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Pre-tied fishing rigs from Sticky Sharp Rigs - By Marc

Firstly I would like to thank Paul at UK Fisherman & the guys from 'Sticky Sharp' for giving me the opportunity to try out these rigs, I have been carp fishing for many years now & have always tied my own rigs so when the sample rigs arrived I was semi cautious/excited about using them.

Rigs Tested

The Basic Rig, The Blow Back, The Line Aligner, The Withypool & The Combi-Rig

First Impressions

Dont expect any fancy packaging with these rigs. Each rig arrived in a clear logo-less plastic sleeve with just a brief description hand written on the sleeve.** I must say how nice it was to actually see the whole contents of the sleeve laying perfectly within & not a tangled mess you receive from other rig companies. All five rigs looked as if they had been hand-tied using top quality components & they even had the highly fashionable quick release hoops attached to the main line end.

** Please note that the rigs supplied for review were samples and not the finished article. All sticky Sharp Rigs are supplied with full graphic inserts with text on the reverse. (Paul, UK Fisherman)

The Tests

Would these rigs withstand the abuse of everyday carp fishing on the end of my Ballista's? fishing against snags & lily pads? fished with pva bags attached? More importantly would they pass the on the bank knot test?

At this point I must emphasis just how important it is to check all your terminal gear before casting out, knot checks, hook sharpness check etc

The Basic Rig
The Basic RigAs many of you will know this is a no frills rig, simple construction, simple mechanics, a rig found in many carp anglers rig wallets all over the UK/Europe including my own.

The hook was perfectly tied to the soft braided material, the braided material was smooth, kinkless & unfraid. As with any rig tied to my mainline a thorough test is undertaken on all knots. The rig passed all bankside abuse I could throw at it. Laying the rig in the shallow margins of the lake things looked good, hook link camoflage looked good & with the use of a pva nugget on the hook the whole rig came to rest nicely on the bottom.

With bait & pva bag attached the rig was chucked to around 70yds, things seemed to land in a nice straight line & the pva nugget floated up to the surface from the hook below ... I was happy. Thirty or so minutes later I was more than happy when a carp of around 15lb was lying on my mat, the hook had caught hold just off the middle of the bottom lip ... good enough for me. As I do with all my rigs after a capture, I recheck the setup. Bearing in mind the carp did take me through two lily beds all looked very good. I did however slip my sharpen stone lightly over the hook a few times. The rig was rebaited & recast to the same spot. I did get another run on this rig but lost the fish in the lily pads, the rig came back with a slightly fraid hook link, the hook looked good for another carp but was replaced.

The Blow Back Rig
The Blow Back RigThis rig is one of my all time favourite rigs. For many years I have used this type of rig. This is my favoured rig when used in conjunction with pop-ups or snowman baits. The rig was perfectly constructed, the only modification I made to this rig was the length of the hook link. I do prefer my hook links quite short & after some minor adjustments the rig looked good. Once baited & attached to the mainline I again dropped the rig into the margin to check the presentation. Again I was more than happy. It looked very good & blended in very well with the lake bed. A small counter balance was added under the hook just to sink the hook bait down & it was ready for the lake.

Cast out to the already baited area once again the pva nugget popped to the surface & I added a few freebies over the spot. It wasn't long before the delkim alerted me to some action, the bobbin rose then gently slid down indicating a drop back. I tightened to the lead & struck, the battle was short lived. On retreaving the rig Ii noticed the hair had become tangled around the bend of the hook. I'm not sure whether this was down to the length of the hair or rejection of the boilie from the carps mouth?

I shortened the hair & with the use of some pva string I tied the hair tightly down the shank of the hook to the bend, this should keep any tangles down to the minimum while casting out. Just to make sure & give me peace of mind I inserted the hook link into a pva stocking & recast. After three hours I had landed two carp on this rig & after the minor modifications I was 100% confident in the rig. If the hook hadn't felt & looked so dull Ii would of probably left it on!

