The Hinge Rig
Snake Bite Rig
Critically Balanced Rig
The Snowman Rig
Nail
Rig
PopupRigOnMud
‘Hinged, Pop-up, Stiff rig’
Pop-Up Rig
Helikopter-Rig
Amnesia D-rig
Scorpio-rig
The Lay-on Rig
Gravel Rigs
Roughorshallow Rig
Shocker Rig
Silt-rig
Wonderlijn
Bait Bag
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When Steve Slater of Innovate Baits agreed for us to undertake a review of their boilie range, I was over the moon as I could wait to get my hands on their “365″ range of steamed HNV boilies.
As part of the package we received, we were sent the following products to test and review:
Upon opening the boilies, you could immediately see the difference between the steamies and ordinary boilies. The steamed boilies were a lot softer and appeared to carry more texture and aroma.
You could almost sense that these boilies were going to be something a bit special !
These baits were tested at Culcreuch Castle Loch. The weather was brightening up as the last of the torrential rain passed leaving us optimistic that the carp would come up in the water.
First on the hook was “The Apocalypse” which smelt fantastic. As well as the hookbait, we added a couple to a bag and added some bait dip for extra attraction hoping that the smell of the matched glug would send the carp into a feeding frenzy.
On the second rod, we used a single “The Fix” boilie on a hair rig. These boilies look superb.
They are spicy in flavour and you can see the niger seed within the mix which overtime would breakdown and act as particle feed enhancing the attraction to any passing carp.
This rod was cast to a margin which had seen some surfacing carp.
Over an hour went past and we had received no activity and with a huge cloud overhanging the lake looking ready to burst, we decided to call it a day.
However in order to give the bait (and ourselves !) more time , we will conclude this review in Part 2 (Scheduled for one week’s time) so please check back shortly.
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We have recently been given the pleasure of being able to test various baits offered by the popular bait company, SBS Baits.
Their presence within the Carping fraternity is well-known and the bait range they offer caters for all types of carp fishing.
SBS Baits have over 30 years of experience in the bait industry and their reputation has been earned by providing quality products to anglers all over the world. From their office in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, they produce a huge range of products such as boilies, base mixes, attractants, glugs, dips and pellets.
For the record, we have not been paid to write this review and it is our honest opinion based on the service received, quality of bait on arrival and the results achieved on the bank. As you will see below, we have put each product through its paces and here are our findings.
Our bait arrived within two days of ordering and was well packaged.
The service received from Des Taylor of SBS was simply excellent.
In order to get a good all-round feel for their products, we ordered the following:
The chosen venue for the review was Culcreuch Castle Loch (A.K.A Fintry) which is a water set in the grounds of a sixteenth century castle which now run as a hotel and is based in Fintry, Stirlingshire.
The chosen swim was the lochside car park swim which allows easy casting to margins and lillies. 
The first item put to the test was the Monument M1 boilies and Monument M1 Bait Dip.
Upon opening the glug, the aroma reminded me of a mixture of Bacon and Tomato Ketchup ! The texture of this stuff is seriously thick and will stick to anything…simply excellent !
For maximum impact, we added a PVA bag of Monument M1 pellet which was again soaked in the bait dip… 
The initial cast was placed straight in front just off the lillies to the right hand side.
The second rod was prepared making good use of the paste. The paste was used as a boilie wrap and was presented on a single boilie hair rig.
The paste supplied is the same paste used to produce Monument M1 boilies…the only difference is it hasn’t been boiled !
This makes it an excellent addition to the boilies as it breaks down quicker in the water.
The overall outcome of the few hours we had produced little apart from a few line bites and a single run. The quality of the bait we received was excellent and with more testing time, I am positive that the Monument M1 range will produce large catches again and again.
The smell and substance of the glug and paste gives you the confidence to try different methods of bait presentation.
We are going to continue testing this bait over the course of the next few months and will post details of any catches here.
Our conclusion on the Monument M1 bait range is that it is simply excellent.
