Rig of the month

Pop- up boilie rig

AT THIS time of year the lakebed of many lakes will become littered with fallen leaves so a standard bottom bait boilie can easily become masked by the debris.

Not only does this make it harder for carp to locate your hookbait in the first place, it is also likely to hinder the mechanics of the rig. The answer is to use a pop- up hookbait.

Because they are buoyant they can be set to fish above any leaves or other debris on the bottom and are therefore easy for the carp to find. A bright pop- up sat an inch or two above the lakebed will often be too much for an inquisitive carp to resist.

There are numerous pop- up rigs used by carp anglers, but many have been designed to cope with very specific situations such as thick weed or silt, or to fool heavily- pressured carp which have become adept at dealing with standard rigs.

In most cases, however, a simple rig will do the job perfectly and the rig detailed on these pages is straightforward to tie and incredibly effective at nailing carp.

It is tied using coated braid with a section of the outer coating removed to reveal the supple inner braid. This section is used to form the hair and the pop- up section which gives the hookbait more movement.

A blob of tungsten putty is used to anchor the hookbait and where you place this on the hooklength will determine the height the popup sits above the lakebed. For light debris one inch is fine, but for thicker silt you might need to set it at a couple of inches. The rig can be cast on its own or with a small mesh PVA bag.

“A bright pop- up sat an inch or two above the lakebed will be too much for an inquisitive carp to resist”

Lead set- up A helicopter set- up helps to ensure the rig is presented over softer bottoms as the lead can plug into the silt or leaves and the hooklink can move up the leader ( how far depends on where the top bead is set) and settle on top of any debris Shrink tubing A short piece of shrink tubing is steamed over the eye of the hook at an aggressive angle. This encourages the hook to spin and grab hold no matter which direction the carp approaches the hookbait from and also creates a claw effect which improves hook holds and ensures that once the hook is in it is unlikely to come out