Have We Found The Best Carp Rig Ever?
What is the ultimate carp rig? It might be a big claim, but we think we may have found it...
Rigs are a subject that blows anglers' brains. Is the hooklink too long or too short? The hook too big or too small? What size lead is best? How will it present over gravel, weed or silt? Will the hook flip and turn no matter what direction the carp approach from? There are just so many questions, that it is easy to get confused.
We can't all be rig tacticians. It is almost an art form in itself within the many skills a carp angler requires to be successful. But what if this part of the game was answered beyond all doubt, to the point where the carp simply can't not get hooked because the rig is just that good. On our latest underwater project, we think we may have just stumbled on the 'Holy Grail' of carp rigs.
Getting them in a spin
Nearly every carp angler out there now, experienced or otherwise, has heard of the devastatingly effective Ronnie/Spinner Rig. Many have argued for quite some years that the Spinner is the most effective rig in carp fishing, to the point where if you walked around many popular venues in the UK and abroad, you would likely see one on 75% of the rods.
Despite its proven track record of being phenomenally difficult for carp to deal with, it is still possible to not only get 'done' but lose fish on the Ronnie/Spinner - even if set-up to best practice!
A common occurrence with the Ronnie is fish getting lightly pricked and therefore either shaking the hook out before bolting, or coming off during the fight. With the addition of just a few added extras, we can honestly say, we have reduced the chances of this happening entirely.
Boosting the Ronnie Rig
How do you improve a rig that is already more reliable than most? Well, the first thing you do is add a hook pattern that not only helps hook the fish faster, but holds in place far better than all others. Let us introduce you to The Lock...
Using this hook in size 2 and 4 for the majority of our underwater filming, there are still members of the OMC Team, including Ali himself, who are yet to lose a fish on this unbelievable hook. Just looking at the catch reports on our social media pages should be proof in the pudding enough that it works, but watching fish unable to deal with it live underwater is even more impressive.
The Lock perfectly suits the Ronnie Rig, its inturned eye and curved shank match popular patterns for the presentation. Where the Lock differs, however, is that once it has penetrated to its 'apex corner', it holds in place with no movement. Add to this the subtle beak, exaggerated large gape and needle sharp point, and you have a hook as good as you can get.
Our next Ronnie Rig booster may seem a simple one, it not only adds efficiency benefits but mechanical ones too. The addition of our Dog Bone Ronnie Clips has made changing the hook on your Ronnie Rigs stupidly fast. Simply slide back the Dog Bone, and clip on your Ronnie Swivel and hook section. No more messing about sliding and potentially damaging your beautiful Dazzler Inturns and Hookbeads on and off the hook. Have a load ready in advance and clip them on and off in an instant.
Being Tungsten loaded, the Dog Bone Ronnie Clips also add an extra element too: weight. We have found that without putty the weight of the Dog Bone is perfect for wafter baits, keeping them pinned down and aiding better hooking mechanics. With pop-ups, our super sticky Blend Putty can be added around the specially designed groove on the Dog Bone, so you can get the rig looking mega neat and balanced too. They are an addition that, once used, you won't want to fish without.
Our final ingredient is where the real magic happens. Yep, you guessed it, The Magic Twig. The more and more we use this product and begin to understand it, the more we are astonished by the results. Some of our most experienced freelance videographers have filmed underwater films with the best in carp fishing. When commenting in relation to the Magic Twig and Lock combo, they have said "they have never seen anything like it."
Fully engaged or even fished 'triggered' as a 'bungee' system, the carp simply don't know how to deal with the hook and device combination. Every fish we are seeing take the hookbait properly is getting hooked, these kind of things are totally unheard of in carp fishing. On occasions, the rig, when fished with a braided hooklink, has been sat awkwardly, seemingly in a horrible hooking position and it is still nailing them cleanly without question.
There are many misconceptions around the Magic Twig, but one of the most notable is, does it actually work? Without a doubt, we are converting more pickups into carp in the net. As soon as sufficient force is put on the device by the fish, it does everything it says on the tin.
It is important to remember, the weights, Light, Medium and Heavy, are NOT the lead size required for the Magic Twig to work, but merely the strength of the spring, therefore how easy it is to trigger. You will notice from our underwater films, that once the carp has tensioned the hooklink and begins to shake its head, this is when the Magic Twig engages and drives the hook home. This is often before the lead is properly lifted from the bottom - even 'riggy' fish don't know what to do and bolt!
Hooking benefits aside, more magic happens during the fight, as the Magic Twig ensures sufficient tension stays on the hook to hold it cleanly in place. These mechanics have been proven with various other carp fishing rigs over the years and are even used in match fishing with things like Elasticated Feeders. The combination of the Magic Twig and Lock Hook, however, has created one of the cleanest, reliable and most effective hookholds of carp we have ever seen.
What's the catch?
So, have we completed carp fishing with these components? Far from it! But we are a lot closer to the perfect carp rig. Even with this presentation, there are still small tweaks that need to be made depending on the lake bottom and baiting situation you are presented with.
The first thing to tinker with is hooklink length and material. The Ronnie/Spinner will work well with a crimped section of our Kickback High Diameter Stiff Fluorocarbon and creates the most aggressive and fastest reacting form of the rig. The only downsides to this are that the hooklink may sit up, potentially spooking the carp, if fished over uneven lakebeds that are littered with free offerings.
A common solution to this, is to switch the hooklink to a more supple material like our 50lb Ammo Braid or Blend Coated Hooklink. This allows more flexibility and movement for the hookbait, creating a far more natural presentation. The flaws with this, however, are, when fished as a wafter on rocky bottoms, the hook can sit at awkward angles, causing it to not react effectively when sucked at by a carp.
Fishing the rig purely as a pop-up presentation will alleviate a lot of these issues, but with tighter patches of feed that include small particles, that pop-up can be easy for the carp to ignore. This is why a generous helping of boilies scattered around your mix and the surrounding area will work wonders for you, as some fish will simply look around the swim to pick these up one by one.
As you can see, there's still plenty of work to be done by the angler even when armed with this rig - that's why we love carp fishing, right? But, spend more time focusing on finding the carp and getting them to feed on a flat bottom, and a lot of the guess work with rigs is now solved. You just need that special combination of components to conjure up their magic...
Author Chris Haydon has just joined the OMC Family after six years working for the UK's number 1 fishing publication, the Angling Times. He is a keen coarse and carp fishing all-rounder, fishing in the South West region, including the famous Cotswold Water Park.
