have you started carp fishing are you looking for an easy to tie carp rig
that works really well if so stick around because I'm about to show you an
easy to tie and very simple carp rig so welcome to easy to tie carp rigs for
beginners and if you'd like to see more of this type of content please subscribe
and tap the bell for notifications coming up I'm gonna go through the
knotless knot carp rig step-by-step I'll show you exactly how to tie the rig
explain the best rig components to use and I'll discuss adjustments to the rig
how and why you should fine tune it I'll show you a finger task that will explain
why the rig is so good and I'm gonna go through a couple of bonus tips at the
end that really make this particular carp rig ruthlessly efficient this is
everything you need to know about the knotless knot carp rig the components for
this rig are simply some braid a hook and a swivel there's no float stops no
tubing no bait screws just three bits of tackle so it's really simple and a very
good budget carp rig too the knotless knot carp rig starts with a loop and
the best braid for this is ESP sink link this is a sinking braid so no need
to buy products like sinkers to help keep your hook length nailed on the
bottom this braid will sink anyway the first tip for tying this rig is to make
the loop shorter than the diameter of your bait if you do this the knot will
sit inside the bait and help to lock it in place and stop it sliding on the hair
in this case I want the loop inside my 15 millimeter boilie the best hook to
use for this rig is a kamasan b175 trout hook you can find them in the fly
fishing section of any decent tackle shop the kamasan b175 is a long
shank hook with a down turned eye perfect for the knotless knot it's also cheap
around £4 for a box of 25 or £9 for a box of 100 far cheaper than
any carp hooks from the tackle company so no carp tax thread the braid through the eye
of the hook from the back of the eye so the bait exits at the back of the eye
you'll notice the hook eye has a split all carp hooks have this and you should start
whipping the knotless knot on the opposite side of the split so there will be
no chance of the braid weakening during a carp fight whip up the shank
14 to 15 times whilst holding the hair in place this should bring you roughly
level with the hook point itself and this is the best exit point for the hair
regarding hair length don't go too short a bait tight against the bend of
the hook will often result in a hook pull the idea of a hair rig is it that the hook
is free to move around and find a hold in the carps mouth and I find 5 to 10
millimeters from the bait to the bend of the hook is about best once done thread
the hook link back through the eye from the back to the front
to finish the rig simply tie a swivel to the other end of the sink link braid
for this you can use a Palomar knot and I've done a video on tying this fishing
knot already it will be coming up at the end of this video the rig itself is very
very easy to tie as you can see but the most important info about this rig is
yet to come so let's start with the finger test ok
so just how good is this easy to tie carp rig well I've got a couple of books here
these are my Diaries from the late 80s through to 2007 when I stopped keeping
them I don't know if you can read that the carp book that was my very first one and
then this one came later the a5 now I used to document all my catches back in
those days you know 30 odd years ago that's what we did we kept a diary
kept notes of where we caught fish from what the weather was like what day it was
looking back through these I was landing 98 or 99 fish out of every hundred runs
and that's one hell of a lot you know that is ruthlessly efficient for a
carp rig you know 98 or 99 fish out of every hundred runs you know hook pulls
were really really rare and in order to understand why we're going to have a look at
the rig and do what I call the finger test okay
so this is a rig it's got a boilie on it as we've seen before okay and the
finger test involves putting the rig over your finger like that
now you can as part of the test twist the braid see the way the hook turns round
when you twist it spins and rotates you're allowed to spin that any way you
want so when it comes up if the hooks gonna catch you can spin it round so that it
won't and you've got to get it over your finger okay now it
doesn't matter what you do you will not get the hook over your finger it will
turn and dig in every single time so I'll face the hook away from your finger
so it'll try to flip over and as you can see it turns every single time it turns
and it does that as it hits the down turned eye that's 45 degrees down it
acts like a line aligner if you like but without the tubing you don't
have to buy any rig flippers or anything like that the b175 hook is perfect for
it and does it for you so it will always catch and that's the finger test so you
imagine that in a fish's mouth the boilie is like a counterweight in the
fish's mouth and because it's soft braid the fish doesn't know it's got it and that's
how the rig works the fish doesn't know it's picked it up so it picks it up moves
off and as it tightens to the lead that will turn and dig down so it takes a hook
hold usually in the bottom lip and that's how the rig works you can use it
with any type of lead system in-line lead clip or running and it works the same way
you know the fish moves off doesn't know it's got it tightens to the lead
and that's when it turns and digs in and it's very very efficient if the fish
does tight to the lead it's as good as hooked because you can't get the
hook out you can pick the rig up and blow it out you know rigs get
picked up a lot more than you realize but the one that doesn't know it's got it
is the one you're gonna catch and it works really really well so that's
the finger test and that's how ruthlessly efficient the rig is you know
you'll never get it over your finger twist the braid get the hook as far away
from your finger as you can even if you try and turn it as it's
twisting it won't it'll still twist and it'll still dig in and that's where
that's why the rig is so good and why I've caught so many fish on it you know
you'll hear people say keep it simple when it comes to carp rigs and this is simple but
this is what they mean you know you can get bogged down in buying bits and
