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Types of rigs
This article will explain
the different types of basic carp rig and
their uses. Rigs tend to be treated as a bit
of a science, and some people think that they
cannot catch carp because they don't understand
the technicalities of rig tying. As carp wise
up to more and more of the methods anglers
use, we do have to attempt to outwit them
with the latest gadgetry, but don't let that
put you off. With just a few basic tricks
up your sleeve you will soon be tying your
own rigs and catching those carp. And if you
really can't tie your own or simply don't
want to, then there are some really good ready
tied versions available on the dealers shelves
these days, although they will cost you a
bit more. However, you will still need to
know how, where and when to use them.
Ledgering rigs
So, what are the basic types
of rigs? Years ago, the only form of ledgering
I knew was the sliding ledger. This basic
rig was simply a hook on the end of my main
line with bait directly attached to it, with
a sliding pear shaped lead or drilled bullet
stopped a short distance from the hook by
a single split shot. This was occasionally
upgraded to a swivel to stop the weight, usually
when I wanted to use a lower breaking strain
line on the hook length and needed some way
of attaching it. The carp would take the bait,
swim off with it and pull the line through
the weight, thus registering a bite. It was
a very basic rig, but it used to catch me
fish. The first drawback of this rig was that
the split shot would sometimes come off, causing
me to hook a lead weight if I was lucky, or
it would damage the line to a stage where
it would break on hooking a fish. This of
course was another good reason to replace
the shot with a swivel. This basic sliding
ledger rig will of course still catch fish
today, and I still use it where a simple technique
is sufficient.
Hair rigs
 Carp
though became a bit more clever, and on picking
up the bait, sensed that something was wrong
and let go before registering a single movement
back on the bank. Carp could also feel either
the line itself as they picked up the hookbait,
or the resistance of the line due to monofilaments
springy nature. As the carp takes its food
straight into the back of its mouth where
it is crushed, anglers believed that they
could also feel the hook and would eject the
bait. And so the hair rig was developed. This
involved taking a very thin piece of line
and attaching it to the end of the hook. The
bait was attached to the hair so that when
a carp passed the bait into the back of its
mouth the hook was still at the front near
the carp's lips. Anglers also started to use
a finer trace length of a softer material,
such as Dacron, believing that the fish wouldn't
feel resistance from the trace. This helped
a lot and today many rigs are still tied with
these basic principles, using hair rigs and
soft trace materials.
The bolt rig
However, one more innovation
was to change rig technology as we know it
today and that is the bolt rig. Even with
the softer trace materials and hair rigs,
carp were still believed to be mouthing the
baits and ejecting them without any indication
of a bite. The bolt rig involves having the
weight fixed to the line so that the line
cannot slide through it. When the carp picks
up the bait, it senses something is wrong
and panics or bolts. As it does so, it immediately
gets resistance from the heavy weight, which
causes the hook to penetrate the carps mouth
and it is hooked. This is the reason for the
so called "screaming runs" we often
see today, where the carp is already hooked
and racing for the nearest safe haven it can
find, meanwhile on the bank it is pulling
line from your reel at a vast rate and your
bite indicator is screaming.
The problem with fixed weights is that if
a carp runs into snags and manages to break
your line above the weight, it could end up
towing a lead around until it becomes snagged,
and if it can't get out of it, then it may
stay snagged until it starves to death. To
prevent this, anglers use what we call a semi
fixed lead, where the lead is trapped to the
line by some mechanism, but if it becomes
snagged it will pull free. OK so you lose
a lead, but that is always preferable to harming
and maybe killing a fish.
Helicopter rig
So now we have two basic
types of rig, the running ledger rig and the
semi fixed rig. The third type of rig is the
helicopter rig. This was originally used mainly
in sea fishing and was developed from the
paternoster rig. It comprises a fixed pear
or torpedo shaped lead at the end of the main
line, and a trace that is fixed to the main
line by a rotating bead above the weight,
which can rotate around the main line, hence
its name, helicopter. This rig is very useful
for fishing above silt or weed, as the weight
can sink down into it while the hook length
stays above.
Most rigs are derived from these
basic forms. The differences come from the
many different types of trace material,
the methods of connecting them together
and of attaching the bait to the hook or
hair. Follow the guides in this site for
details on how to set up the rigs.
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