ASK THE EXPERTS
This month's winning question:
Dear Panel
Whenever I read the various carp magazines there are always loads of complicated rigs, such as the Withy Pool and Swimmer Rigs in them. I seem to struggle to utilise these as they were designed. Are they over-complicated and just designed to catch the angler? In what situations would you use these rigs, and why? Would you use them with PVA bags, bottom baits, etc.?
Many thanks
Daniel Conngrave
Gwynedd,
Wales.
Dear Daniel
This is a very good question. I'm sure many anglers read some of the top carp anglers’ articles and think they need to use these advanced rigs. Firstly, half the time these rigs are used on difficult circuit waters, but most of all, these anglers understand the mechanics of the rigs they are using and have an understanding of the lake bottom (i.e. gravel, silt, clay, weed). They will then experiment with rigs to suit the situation and only when they get success will you get to see these rigs featured in the magazines.
The Chod Rig, excellent when used in the right situation.
I think it is essential for any angler to view carp feeding, whether first-hand or in some of the excellent Korda underwater footage on their various DVDs, covering carp that are easy to catch right through to the most difficult. This will give you an insight into how fish act and feed on different bottoms, then you can choose a rig to suit, but it is still a trial and error process.
A simple bottom bait rig with a stick has caught me loads of big fish!
For instance, on one of my syndicate waters, which is very silty and, being treelined, has very choddy margins, you would think a pop-up would be very successful. However, I have found bottom baits to outfish pop-ups by a mile. I have thought about this and have come to the conclusion that the fish are rooting around and are more confident feeding in the silt than on top of it. But all fish are different and what will work on one lake may not on another, and on my new water I soon realised, after a couple of trips, that pop-ups and Snowman rigs were more successful than any bottom bait rigs I have been using.
The 360-degree Rig; my choice for pop-ups fished on hard bottoms.
So, when to use which rig? I would suggest you use what you think is best suited to the fishing scenario you face. For me, I found the Withy Pool Rig to work best in winter with single pop-ups, although I now prefer a Chod Rig for my pop-ups fished over silt, chod, or light weed and a 360-degree Rig for fishing pop-ups on gravel bottoms as this allows me to fish pop-ups a lot closer to the gravel, making it not so blatant. I will normally use bags or sticks with all my bottom rigs and pop-up rigs except for my Chod Rigs.
The Snowman presentation – simple, but very effective!
I hope this has helped you out and you can sort out which rig will suit your fishing situation.
This 42lb 4oz fish fell for a Snowman presentation; after trying several different rigs for six hours, I finally caught three fish in as many hours
Good luck
Rob Marsh