pieces and go for this rig and that rig but a basic decent carp rig
that's well tuned will work very very well and you don't need Ronnie rigs
and all kinds of pop up rigs and stuff like that this will usually do you and
I've been using this now for best past thirty years I've caught thousands of carp on it
I've caught twenties from I think twenty eight different waters I'm up to
including a couple of rivers it's a great river carp rig if you're into your
river carping if you were looking for a rig for river carping this is a great
river carp rig as well and the canals it's perfect it's just a brilliant all-round
carp rig okay so I mentioned tuning it and the rig needs to be adjusted
we'll talk about that next okay so adjustments to the rig I generally start
at about eight to ten inches long okay that's roughly optimum length that I
found over the years and it does need to be tuned though and the way you do it is
you take notice of your hook holds when you catch your fish so ideally you want the
hook in the bottom lip nailed you know that's where it's supposed to go and if
you get a hook pull then the chances are the rig's too short in the first place
because you remember the fish is coming in it's tipping down picking the bait up
and then tightening into the lead so you wanted to tighten literally as it's
tipping up and you don't want to give it too much movement you don't want the
fish swimming away so you need to get it roughly to the right length so if you
nailing them in the bottom lip that's great or anywhere around the bottom lip
if you get a hook pull chances are it's too short if you are getting fish hooked in
the scissors which is the side either side they're picking the bait up and
moving off with it literally and if the fishing moves off with it too far
it'll catch it in the corner of the mouth that's too long or if you get a
fish that's hooked slightly outside the mouth within an inch or two of the mouth
that's too long as well you're giving the fish too much room to play about with the
bait so you shorten it then so if you get
a hook pull it's too short and needs to be lengthened by an inch or two and then
if it's too long it needs to be shortened by an inch or two when they get it in
the scissors or just outside the mouth and if you can keep it in the bottom lip
or anywhere along there then your rig's working at you know optimum efficiency
if you like so that's how we adjust it and it works really well once
you get the length right for the water generally it's okay I mean each
individual fish varies you know some will have a big dumpy belly and have to tip
over further and some will be long thin fish some may not tip up at all like
they may just slightly nod down a little bit to pick the bait up but in
general there will be an optimum length that generally the fish will get the bait in
the bottom lip and that's what you've got to find so always make a note of
your hook holds with every fish and look for the bottom lip you know you don't want
to be too far to the side you don't want to be given it you know you see a
lot of fish nowadays that have errr you can see there being caught before like
because the mouths have gone at the side and you don't want that that's the
sign of a rig being too long so shorten it down a little bit and that's how you
adjust the rig so keep a note of your hook holds and
adjust accordingly okay now we've done with that there are a couple of other
issues with this rig that you need to know about
and they will save you a bit of heartache so let's deal with them now
first this bonus tip bonus tip number one and that's coming up
okay so bonus tip number one now this rig is not without its problems its
braid and braid is notorious for tangling because it's so soft it can wrap
back up your mainline and leave you with a rig that's that long instead of
eight to ten inches like it should be okay now the way you get round tangles
with braid is you use a stringer so I have loads of these little mesh bag
with a couple of baits in I keep about twenty or thirty of them tied up in my
bucket at any one time and all you do is just latch it on like so okay and
that will give you extra weight at the hook bait and that's how you stop
tangles you put a stringer on whether it's a PVA string made out PVA string
or a bag small mesh bag like that the extra weight stops the braid from
tangling and keeps the lead separate from the bait I know it sounds a bit
strange like but when you cast out two weights that are roughly the same
it won't tangle you know the lighter the hook bait the more likely
it is to flail around and catch so by adding weight to it you prevent the
tangles and that works really well so that's bonus tip number one always put a
mesh bag on it
okay so bonus tip number two there is another way this rig can tangle and
that's here at the hook okay the hook the bait can wrap around
the shank of the hook it's supposed to exit at the back and it should always
exit at the back but it can go inside and come off the inside like that
now when that happens you'll get a hook pull make no mistake
you'll end up losing the fish it's happened to me a few times enough for me
to now do something about it and the way I do something about it is I use a
foam nugget not a full one just rip one into thirds so I take a third of a
foam nugget and the only reason you use a third is because it goes further
there's no point in errr no point in wasting money you can make your nuggets
go three times further you should so I lick it and fold it in half over the
hook so basically that's trapped now and can't move okay so the hair won't wrap up
and when we add the little stringer as well onto that what you're left with
is a package like that so the hair is trapped stringer on and if you cast a
braided rig out with that on it shouldn't tangle you may still get the very odd
one but 99 times out of a hundred that's gonna land okay just make sure you
smooth when you cast out and you trap the line on the spool feel it down for the
donk and if you do that that'll work okay so that's the tangles okay so I
made an old video on my GoPro about the inline lead the arrangement I use with
this setup and you can find out there it's called safe carp rig this is the
palomar knot for tying the knot to the swivel take a look at them check them
out and thanks for watching easy to tie carp rigs for beginners I'll see you again
in another video soon tight lines