A SET-UP FOR ALL SEASONS…
“As a hard and fast rule – no pun intended – the firmer the lakebed, the shorter I tie the rig” The change over between autumn and winter is the prime period to catch carp looking their best and fighting their hardest. A rig you can rely on time and agai
LIKE every other carp angler on the planet, I frequently fall into the trap of overcomplicating my rigs.
They start off nice and simple, then in the pursuit of an extra bite all sorts of bells and whistles get added.
While there are undoubtedly times when the addition of those extra little gizmos and edges can make a difference, when I feel I’ve become lost in my own ideas more often than not I end up reverting back to one tried-andtrusted set-up called The German Rig.
Over the past few years I’ve tried lots of variations of the rig with regards to the materials used to construct it. I’ve trialled all manner of different hook patterns and hooklink types, as well as messing around with adding a loop at the swivel end, incorporating long anti-tangle sleeves, short ones, and anything else you can think of to make something so beautifully simple, well, nothing of the sort!
This autumn I’ve suffered from exactly the same crisis of confidence – making too many changes all at once and experimenting too often! In the end, I decided that my spare time was too precious to leave anything to chance, so I went back to what I know works, and works well.
IF IT AIN’T BROKE….
The German Rig really is simplicity itself. A coated braid hooklink, unstripped, tied with a knotless knot to a large curved shank hook. A hook swivel and bead on the hook, and an anti-tangle sleeve at the other end, and it’s almost done. Well, almost.
I find that the addition of a sinker an inch or so from the sharp end helps the hook to hang prone at the moment the bait is picked up. But that really is it. The rig never tangles or wraps around the lead, and the only thing that ever needs adjusting is the length of the rig itself. I should add here that there is a new variation of the rig (pictured above) doing the rounds that involves the use of a quick-change swivel to attach the hook at the end of the hooklink. This is known as the ‘Turbo German’, but I haven’t found it to be as effective as the standard set-up.
As a hard and fast rule – no pun intended – the firmer the lakebed, the shorter I tie the rig. I am usually aiming to fish clean areas of sand, silt or clay and it’s no secret that I like to bait heavily. So tying the rig around
4ins long is perfect. I make it longer for boilie fishing, or when the lakebed is softer. Really simple stuff.
I get lots of messages on social media from people who have used the German rig and gone on to catch good fish, and apart from the sound rig mechanics, I think a lot of their success is down to the feeling of confidence this bombproof rig instils. There is no hair to tangle around the shank of the hook, and because there’s no soft braid section exposed below the hook – as with many coated braid hooklink set-ups – that can’t tangle either. The addition of a rig sleeve at the top of the hooklink only adds further confidence.
I very rarely cast any form of PVA bag out with a German rig, not if I’m bait fishing anyway. I want the rig to lay out in a ‘C’ shape, not straight out from the lead. This bit of ‘play’ helps the rig to shoot back into the fish’s mouth, I believe, rather than keeping your hookbait ‘on a leash’.
It’s not that I don’t like PVA: my three biggest-ever UK forties were taken on German rigs cast to showing fish with PVA bags of hemp and maize attached – but I see that more as a one-bite-ata-time tactic. Again, in this instance I just extend the length of the rig and hope the opportunist bite comes from another whopper.
BAITING SCENARIOS
To my mind there are two ways to think about what hookbait you choose. I have found that a balanced bait is the best choice when fishing over lots of very small feed items. If I have introduced maggots, corn, maize, hemp and crushed boilies, I know that there’s nothing in the swim larger than about 6mm-8mm.
In this instance a balanced corn and maize set-up is my number one choice. If there are no nuisance species present, I will glue three maggots to the top and, if I had to choose just one hookbait, then this would be it. However, if I’ve fed larger items like tiger nuts, boilies and pellets, then a straight bottom bait is perfect. I’ve had some of my best sessions using Code Red bottom baits to match what I’ve fed. It sounds too simple, but hardly anybody does it anymore.
Trust me when I say I have tried lots of other hookbaits – and not just on the odd occasion either – including all manner of high-attract, all singing and dancing ‘bright ones’. However, I think that their over-use by anglers in recent years now counts against them, and on many waters – particularly busy day-ticket venues –it can be really hard to catch on them nowadays.
TERMINAL TACKLE CHOICES
When it comes to the hooklink material itself, I’ve found it best to use the kind of coated braid that doesn’t need steaming. Use a material that’s too stiff and the hook can sit up off the lakebed, on its side, rather than with the point hanging down.
My preferred material is Avid Captive coated braid in 15lb breaking strain, but there are loads of others I’d be just as happy using. I try various options throughout the course of a season but, once again, always find myself going back to what I know best.
The rig will work with fluorocarbon,
“I very rarely cast any form of PVA bag out with a German rig, not if I’m bait fishing anyway”
and if you use a very soft, thin fluoro in the winter, it can be a great set-up. Watch this space, as I plan on writing another piece for Angling Times about this in the coming months – a ‘Finesse German Rig’ for winter carping, if you like.Hook choice can be a personal thing and, safe to say, the German Rig will work with various types, especially curved-shank hooks. For me, the Avid CRV and Gardner Mugga are unsurpassable. The reason I use a size 4 is so that the hookbait remains stable when using wafters or balanced rigs. Too small a hook and they can dance around too much: I’ll think nothing of using a size 4 with a 10mm hookbait. With the emergence of chemically-sharpened hooks, and the ability to file them even sharper, the smaller hooks aren’t so essential – especially not when you have a 4.5oz lead on the end. I haven’t used the German Rig much with lighter leads, as it happens. In fact, I don’t think I own anything under 3oz these days.
ONE RIG FITS ALL
In my opinion, the German Rig is as dependable a set-up as you can find among the huge array of options at the modern-day angler’s disposal. As a rig for casting over baited areas, it’s by far the most effective set-up I’ve ever used. Since switching back to the rig in its simplest form I have enjoyed some great sessions in 2018.
Every time I go fishing I don’t need to think about rig choice. This allows me to concentrate on what matters most – finding the fish, watching them, and then force-feeding them into making a mistake! As a matter of fact, on my last trip to the bank since the weather started to cool, I landed some epic fish. Hopefully there are more to come over the next few months…