Des Taylor and the team over at SBS Baits have tried to cater for all methods of carp fishing and I would say that they have achieved this…
Keep up the good work lads, I am definitely a future customer 
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Anyone who is a keen carp angler would know that Wellington Country park is the UK mecca for catching very large carp.
The opportunities to fish at Welli are as rare as winning the National Lottery! So when Trevor (Affectionately known as TT) offered me a 36 hour session with him I jumped at the chance.
For those of you who do not know about the venue it’s about 20 acres in size situated in lovely quiet countryside about 4 miles outside Reading. The average depth is around 4.5 feet with the water being very clear which promotes prolific weed growth. This water is home to many very large carp to 47Lb. Many top name anglers fish Wellington and its not uncommon to meet then when you are there.
A nice pair of Welli whackers! Welli was featured in one of the most recent Korda DVD’s and is always in magazines without being directly named. Most days you can spot an angling celebrity fishing there.
TT and I arranged to meet at 7.00am on Saturday morning at the main gates, for me 7.00am could not come quickly enough after a sleepless night. After what seemed like an eternity TT eventually arrived and after the usual meet and greet we unlocked the gates and drove to the angler’s car park.
With just four cars in the car park we knew that the best swims would possibly be taken. Both of us loaded up the barrows and headed off to the lake with much anticipation but sure enough the better swims on the lake were already taken. TT made the decision to set up on the grassy bank area so we turned our barrows around and set about the long walk to the grass bank area of the lake.
The spot we chose gave us good coverage of the water. With three rods out each we could ambush the carp as they swam from one end of the lake to the other
The tactics Due to the abundance of weed it was 12.30pm before I got my last rod into the water. Confident in the spots I had chosen I set about baiting up.
The left hand rod was positioned at about 60 meters out and 20 meters of the bank to my left hand side. This made baiting a simple matter of walking around the lake and catapulting boilies onto the spot.
1Kg of Dynamite boilies were catapulted onto the spot My second rod was placed at 90 meters straight out in front, too far to reach with the catapult so out came the trusty Grey’s spod rod. 20 or more casts later I had deposited another kilo of Dynamite tiger nut boilies over my hook bait.
The third rod was a roving rod and used the same rigs and bait but was set up with PVA ground bait sticks and was cast to showing fish.
Special G ground bait and crushed tiger nuts mixed with tiger nut oil made up my stick mix ingredients
Rigs were very simple - Korda side-clip systems were used to eject the leads quickly due to the weed problems. Safe zone leaders helped the side clip systems work well and pinned everything down on the lake bed.
Size 6 Kamasan Maxx Barbel hooks were tied to Suffix Camo Skin 15lb braided hook lengths. The rigs were made up deliberately very long 13” to help bait presentation allowing the bait to settle as naturally as possible on the weedy lake bed. A long hair was used with a small Korda micro ring giving a claw rig set up.
A long length of heat shrink tube was used to give a simple kicker at the eye of the Maxx Carp hooks The going bait on Welli is Dynamite Monster tiger nut boilies in 10mm, 15mm, 18mm and 20mm sizes both shelf life and freezer baits. To complement this I had some Dynamite 15mm pop ups and tiger nut liquid. The fishing For the first 24 hours the rods and bobbins sat in perfect symmetry only moving when either a weed bed drifted into the line or a coot thought it was a carp and picked up my bait. Don’t you just love coots?!
No carp yet no runs yet but we were looking good
TT was getting bored so he decided to do some swim clearance. The floating weed was a real nightmare. TT managed to create a weed mountain nearly 3 foot high and six foot long.
We were surrounded by the most beautiful country side and with the carp on a go slow we were able to fully enjoy these exquisite surroundings. The lake had been very quiet for the preceding weeks and our session followed that slow trend. However a few carp gave us a demonstration of jumping and crashing out of the water more akin to dolphins than carp.
All too soon it was our last morning our rods had remained upon there rests and no carp had bothered us. As we lazily sat in the warming autumn sun, without warning TT left hand rod burst into life as the clutch on his Shimano Technums went into overdrive as a fit carp tried to escape.
