As I’m writing this I’m on my syndicate for only the 3rd time,

I joined it late in the year as it goes, because this syndicate runs February to February and I joined the end of July, the reason being is that I was fishing a lake at the time and felt I had achieved all I wanted to on there, finishing the season with 48 fish under my belt and my target fish in the bag, I felt it was time for pastures new and a bit of a challenge.

Hams hall is renowned as being hard to catch lake so I should get this article finished in no time.

Right let’s talk about rigs, I tend to rabbit on about all sorts in my blogs but seldom get to the technical side of things which is weird really as I consider myself quite a technical angler.

Unlike some people who choose to keep it simple when it comes to rigs I use lots of different types and variations, some of them I’m sure are the same as other people’s rigs although I do try to be different.

My favourite rig is the rig I’m catching on at the time, I think we can all say that can’t we, at the moment it’s made up of fluorocarbon hooklink material, stiff or semi stiff depending on the bottom of the lake, a micro ring swivel is put over the point of the hook trapped with a bead between the eye and the bend so it can run freely up the shank.

I tend to favour on the stiffer side of the material most of the time because I’m looking to fish over clearer areas in the lake if it’s a bit weedy I’ll make my semi stiff hooklink longer rather than go to a softer hook link, the idea being if my balanced rig settles down and rests on a piece of weed I’m not worried because its fluorocarbon which carries the same density as water and the fish find it hard to see,

I’d rather that than a soft link that is coiled up or lying on its self and going to get sucked in blown out and not lie straight,

it’s got to lie straight so the weight of the lead pulls the hook in early.

The most important factor in the rigs I use is RESETABILITY (yes it’s a word) by this i mean once the rig is in place if a take is aborted it must reset its self ready for or on the next take, for example the boilie must be ready to take the hook into the mouth at the right angle when sucked so when it blown out the point will drive into the bottom lip.

For this reason I do not use the soft hair trapped on the shank with a piece of silicon tubing although I do like the way you can tell if you have missed a take with this because the rubber is forced down to the eye of hook on ejection.

What I do on my particle rig is use a small ring on the shank and tie the hair onto this with two overhand knots then put a piece of the silicon tubing rubber behind the ring on the shank this way if its ejected you can tell, but the rig will still reset on the take.

The hooklink is either fluorocarbon or bristle filament if the bottom is very good and firm, with a soft section before the hook basically a combi rig tied to a clear colourless filament, this is my favourite rig for fishing stacked corn or balanced tiger nuts over a bed of particle.

How about that for perfect timing I finished the sentence and my rod had beeped a couple of times and pulled tight I’ve run over and hit into my 3rd fish from this venue nice little fight, a ball of weed later and he’s in the net, a 27lb mirror I believe it’s called The Rudder well I’m happy as I’ve only been here 3hrs most people say you have to wait 3 days for the fish to come onto the bait.

He’s took a Pungent squid bottom bait cored out with a red foam insert pertruding from the top of the boilie about 7-10 ml I call this the ZOILIE a cross between a boilie and you guessed it a zig, I’ve used this to great effect on a few waters were the fish are known to respond well to zigs but you want to get a bait on the deck because the fish aint showing and there feeding on the bottom on those low pressure days in the summer.

I also use this on stiff hinged rigs and when fishing mid water like a zig using a pop up boilie cored out and foam inserted leaving the same 7-10ml protruding the top of the bait, these stay up in the water like a corkball pop up for as long as it’s out there, I like to keep the foam soaked in a dip and contrast the colour of the foam to the pop up boilie.

I was just taking a break from writing and cooking a chilli for my dinner and my middle rod has just gone off. I was playing this fish for about 15 minutes it feels heavy, my arms were dropping off an finally he’s gone on his side, ‘oh my that’s a chunk’! I’ve said to myself, I hope this goes 30 and sure enough he’s gone 31-14 get in I’ve shouted, it a beautiful dark common well not really dark just a proper one if you know what I mean.

I’ve had a guy come round to take some picture from the peg further up he’s moved swims and for a moment I thought I was the only person on the lake, he has done a great job with the pictures, we had the obligatory beer and before long I’m standing in the swim think did that really happen.

I can’t sit down as I’m buzzing so much I just know I aint going to sleep tonight.

word got around the lake to a guy coming on and he was straight over to tell me that the fish was called the twin, he had caught it full of spawn at 33+ so 31-14 in early September is good news all round.

well that goes to show the rig i was taking about earlier and especially the trick with the bait and foam really work, give them a go and you never know something different to what the fish normally see can evoke a take purely out of curiosity of nothing else. I’m going to try and get the rods back on the spots and bait up before dark, so I hoped you enjoyed reading this article all be it not turning out as intended but way better than expected.

Remember you wont catch em on yah sofa !!