The Line Aligner Rig
The Line Aligner RigThis is another very popular rig, not too much different from the Basic Rig apart from the use of the shrink tube at the hooks eye. Great looking rig, nicely constructed ... so I thought?

As with all the rigs, I put them under a knot test using the Korda Knot Puller. This is where the hook link parted about half way along its length. I couldn't see any visible fault/damage in the link it just snapped. Sadly this hooklink was taken apart, hook/QR link were saved for later use on my own hook link material.

The Withypool Rig
The Withypool RigPersonally im not a great fan of this rig but I gave it go on my third rod, the rig passed all the knot tests & looked good in the margin with a single 18mm pop-up attached. I was very impressed with the silicon/shrink tube used on this rig. After several pulls & tugs on it, it went back to its original pre-steamed shape ... well impressed. As I said earlier, a single pop-up was attached & cast just off the baited area. The reason for this being I was receiving several liners on the other two rods.

I sat there wondering about the rig, thinking how crude it looked, trying to understand why & how it works so well for so many anglers around the country when to my amazement I was in! Amazed & shocked when laying on my mat was my first twenty of the season & it fell to a rig I had little confidence in. After checking the hook & its components it was re-baited & cast to the same spot with greater confidence & high expectations. Within the hour I hand landed another carp just short of 18lb on this rig & quickly tied up my version of this rig & cast out just before night fall.

Excellant rig, thumbs held up high on this one guys!!!!!!!!

The Combi Rig
The Combi RigThis rig & variations of this rig have been knocking around for years and it has accounted for loads of carp up & down the country. Like all the rigs, it looked the business, nicely tied, hook sharpness 100% and the knot test passed with no problems. Not even any knot slip, which is quite common when using these coated hook links.

One useful tip when using these styles of rigs is to slightly heat the coated area of the link before casting out, just to make the link nice & straight & to stop any coils from occuring during use.

This was a very friendly rig to use, sadly no fish were caught upon it but it didn't tangle, the outer coating didn't start to peel off like some other brands do and it laid nicely on the lake bed. I did add a few drops of Tungsten Putty up the link just for peace of mind. I apply this tactic to most of my hooklinks nowadays.

Conclusion

When asked to test these rigs I was a little reserved as for many years I have tied all my rigs myself.

  • As I said before I liked the way the rigs were packaged, you could see what you were buying, no tangled messes at the bottom of a fancy looking display bag.
  • All the hooks were beautiful & sharp.
  • The addition of the QR hoop at the end of the link was a nice touch as well as the knots that were all shrink tubed.
  • Apart from one of the hooklinks snapping when testing i was pleased with all the materials used.
  • Some of the hook links were a little long for my preference, but easily adjusted.
  • To my surprize the Withypool Rig out fished the other rigs accounting for five carp including a twenty. Two carp fell to the Blow Back Rig & two to the Basic Rig.

So overall i was very impressed with the rigs & would have confidence in attaching them to my mainline.

I highly recommend these rigs. Thanks to the guys at Sticky Sharp for a great product.

Score:

Where to buy the The Sticky Sharp Rigs

Check out their website at www.stickysharprigs.co.uk where you can buy these excellent rigs online.

Submit a Review: UK Fisherman would be delighted to here from you if you would like to comment on any of our reviews. To do so, use the comment box below.

Alternatively if you would to submit a review of your own or submit an item for review at UK Fisherman, please visit the CONTACT page.

How to become the ‘luckiest fisherman on earth!’:

Source: Tim Richardson, author of Big Carp Bait Secrets

Have you ever wondered why one ‘lucky guy’ seems to catch the biggest fish again and again, while the majority of other fishermen just seem to get the average catches? Why is that?

Many of us would love to catch those big catfish, carp, bass, trout etc, every time we go fishing. It may just be that the guy is a genius angler, but real fishing success is often simply about using bait that is more effective than most other anglers baits at getting round fishes natural fears and resistance to eating it!...

