STEVE RINGER’S ULTIMATE WINTER RIG
Tie the set up that's bagging carp on still waters
WITH it being so cold of late, the straight lead or bomb has come to the fore in producing big catches on commercials up and down the country.
There’s no doubt that this tactic, when combined with a single hookbait, is a devastating way of fishing – but I’m always looking to go one better.
This season I’ve been making a few tweaks to my set-up, primarily because I’ve been wanting to give the fish a bit of bait too.
This is where my first change comes into play. Instead of using a normal bomb, I’ve switched over to a Guru Impact lead. This allows me to feed just enough bait around my hookbait to attract and catch one fish at a time.
As the name ‘Impact’ suggests, a percentage of bait on the lead is knocked off when the lead hits the water.
I think this is really important at this time of year, especially in the clear waters of commercials where visibility is high.
Carp and F1s, in particular, spend a lot of time off bottom in the cold and a few pellets falling through the water is a great way to drag them down to your hookbait without overfeeding them.
MAKE THE RIG
I like to keep my rigs nice and simple. I use a Guru Micro lead clip, the only change being that I like to swap the swivel that comes with it for a size 11 snap link, as this then allows me to quick-change my hooklength throughout the session.
Lead size depends on how far I want to cast. For small commercial work it’s always two-thirds of an ounce, but for long-range work such as today at Boddington I’ll always opt for a 2oz lead.
I normally tie my feeder and bomb hooklengths at 75cm as standard. This allows me to use them for a variety of tactics, but for fishing the Impact lead I cut them down to 20cm-25cm.
It’s important that the hookbait is never too far from the bomb and the loose offerings, so the shorter the hooklengths are, the better.
Line choice for hooklength is 0.17mm or 0.19mm Guru N-Gauge. Which I choose depends on fish size, so if the carp are 8lb-plus I’ll go with 0.19mm.
My hook is a size 12QM1. I know I’ve said this before, but when you need every fish to count there really is no better pattern.
Being razor-sharp, with a unique shape, once they are in they rarely come out again.
DEADLY HOOKBAITS
As for hookbaits for Impact bomb fishing, mine fall into two camps – wafters and pop-ups.
Wafters are designed so that they counterbalance the weight of the hook. In other words, they just sink under the weight of the hook.
A pop-up, on the other hand, floats and is designed to be fished suspended off bottom. I have to admit I’ve had loads of success fishing 10mm pop-ups with this tactic recently.
Rather than popping them up straight off the lead, though, I much prefer to use a small bulk of No10 shot on the hooklength line so they sit up around 2ins off the bottom.
When a fish comes to investigate the pellets and sound of the rig going in, the little pop-up is the first thing it will see, and I believe fish will often take these baits purely out of curiosity.
In terms of colour it’s all about confidence, but for me fluoro
yellow and fluoro pink are the two stand-out colours. In clear water yellow tends to do the damage. When it’s coloured it’s the pink!
Washed-out yellow wafters have been a real winner for me, I can only think this is because they blend in with the pellets I’m moulding around the lead.
MAKE THE PELLETS STICK
As far as bait goes, the first thing I must point out is you don’t need a lot – half-a-pint is plenty!
In terms of pellet size you have a choice of 2mm or 4mm. Personally I always tend to go down the 2mm route and use the Ringers Method Micros.
This is purely for ease of soaking and the fact that they stick to the Impact bombs a lot better than bigger baits.
That said, you can of course fish 4mms on the Impact bomb if you want, and if you’re struggling to get your pellets to stick, just add a little bit of Ringers Chocolate Orange Sticky Liquid to the wetted baits. This should do the trick!
MOVE TO FIND THE FISH
When it comes to fishing the Impact lead, even though I’m feeding a little bit of bait I’m not continually casting to the same spot to try and build a swim.
Instead I will cast to a spot and clip up. If I don’t get a bite or indication from that spot I will simply unclip and look for a new bit of water the next cast.
You see, I’m a big believer that in the cold you need to go to the fish as opposed to waiting for them to come to you.
As a guide, to kick off I will look to fish 20-minute casts until I find the fish.
At this point I will happily leave the bait out for 30 minutes and hope to get some takers!