CARP TACTICS
David Fuidge reveals his two go-to rigs and explains why they’re all you need to catch monster carp
David Fuidge’s two favourite rigs and how you can get the best from them
RIGS are something that all carp anglers scrutinise and spend many hours contemplating. But do we really need to?
Of course, understanding why a certain rig works is an important skill for every carper. However, I’m not as obsessive as I used to be about tweaking things, and I now have two set-ups in my armoury that I use for 99 per cent of my fishing.
THE BLOWBACK RIG
For bottom baits and wafters, nine times out of 10 I’ll use a blowback rig, and fish it over a lot of bait. Even in the colder months I won’t think twice about using 15kg of boilies over a three-night session. The old theory about ‘carp going to sleep’ at that time of year simply doesn’t happen on busy waters any more, and on such venues I believe the fish have to keep feeding all year round.
When baiting up over this rig I like to keep the fish moving, so I spread my loosefeed over an area about the same size as the penalty area of a football pitch. This causes fish to make more mistakes, and my blowback rig will come into its own.
This method is a real winner for big specimens and I’ve used it everywhere and over many different types of lakebed, although the more silt I can find, the better. If you adjust your rig length and lead size to suit, you can fish over even the deepest of silt deposits.
My blowback rigs are usually 12ins-14ins long, with 2oz leads fished on safety clips, if distance allows, to stop the rig plugging too far into the silt. For fishing over harder areas, however, I switch to a 4oz lead. This is because the lead plays a bigger part in setting the hook on this firmer ground, whereas the silt is, in a way, doing that for you on the softer spots.
I like to incorporate an oversized rig ring on the shank. This ensures the rig will go out of the mouth point-first when the carp sucks and blows in the process of feeding.
I’d say that 80 per cent of the fish I catch are hooked when the bait is on the way in, but this little tip should help nail that extra 20 per cent when the rig is exiting the carp’s mouth.
THE SPINNER RIG
There are obviously some situations where a tight patch of feed is better than a spread of boilies, and this is where the spinner rig (also known as the Ronnie) comes in. For me it’s an ideal pop-up presentation when fishing over smaller patches of bait, which may include particles such as hemp and maize, and I want my hookbait to stand out. I use brightlycoloured hookbaits, normally either white, pink or orange.
I set up my spinners slightly differently from the norm as I don’t use a quick-change clip to attach the hook. This is because I like to reduce the amount of metalwork at the business end of the rig. I prefer instead to simply tie the swivel to the hook with a 3mm-4mm cord loop. Doing it this way also adds some flexibility to the overall set-up.
Your hook choice is vital for the spinner rig, and my preference is for a size 4 Gardner Mugga, which has a progressive curve and an in-turned eye. This hook perfectly balances my hookbait, which is always a 12mm pop-up, never bigger. The two counterbalance each other perfectly and it saves cluttering the presentation with putty.
So, there you have it! Those are my two winning presentations. They have caught me countless big carp, but be prepared to experiment, find out what works for you and don’t be afraid to go against the grain!