But how can we achieve this? Well here’s a few of some of the best most proven methods of increasing your catches, especially for carp and catfish, but can be applied very effectively to many other species:

1. Try taking a look at the most popular baits where you fish and eliminate any similarity your homemade bait has with them. This especially applies to your own unique fishing bait recipe or formulas. This removes the fishes ‘danger reference points’. This gives your bait a massive ‘edge’ because the fish will not associate your bait with danger, anything like as much as with the baits everyone else are using - afterall , the whole point of a bait is simply to fool the fish into taking a hook into it’s mouth!

2. Make your bait different sizes, odd shapes, density, colors, flavors, with different attractors and additives, the more different to the usual bait the fish experience, the more effective your bait will be potentially be. Making your own bait puts the odds back in your favor and the power back into your hands - literally!

3. Absolutely pack your baits with “powerful ‘free amino acids’ (the type bodybuilders use as a liquid protein food supplement.) Even if you’re making a proprietary bait using a ‘commercial base mix’ that anyone can purchase, this will really set your bait apart and make it preferable to fish!

4. Pack bait with minerals, vitamins and trace elements - get a health tonic supplement from your local drug store. Very few people realize that these are in fact amazing attractors in their own right! An astounding edge is to massively increase the attractiveness and soluble nutritional message leaking from your bait, by soaking your hook bait in a mixture if fresh liquidized sweet corn, molasses and liquid protein food (so-called ‘free amino acids.)

5. It has been proven that when tested carp were provided with a number of complete foods providing all their nutritional requirements, preferred the food that had been sweetened. Eg, try sweetening honey and molasses , fruit sugar (fructose), or saccharin.

6. Add Sea salt to your bait - this is one of the most proven and unbelievable fish feeding triggers, and a great nutritional taste enhancer full of minerals. Nearly every animal and fish cannot live without salt!

7. For many fish including catfish and carp, pack your bait with fresh good quality digestible protein - it doesn’t need to be a large proportion, no more than a third of your bait. Ingredients such as trout pellet powder, meat and poultry meals, blood meal, fish meals and shellfish meals and liver powder are great. Add energy rich carbohydrates to provide balanced nutrition and binding. For example, soya flour, semolina, or even ordinary white or brown wheat flour. For carp try adding some wheat germ it has excellent properties!

8. Add a small amount of oil to your bait for a balanced nutritional value. For catfish this could be you favorite fish oil. For carp the best is probably pure cold pressed hemp oil -it’s natures ‘super food’ and is one of the richest and most healthy and nutritional oils known to man and fish!

9. Give your bait some protein that’s been ‘predigested’ or ‘hydrolyzed.’ This is easily achieved by adding a small amount of proprietary powder, like predigested liver, fish meal or shellfish extracts to your bait; available from bait companies all across the worldwide web. This method is incredibly effective, improving the fish attractive ‘amino acid profile of your bait. Fish are extremely efficient at detecting and utilizing amino acids, and you may well find that with the higher the rate of inclusion of these highly fish digestible ingredients, your catches and numbers of bigger fish soar too!

10. Allow your bait to ‘cure’ for 3-4 days prior to use; this allows your bait to start to ferment and lets bacterial enzymes release alcohols, sugars and increase the level of predigested proteins in your bait; all amazingly extremely good fish feeding triggers and attractors. See the difference this makes to your catches!

11. If you use ‘boilies’ rather than paste or dough baits, try chopping edges off your hook baits as if other fish have been ‘playing with your bait and taking small chunks out of it; this can really make the bigger fish ‘feel’ safer when they sample your hook baits - try piecing your hook baits right through to release the maximum attraction even from the center of your bait; it really works!

12. Try wrapping your bait and your hook (except the point) in a paste or dough. Try a mixture of ordinary flour, marmite, parmesan cheese, garlic granules, curry spices, sea salt, eggs and liquid amino acids - this mixture is pure ‘dynamite’ and really makes ‘em bite!