TT jumped into action grabbing the rod as he lifted into a powerful carp, his Free Spirit rod took on a full and healthy curve Our expectations were very high could this be a 30 or maybe one of the lakes many 40’s. The fish was skillfully played into the margins.
Due to the very shallow margins TT decided to net the fish himself
The carp was soon being looked after on TT’s very old but strangely hardly used unhooking mat TT manged to hold the lovely common up for the cameras before letting him back to his watery home.
TT assures me that this is his happy look!
This superb miniature common will grow to one of Wellington country parks much larger residents in years to come With just a couple of hours left to go before we had to start packing up our tackle it was my turn to get a screaming take from the left hand rod. I lifted the rod from the Delkim and felt a heavy fish but immediately the line went slack; I had managed to drop the fish. When I eventually reeled in the rig, the pop up bait had managed to get impaled upon the hook point, preventing the hook from catching the carp properly. Oh well maybe next time.
The session went very well. Only one fish caught but the setting, atmosphere and the company had made this for me an excellent weekend session that will remain in my thoughts for many years to come. TT learnt a whole raft of new rigs ideas and concepts and I am sure if he keeps practising he will become a very confident angler. Thanks TT for a great weekend.
Tight lines! Ian Gemson is a PAA Qualified Professional Angling Coach offering training courses and one-to-one sessions for new and Experienced anglers alike. For more information regarding his services, please visit his website at SmartCarping.com
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OK a bit more advanced and fiddly involving all manner of small rubber objects ( so definitley Euro ) is the Helicopter Rig. So called because the leader is attached to a swivel on the mainline causing the leader to rotate about the line on casting like helicopter blades.
Why bother? Well it’s a good long range, anti-tangle set up. Again I’m not going to debate the merits and variations ( as usual there are slightly different ways to skin this cat ), rather illustrate how it’s tied and leave the debate for another time.
This rig can be bought in ready to assemble kits and I would recommend these as they’re usualy safer. However I don’t think its so bizarre and specialised that it can’t be made without the custom made components either.
The kit I’m using here is by Korda. Here are the components.
1. Rig tubing
2. Lead weight
3. Buffer bead
4. Rubber bead
5. Swivel bead ( a wide bore swivel will do the job as well )
6. Tail rubber
7. Leader ( stiff leaders work best - I’ve used coated braid here ) Apologies - the leader shouldn’t have a swivel on it
Step 1
Thread your mainline through the tubing and push a tight fitting rubber bead over the tubing.
Step 2
Thread the tail rubber onto your leader and tie the leader to the swivel bead.
Step 3
Push the tail rubber onto the swivel bead and slide the swivel bead onto the tubing. Then thread your buffer bead onto the tubing.
Step 4
Tie the lead weight to the mainline and slide everything nice and tightly together. Job done 
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While I’m at it might as well include the Method. A method feeder is basicaly a frame around which groundbait is packed into a ball. The rig is constructed in the same way as an inline bolt rig (see here ) , substituting the feeder for the weight.
I’m using the korda ( before anyone asks no I don’t work for them ) method feeder, since it has the right size clip socket for my swivels.
So, thread it together as per an inline lead
And clip the swivel into the socket at the bottom end of the feeder to create the semi-fixed bolt rig setup.
Job done
COMPONENTS
I’ve checked their site and while Wacker Bait don’t have Korda feeders, the Fox and Anchor method feeder are available and work in exactly the same way.
All other components I’ve used are available there as well ( no I don’t work for them either! ) incuding safety bolt rig kits, tubing and inline leads.
Its well worth checking with them about getting the correct size swivels for individual method feeders. Size 8 swivels are usualy the right size for inline leads in my experience.
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This is one of the most widely used set-ups, the Bolt Rig.
The principle is simple ( see below. )
In Step 1, the fish picks up your hookbait on a slack leader, taking with it the hook..
In Step 2, as the carp moves away the leader tightens and the weight of the lead comes into play.
The carp ‘bolts’ ( hence the name ) and the weight of the lead helps pull the hook home.
Right, here’s how to construct a simple in-line bolt rig.
First you need your components.
