Carp Fishing Rigs

Like a lot of keen carp anglers I fish throughout the fishing season just as much in winter as I really do in the summer months, it had been during one frustrating fishing session that I came up with this carp fishing rig by pure chance last winter.

After one hour roughly walking on the lake, I managed to obtain the carp, got put up found some likely areas to place baits, once baits were cast out and freebies scatted in the same area, all that has been left was to have a fresh brew and absorb the early morning winter sun. Throughout the length of the morning I'd carp activity in the spots that I was fishing, but to no avail the carp were not having it, the bait I was using was an established home made boilie mix that always worked well for me in winter months months.

What was up with those wily carp?

Down the road during the morning a delight angler friend resulted in for a days fishing and put up in the next swim to mine, at the least I possibly could have some good company even though I was pulling my hair out!

While my friend set his gear up, I made us some much welcome hot tea. Walking over to him with mugs of tea at your fingertips, he was just finishing catapulting some maggots around his float carp tackle giveaways. This is when I'd a'light bulb'idea - think about maggots for the carp? They certainly were used years ago but nobody seemed to use them for carp these days. So after'borrowing'a hand packed with maggots from my friend, I thought I'd let them have a spin on one rod as I'd nothing to lose. After scratching my head for carp fishing rigs to utilize the maggots with I came up with a rig along these lines...it has since proved a great success summer or winter.

Making the rig - I tied an ordinary hook link about 18 inches long, the hook link was made from 12lb fluorocarbon line, the hook being a korda hybrid teflon coated wide gape size 8, at another end I tied a dimension 10 berkley swivel.

Obtain an amount of 2lb mono line about a base long and a 12mm cork ball. I simply threaded the length of 2lb line through the center of the cork ball utilizing a sewing needle, tied a slip knot round the cork ball, cut the short line tail off, now I tied the residual 2lb line with cork ball attached, to the attention of the hook and whipped the 2lb line round the hook shank, the exact distance between bend of hook and cork ball was about 25mm. (this can be a little difficult with the cork ball in the way - you ought to be able to whip it around once and knot it and so the 2lb line and cork ball follow directly from the trunk of the hook shank)

Now I acquired four maggots with one hand, holding the taper end of these, with my other hand I have a pipe of super glue which I simply dab on the maggots at another end and stick them to the cork ball! Continue this until the entire cork ball is covered in maggots - this hook link can be tied to any terminal tackle / lead weight combination of one's choice. Now not forgetting your putty weight as this can be a pop-up rig, place a tiny bit of lead-free putty or lead free shot on the hook link just below the hook eye and test it in the margin water, just therefore it sinks slowly, once it will you're all set to go! You may laugh at this rig - however it sure works.

Through that winter session I caught a 23lb mirror carp within 30minutes of casting the rig out! Also in the early morning I landed a 25lb common carp on the same rig. Yes maybe small potatoes in the present carp fishing scene of forty pounders, but I demonstrate this rig to other friends and they've done equally well, one chap who was simply really struggling on his venue tried it and second time out, fished the'cork ball maggots rig'over his bed of boilies and caught the lake record!

One of many major causes I do believe this rig works so well is, presently most carp anglers I see have their baits so near to the hook, and they've done this for many years now, the carp learn quickly especially the older bigger monsters, this rig gives more bait movement close to the hook, and of course it's different things that the carp haven't seen, imagine if you glued pink maggots to that particular cork ball what a sight - pop-upped just off the lake bottom, blimey just irresistible for anyone finicky carp!!