13. One of the most successful paste / dough baits of recent times is made from a mixture of fish meal and a couple of predigested ingredients like predigested fish meals, or predigested shellfish extracts. Try binding them together with just ordinary flour and loads of liquid amino acids / protein food supplement. ( But no eggs.) Experiment with different proportions to get your dough / pate to hold and last on your hook for different times. When you ‘bait up’ or ‘chum your swim with free baits like this, to attract the fish - hold on to your rod/s!!!

14. Add natural ingredients to your bait, for example, bird foods contain all kinds of fantastic foods fish love, like insects, seeds, grubs and worms. Many times, these encourage smaller fish to find your bait, and these can lead the bigger ones to your hook...

15. Add a ‘crunch factor’ to your bait - many fish have food detectors inside their gills, and allowing fish to experience eating your bait like it was natural food, eg, like shrimps or snails or mussels, is a great way to ‘turn them on’ and get more confident feeding and more bites!

16. If you use ‘boilies for carp catfish, etc there is a simple method of improving them: If you buy your baits frozen in a bag, then open them up and let them defrost and ‘warm up for 3-4 days in advance of fishing. This gives bacterial enzymes the time to start breaking down your baits and releasing very attractive alcohols, sugars and amino acids for example. It really works well for better catches and can even promote quicker bites!

Making and adapting your own and readymade shop - bought baits to make them different to the rest, and far more effective than normal is a science, and a very satisfying 'art'. When you have armed yourself with a range of great baits, the confidence you feel is awesome, and especially satisfying when you’ve ‘designed them and make them yourself!

I could show you many real life examples of how using edges like these and others, have resulted in fantastic big fish catches.

I love researching and writing about fishing bait because it is one of the fastest short-cuts to success! I am into bait in a big way, having even researched the subject with a PhD biochemist to reveal the reasons why and how baits really work to catch fish. I’ve found that a little bait knowledge can catch you more fish, but the more you know - the more consistent your catches can become - and the more big fish you catch!

The truly amazing thing is, ANY angler can achieve truly amazing catches with just enough of the right bait knowledge!.. Then other anglers will wonder what his ‘secret to success’ is...

Want to learn more about the "secrets" of caching big fish,
check out Tim's website at:
www.baitbigfish.com

Submit an Article: UK Fisherman would be delighted to here from you if you would like to comment on any of the fishing articles or if you would like to submit an article of your own.

To do so, please visit the CONTACT page.

Published in Carp Fishing Articles

by Ralph Dennett

Lac de Orient – France – 9th to 15th September

Sponsors – Carl (The Baitmaster) Edwards - Carple Baits & Lewington Homes Berkshire Ltd

I don’t normally fish matches but this event is something else. The whole atmosphere is charged with excited anticipation as anglers from 14 different counties come together to face the challenges of this fantastic water, all 5000+ acres of it.

Looking up towards the Dam

It all started back in January when my fishing partner Steve booked our place for this year’s event and from there the build up started. Every article we could find was read several times to glean as much info as we could and before we knew it the event was nearly upon us. Boats, engines & fish finders all needed checking, batteries charging and tackle checking. Nothing can be left to chance as the mighty Orient will punish any careless mistakes.

After a long chat with Carl (The Baitmaster) Edwards he kindly agreed to sponsor us with our bait requirements, Red Lobster Seaweed being the bait of choice, a cracking bait which we have full confidence in. This was supplemented with Carl’s excellent prepared particles namely the Maize and Hemp plus I already had some 30k of Carl’s mixed pellet - some 80+kilos to hopefully see us through the week. As promised everything arrived on the Wednesday and went straight into the freezer so that it would be in prime condition when the match started.

