar knot double over your mainline and pass it through the eye of your swivel.

Then tie an overhand knot with the doubled over mainline.

Now pass the swivel through the loop made by the overhand knot.

Then moisten the knot, slowly tighten it down and trim the tag end.

Step 4.

Once the knot is tied pull the swivel into the insert in the base of the lead.

Step 5.

Now you need to either tie your rig to the swivel above the lead. If the rig has a loop in the end pass the loop through the swivel before passing the hookend of the rig through the loop and tightening as I’ve done in this demonstration.

The finished rig should look like this.

The large ring at the base of the lead is for the PVA mesh bag to be tied to, then all you need to do is push the hook through the PVA mesh to secure it for casting.

Give it a go.

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

An update on the Carp Catchers Blog about the Mag Aligner Rig. It occurred to me that not everyone would want to or have the time to tie their own Mag Aligner Rig. Well help is at hand Gardner Tackle do a Readymade Mag Aligner Rig which is well tied and takes the hassle and uncertainty out of rig tying. For more information or to purchase follow the above link to the main site.

Best fishes,

John

Now that winters here many of you will be using maggots as bait. In this blog I’m going to show you how to tie a rig with the new improved Korda Maggot Clip . There is more than one rig that can be tied with the maggot clip and I will feature those in future blogs.

These are the components that I used to demonstrate this rig

Step 1

Cut a length of your desired hooklink material, in this case I am using Korda Hybrid Soft

Step 2

Strip off 4-5 inches of the coating

Step 3

Tie a small overhand loop in the stripped section

Step 4

Cut a length, 10mm approximately of the ESP Sink Rig Tube and thread it up towards the loop. The rig tube prevents the live maggots from wriggling around and masking your hookpoint, a little dodge thought up by Nigel Sharp I think.

Step 5

Thread the Korda Maggot Clip through the loop and push the rig tubing tight to the clip

Step 6

Thread the opposite end of the hooklink through the eye of the Atomic Claw  hook and whip the stripped section of the hybrid soft up to the rig tubing

Step 7

Thread the tag end of the hooklink through the eye of the hook again and pull to bed down the knot

Step 8

Tie the swivel at the other end of hooklink with a figure of eight loop knot

Step 9

Moisten both knots and pull tight to bed them down. I’m using the excellent Korda Pulla Tool in this shot.

Step 10

Thread on the required number of maggots. I was extremely suprised how easily the maggots went on, so Korda really have improved the sharpness of the clip.

The business end of the finished rig

The finished rig

Best fishes,

John