| * There are many baits and rigs used to catch | | | | YOUR catches will stand out from the crowd. |
| carp and catfish. Obviously, when using a | | | | |
| single hook, you need to maximize your hooks | | | | You could try the 1 big dough paste bait on a |
| potential for hooking fish, every way you | | | | hair wrapped around a pellet or boilie. |
| can, to get most 'takes' converted from every | | | | |
| 'pick-up!' | | | | Or try 1 big boilie bait of perhaps 35 |
| | | | millimetre in diameter, or even 2 baits of |
| You can start of in a very conventional way | | | | this size on a hair? |
| by using a 'side hooked boilie' or pop-up | | | | |
| bait. Or use a ball of dough paste on the | | | | Perhaps try a bigger hook a size 2 not 6, 8 |
| hook, but this is not a particularly | | | | or 10. This hook has a larger gap and more |
| efficient fish hooking method. | | | | weight to drop and hook the bottom lip. |
| | | | |
| 'Hair rigs' were developed to maximize the | | | | Try the hook floating over your bait rig: You |
| hooking potential of your rig, and there are | | | | put some plastic foam onto your hook tied so |
| very numerous types to get around different | | | | it sits over your 'sinking' type bait. This |
| carp and catfish feeding behaviours and | | | | way the hook will enter the mouth before the |
| fishing situations. But for most fishermen, | | | | bait! (Very crafty - Have you ever known |
| simple is best, and risk of tangles, or time | | | | anyone else use this rig?) |
| consuming tying of rigs is a potential | | | | |
| drawback of many more advanced rigs, although | | | | Perhaps trying a prepared nut with a boilie |
| they can easily out-fish conventional simple | | | | or paste bait together, on a hair, or two |
| rigs in many situations! | | | | hairs could be a useful solution. Has your |
| | | | water been 'hit with tiger nuts, peanuts, |
| You can use a single or half or two halves of | | | | hazelnuts etc, recently and you need a new |
| a boilie on your 'hair.' Or use two or three | | | | approach? Try foam 'popped-up' peanuts over |
| boilies on a longer length hair. You could | | | | pellets or corn for a different approach. |
| use a hair with 4 or 6 half boilies on it. Or | | | | |
| even mix up different boilies of different | | | | How about using a pellet with boilie on one |
| types on the same hair, perhaps including | | | | hair or two hairs, alongside a tiger nut or |
| some 'pop-up bait halves to help negate the | | | | large peanut? (Do you find that tiger nuts |
| weight of the hook for the shyer feeding | | | | are more effective with their skin cut off a |
| fish. | | | | little?) Just a little change can make all |
| | | | the difference to your catch rate, but what |
| The same goes for different kinds of pellets; | | | | difference will really big changes to your |
| how many anglers do you know mix different | | | | rigs or baits make? |
| pellets on their hook or hair or even on | | | | |
| multiple hairs on their hooks? | | | | The author has many more fishing and bait |
| | | | 'edges' up his sleeve. Every single one can |
| Following the current fashion in bait use and | | | | have a huge impact on catches. (Warning: This |
| hook rigs can often make you miss out on | | | | article is protected by copyright, but |
| loads more fish by not using more alternative | | | | reprints with a link are OK.) |
| methods. See what the 'average fisherman on | | | | |
| your water is doing, assess his bait, and | | | | By Tim Richardson. 'The thinking angler's |
| rigs attributes, dimensions and method of | | | | fishing author and expert bait making guru. |
| working, and do yours differently. This way | | | | |