Everything ready, checked and double checked, Steve was picking me up around 5.00am on Friday as we were booked on the 10.00am ferry from Dover and another team from Reading Paul and Darren who were to be our travelling companions on the journey had to collect their bait on the way down. Friday arrived and I’m standing by a mountain of bait and tackle when Steve pulls into the close, with everything loaded and roped down we are on the road, meeting Paul and Darren as arranged and then heading down the motorway to Dover. After a long uneventful trip we are nearing our destination, we pass by Troyes and turn onto the N19. Shortly the Dam Wall appears and it seems to go on for ever, then as we turn off the N19 towards Mesnil-St-Pere the lake appears. Did I say lake! - inland sea is more apt, an immense daunting piece of water ... let me at it. As we pulled into the Headquarters area we realise we are the first competitors to arrive so we pick our spot and park up the motors right opposite the little Bar & Café ... well sorted. The next couple of days were to be a chill out and social before the serious fishing started on the Monday so up with the Bivvies and everything sorted, home from home.

Mesnil-St-Pere

Now that we are sorted its over to the Bar for some food and liquid refreshments where we meet up with Ross Honey and his Team. Ross is the organiser of the event, also there is Andy Chambers who is Head Marshall for this years event, a man with immense knowledge of the lake.“Buy you a drink Andy ?”, gotta pick this mans brains.

It’s now dark so suitably fed and watered we make our way back to the Bivvies, break out the kettle and sit around chatting and drinking, by about 1.30 in the morning we have been joined by a couple of lads fishing for Scotland and the beer is flowing. About an hour later about 8 Italian lads turn up and quickly join us with Salami and wine, shall we just say that a good evening was had by all.

The format for the event is to be as follows, competitors arrive over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, register at the HQ and get all boats and equipment safety checked. Sunday evening we have the welcome dinner with local dignitaries and the draw for swims. The competition starts at 3.00pm on Monday with no broken water before that time and ends at 8.00am on Saturday. This gives us a reasonable time on Monday to find our swims and get the gear to them as some are only accessible by boat. In the meantime we can have a look around get any last bits of shopping from the Intermarche and generally talk Carp. All the research we had done indicated that it normally takes a few days for the fish to get on the bait and the proven tactics are to get a good bed of bait built up and wait for the fish to move in, we also needed rough weather and big winds to get the fish moving. Several chats with Andy Chambers have confirmed our thoughts so we are feeling reasonably confident.

The Formalities Begin

Sunday evening arrives and we spruce ourselves up and put on our Carple shirts and head for the welcome meal and draw, as we enter the sports hall the clammer of 186 Carp anglers is deafening as the excitement and anticipation grows.

With the meal over the formalities begin with speeches from various people including the local Mayor followed by the local children parading all the participating countries flags.

The Draw

Then comes the draw. Paul and Darren are first up, Section 7, peg 10 not a bad draw its facing the dam.

Steve and I are next up Steve draws Section 4, peg 7, Italie Point about halfway along, not a bad draw if the weather breaks in our favour.

 

Time to get our heads down

Now the formalities are over it’s back to the bivvies to get our heads down as we want to get an early start in the morning to give ourselves time to get sorted before the off, as soon as the start is signaled it’s into the boat to do a serious reccy of our swim.

We are up and packed away by about 9am, later than we wanted, but never mind. As the boats are already inflated we take Paul and Darren’s on our motor and drop it off for them and then go on to find our swim some where along here.

Italie point - 1.5k long

It took a couple of hours to carry all the gear to our swim and with clear blue skies it was a hot sweaty job, by about 2.00pm we are all sorted rods up and baited and buckets of bait ready to go once we have found our spots. Before we know it the rocket signals we are off and a myriad of boats launch into the lake all looking for those tell tale signs on the fish finder that show up a potential feeding spot. Steve’s out in the boat thoroughly scouring our swim for features. After about 2hrs he has found what we wanted, distinct features going out to the left of our swim. The peg next to us is vacant so we ask the marshals if we are OK to fish into the vacant peg which they confirm we are. By 7.30pm our spots are baited and the rigs are out. Now we can sit back with a cold beer and relax, it’s been a very busy day, come on you fish.

