Basics with the Knotless Knot

The Knotless Knot has become the most common knot used by far when creating many of the rigs used when carp fishing roday. This is down to the fact that it is easy to tie, extremely strong and provides excellent bait presentation in even it’s simplest form.

You start by tying an over hand loop knot in your desired hooklength. This is just a basic loop added to the end of the hooklength which becomes the end of the hair rig. This is sometimes harder than it sounds depending on the material that you are using. Many people find it easier using Read more

Catch Carp Using The ‘D’ Rig

The D-Rig is a great way to present a freely moveable bait. It is often utilised well in the Chod Rig which is well suited to fishing in deep silt or weed. Rather than mounting the bait on a hair, the chosen bait is tied to a rig ring, which is free-running, on a small loop of line shaped like a D, hence the name.

Start the rig in a similar way to a knotless knot, but without the loop on the end of the hair. This rig is best used with a fluorocarbon style hooklink.

Run the line through the eye of the hook leaving about 2cm to use to make the ‘D’.

Whip the line down the hook in the normal way about 5 or 6 times and pass it back through the eye of the hook.

The next step is to make the ‘D’. Place a small rig ring onto the tail end of the line that usually makes the hair.

This is then passed through the eye of the hook (from the back) creating a D shaped loop.

When you have pushed enough through to make a ‘D’ of a suitable size as shown, take a cigarette lighter and slowly burn the tail end down to stop it from pulling back through the eye.

You can now bait the rig by tying on your desired bait (usually a pop-up boilie) using baiting floss. The bait is now free to move along the length of the ‘D’ allowing a very natural movement.

All that is left is to finish your rig by attaching either a swivel or a ringed-swivel (used for the chod rig) and you’re ready to go.

No Bites? Try a Zig Rig!

If you are struggling to attract bites on the bottom of the lake then you need to try to entice some of the fish swimming higher in the water.

A Zig Rig accomplishes this perfectly.  The Zig Rig is basically a standard rig with an extra long hooklink used to present a popped up bait at the height of the cruising carp.

It is important to plumb the depth using a marker float so that you know exactly what depth you should be fishing at.  You can then make your rig accordingly. 

A normal running lead or semi-fixed setup will do fine. One important trick is to attach your baits as close to the hook as possible, using a very short hair.  This will be the most effective presentation for fishing a pop-up in mid-water.

The Zig Rig, a great way to get some bites if other tactics are failing!