ASK THE EXPERTS
This month's winning question:
Dear Panel
When tying a Hair, what factors determine the length of the Hair? I am concerned that I could be getting it all wrong and it could be costing me fish.
Many thanks,
Adam Taylor,
Maidstone
Adam
Unless you are doing anything particularly drastic I would doubt that the length of your Hair is costing you fish. The warning signs that there is something wrong with your presentation are lost fish and poor hookholds. Each time you land a fish, check where the hookhold is. It should be hooked a reasonable distance back in either the bottom of the mouth or in the scissors. If you aren’t losing many – or any – fish and your hookholds are sound, then I’m sure the length of your Hair will be fine. Obviously the length of the Hair is only one small element of the presentation; the hook, length of link, lead, and hooking arrangement, are all just as vital, so singling out one element is difficult; they all need to work together.
My standard Hair length and hooking arrangement. A decent separation between hook and bait is essential for this rig to work properly.
There are various lines of thought about how long the Hair should be; some advocate fishing the bait tight to the hook, whereas others favour a long Hair with an inch or more of separation between the two. Both catch fish and so do all the variations and permutations in between. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that it doesn’t matter, I firmly believe that it does, and I have my own views about why and where I use different lengths, and I catch my fair share and lose very, very few fish. To me, that means that everything is working right so I make very few changes and have been using much the same rigs for a few years now.
A short Hair. Not a good hooking arrangement, in my opinion, and one that leaves no movement for the hook.
The reasons for using different lengths are varied, some anglers prefer to ensure the hook enters the mouth as quickly as possible and, as such, use a very short Hair. Other anglers prefer to give the bait plenty of movement and allow the hook the flexibility to turn in the mouth, catching hold and pricking the fish. Personally, I have always opted for the second train of thought, I like the hook and the bait to be nicely separated to allow the hook plenty of movement and opportunity to flip and turn in the mouth, catching hold far more effectively, in my opinion, than a short Hair. I believe short Hairs lead to bad hookholds, because there is very little chance of the hook turning effectively and quickly. I think this leads to carp being hooked in the edges of the lips and possibly leading to hookpulls during the course of the fight. I generally use a Hair of about a centimetre, not too long, but long enough to allow the hook and hooking mechanics to do what they need to do!
My D-rigged pop-up setup. A Hair is not necessary in this situation as the hook sits in the perfect position for hooking all the time.
The contradiction to that is when using pop-ups. The setup I described is the one I use for bottom baits, or balanced bottom baits, with a degree of buoyancy. When fishing pop-ups I use a much tighter Hair arrangement, or maybe even not use one at all, as often I use a D-rig setup. A pop-up functions differently to a bottom bait and will be picked up in a slightly different manner to a bottom bait; because the hook sits up in the perfect hooking position all the time, the Hair is not so important. The pictures will show you exactly how I set up my rigs and how long I fish my Hairs. My advice would be to strike a happy medium as a starting point and see how your results fare; you can then make any adjustments in accordance with your catches and quality of hookholds.
One hooked properly on my normal Hair length setup and a bottom bait.
Hope that helps!
Gaz