OK this is what I’m using here ( ps this just my own personal preferences - obviously there are other makes and types etc. ) My rig here consists of 8″ Kryston Snakebite leader with a size 8 Fox Uni-swivel to a size 8 CarpRus Longshank hook tied with a hair rig. 3oz Fox inline lead, tail rubber and 12″ sink tubing ( your tubing must always be longer than your leader, about 1.5 times the length is ideal. )
Step 1: Thread your mainline through the tubing and then thread on the tail rubber, which must slip over the end of the tubing.
Step 2: Thread on your weight, attaching it to the tail rubber.
Step 3: Take your leader swivel and push it into the rubber or plastic housing. This is an essential move, since this housing creates the ’semi - fixed rig’ set-up essential to a bolt rig. IT MUST NOT be jammed in too tightly so that if the line breaks or the lead gets snagged up the swivel can be pulled free of the lead. At the same time if the swivel can come free too easily when the carp picks up the hookbait the bolt rig effect is lost as the weight of the lead will not come into play. 
Step 4: Push the housing into the lead weight and there you have it.
Just want to re-iterate the ’semi - fixed rig’ thing. The important thing here is that the weight is fixed to the leader so the weight helps drive the hook home. But it is important that the swivel can come free under pressure. If, for example, a mainline break occurs it is important that the leader can come free of the weight so that it is not going to have to drag around a length of line attached to a lead weight.
This will often eventualy kill the fish, why such fixed rigs ( for example, tying the lead weight to a mainline ) are known as ‘death rigs’. Its important to get a balance whereby the swivel is fixed enough to the weight to allow the ‘bolt rig’ efect and loose enough to pull free in an emergency.
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Just had to post this one…what a cracking achievement…he can barely lift it off the mat !
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The lead clip system is possibly one of the most popular lead systems and is used by the vast majority of carp anglers today. They are designed to eject the lead should it become tethered whilst playing the fish so using a side-clip in your rig is critical to fish welfare.
It’s easy to put this system together incorrectly so the leads will not eject and the fish will become permanently connected to the snag. In this article I will show you how to correctly assemble a side-clip system to ensure complete fish safety.
Side clips can be put together using leaders or by using rig tubing. In this article I will show you how to use a leader.
What you need
- Safe zone leaders
- Size 8 ring swivels
- Lead clips
- Tail rubbers
- Silicon tube
- Swivel lead
- Heavy latch needle
IMPORTANT NOTE:
It is vital that you use a single manufacturer’s products to build your side-clip system. Different manufactures components are not always compatible with one another.
Method Step 1
Thread the side clip onto the heavy latch needle
Step 2
With the side clip on the heavy latch needle insert the loop of the leader into the latch and slide the side clip onto the leader.
Step 3
Thread the tail rubbers onto the heavy latch needle. Now with the tail rubber on the heavy latch needle insert the loop of the leader into the latch and slide the tail rubber onto the leader and slide the clip and tail up the leader.
Step 4
Now pull the swivel into the lead clip, the swivel should be a tight fit and you should hear and feel the swivel pass over a ridge in the lead clip housing. It is very important that the swivel is a tight fit in the lead clip if yours is not tight then you can use a small piece of fishing line slipped down along the side if the swivel as it is drawn in to tighten the fit.
Step 5
Select the swivel lead you require and place a small amount of silicone sleeve over the bottom of the swivel to help minimize tangles.
Step 6
With the lead in place wet the ridged section of the clip and slide the tail rubber over the ridges. It is very important that you do not force the tail rubber completely over the ridges as this will stop the lead from ejecting if the lead becomes tethered.
Only push the tail on 3 or 4 ridges at most the tail rubber is shown about four ridges in.
Your rig is now complete!
All that’s left is to tie the leader to your mainline (a grinner knot is good for this) then add a quick link to the ring swivel, attach your hook length and bait and you are ready to cast out and start fishing.
Tight lines!
Ian Gemson is a PAA Qualified Professional Angling Coach offering training courses and one-to-one sessions for new and Experienced anglers alike. For more information regarding his services, please visit his website at SmartCarping.com