Quest Baits Blog

Over the years most of us refine our presentation and arrive at a point where we have a favourite rig. We do of course change our presentation to match the conditions and multitude of problems we encounter, but I bet if I could do a rig check on your rods over the course of a season, more often than not I would find the same type of rig.

The rig shown will be recognised now by everyone, popularised by the angling media as the claw rig it is in fact a bent hook rig.

I was fishing in the early eighties when the rig was first developed, spending much time destroying mainly trout hooks with my pliers to develop the perfect bend. The extended shank and the aggressive bend turn the hook very efficiently.

Although now discredited for “double hooking” I still believe it is one of the most effective hooking mechanisms ever developed. The amazing growth in the availability of carp hooks and rig components means that the hooking mechanism can be constructed with the same hooking characteristics, but without the potential to damage fish as the shrink tube can straighten when the fish is hooked.   

I usually construct mine now with a size 8 Korda Longshank X .  A BB shot perfectly balances the rig every time with a 15mm Quest Baits pop-up (the one in the picture is covered with heat shrink tube to protect it from signal crayfish, I’ve been fishing in the Colne Valley).

This rig or something very similar to it has hooked a very large proportion of the carp I have caught for the last 20+ years.

What’s your favourite rig, and why?

Cheers Ron

By Scott Ratcliffe

I started playing around with different ways of camouflaging my end tackle to suit the lake bed I’m fishing.  I’ve started fishing a large 70 acre gravel pit in the south west which holds a small amount of large carp that have proved themselves to be hard to catch, so I’ve been taking my end tackle to the next stage to see if I can blend it all in to match the lake bed.

After playing around with making my own leads and camouflaging them I started to play with a lead clip, then the rubber and the rig tubing. All you need is a blow torch and some powdered coating which will match your lake bed.

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By Carl Bullock

I love the hooking potential and the anti-tangle properties of in line leads however, they do have their drawbacks, i.e. in the unfortunate event of a break off then a fish could potentially be trailing a long length of line including any leaders that may have been used.

After seeing one of Steve Fantauzzi’s similar rigs which incorporated the use of a large bead and drilling the front of the lead out slightly, I was impressed with the idea but wanted to simplify it a little.

I simply used a flexi-ring swivel spliced onto the leadcore via the larger ring. Then using another flexi-ring swivel I simply slide it onto the leadcore helicopter style. The lead is then attached to the leadcore by pushing the swivel into the end of the lead and running it around the outside of the lead (normal drop off style).

However I found that the swivel was being gripped too tightly for the lead to drop off easily, so I simply cut the plastic insert back slightly (see note) and placed an ESP Heli Bead onto the eye of the swivel and this gives just the right amount of resistance to prick the fish without being too tight.

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By Carl Bullock;

It goes without saying that in the unfortunate event of a break off the less the fish is towing around the better, to that end I prefer to use a helicopter rig as theoretically all the fish should be left to tow around is the hooklink. I say theoretically as we can never be certain of all the underwater features/foliage that may hinder the hooklink from coming free. However in my eyes it is certainly a damn sight safer than the hooklink being tied directly onto the end of the mainline or leader etc, leaving the fish potentially towing 100+ yards of line or braid, whether the lead comes off or not.

There is no mistaking the effectiveness of the recently popular ‘Chod’ type rigs and the helicopter is a rig I have been using since I left the dark arts of match fishing around 17 years ago. But like all good things it does have its drawbacks, and one of those is in weedy waters, where ideally we want the lead to drop off very early on to give us a greater chance of landing our quarry. There are some recent ‘ready made’ rigs from the tackle manufacturers that do just that, but they also look like most ‘ready made’ rigs and in my opinion are way too obvious and obtrusive with bulky parts. So to that end a few friends of mine and I set about trying our own version with a less obvious profile (and a tidier one too).

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The Chod Rig has to be one of my most my favoured rigs. I’ve opted to use it for the majority of my sessions lately, and with some personal touches I think it’s as perfect as I can get it.

Instead of using lead core I use a 48-inch Tungsten Ex-Heavy Leader from TFG and instead of using beads, due to a lack of them in my tackle box, I’ve replaced them with two 6mm boilies that have been air dried for a week. After looking into it I am confident they will stay hard in the water for up to 24 hours.

Before I cast out I like to put two foam nuggets on the hook to prevent any debris getting attached to it as it finds the bottom of the lake and attach a small PVA bag of my Quest favourite boilies.

Then I can wait for the action, but hopefully I’ll not be waiting too long!

It works for me so go out and give it a go.

Samantha Collins-Ratcliffe

by Ron Key

American Signal Crayfish are here and they are spreading virtually unchecked. I first encountered them a few years ago in the Colne Valley where there were actually stocked in some waters to cultivate as food. They eventually escaped and have now spread over the whole of mainland UK. They are much larger than our native crayfish, and carry a fungus that is deadly to them. From an angling perspective they are so frustrating.

The crayfish are relentless they will try to eat everything; this includes your hooklink and boilie stop. I gave up using mono hooklinks very quickly as the crayfish nipped the line seriously weakening it. I use soft braids or coated braids now; they tend to fold when nipped rather than deforming but they do need examining regularly for damage. I also hide the hair stop when possible as this is usually the first thing to be eaten, leaving your boilie free for the crayfish to rob you. At best the only indication you will get is a single beep of your buzzer and you are no longer fishing.

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