Set and ready for action

Nothing showed during the first night and in the morning we learnt 2 fish had been lost, 1 about 6 pegs along from us and 1 by the dam. By the end of Tuesday 4 fish had now been lost in weed or snags, the good news is that they are all from different areas of the lake. We continue to stick to our plan and steadily build up our swim. We have seen fish on the finder and we are getting line bites so we know we have fish in the swim, but we don’t know what. It has been another warm clear day, we need the weather to break and the wind to get up, unfortunately the promised weather isn’t materialising and it continues hot.

It’s now Wednesday and it’s 8 – 0 to the Carp, so it’s still all to play for.

Early Thursday morning the first fish is landed by John Lilley’s partner, George Csonka, at 11.5kg it is a nice fish but not big by Orient standards. Still, first fish so well done guys.

Thursday night sees more action with a 22.1kg fish to Jean Pierre Becker of France, a 15.4kg fish to our travelling companions Paul and Darren, putting them in second place and a 9.3kg fish to Rob Tough and partner places them third, so things are starting to happen.

With the final day and night ahead of us there is still everything to fish for, we have fished hard for 4 nights although the results don’t show it, but that’s Carp fishing especially on waters like the Orient. The weather is showing signs of a change so hopes are high for the final night, with everything ready we sit back to wait events and talk over the week. Whatever the outcome we’ve had a great week and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Last night

As we sit chatting and watching the water everything feels right, we have done everything we can it is now in the lap of the Carp gods. Everything is still, the only sounds come from the Wild Boar searching for food in the woods behind. We turn in about 12.30, but I lay there unable to sleep.

I must have drifted off as the next thing I remember is flying out of the bivvy. The barometer has dropped and monster Carp are crashing everywhere in front of us, Steve is standing some 50 yds down the bank. When I get to his side he says that Steve Howard and his partner in the swim to our right have a big fish on, minutes later it snaps the 35lb braid like a piece of cotton, the Orient tree stumps win again. They are understandably gutted.

Tree Stumps are everywhere under the water, hiding in the weed

As fast as it had started it’s over, about 15 minutes in all, the fish just disappeared again back into the depths, the weather had changed again and so had the fishing, it looks like our chance has passed us by. In the morning we learn that the same phenomenon had occurred in several areas around the lake, although no fish were caught. One final fish was caught on the Sat morning which had Paul and Darren on edge as it was 15kg+. Eventually it was confirmed at 15.1kg so they have retained second place.

Final result, 83 pairs (166 anglers) fished their hearts out for 6 days and 5 nights and the score was Carp 25 anglers 5.

We packed up, loaded the truck and made our way back to the presentation. Although we hadn’t caught, it was great to see our friends Paul and Darren on the rostrum in 2nd place. Well done guys and congratulations to Jean Pierre Becker & Yves Hauk, the winners making it a home victory for France.

Well done to all the prize winners.

As we make our way home we are happy, we know we fished well as many others did, it simply wasn’t our turn this year. We have had a fantastic time and met some great people from all over Europe, brilliant!

A special thanks to our sponsors, Carl ( The Bait Master ) Edwards whose support and excellent baits gave us the edge we needed and to Lewington Homes Berkshire Ltd for the loan of the transport that made life a lot easier with all the gear we took.

Now to start planning for next year Lac de Madine is the venue, can’t wait.

See you on the bank somewhere!

Cheers, Ralph Dennett

Editor: Thanks to Ralph for this excellent article and good luck next year mate!!

Submit an Article: UK Fisherman would be delighted to here from you if you would like to comment on any of the fishing articles or if you would like to submit an article of your own.

To do so, please visit the CONTACT page.

Published in Carp Fishing Articles
Superb Carp and Catfish Fishing at Etang De La Boissonie

Dreaming of fishing for BIG carp with the sun on your face all year round. Turn your dreams to reality and pay a visit to rural France for some big carp action.

Ron Browning from Carp Anglers Dream sets the scene:

Set in the heart of the Limoisine region of France, dating back 100 years, Etang De La Boissonie is a totally secluded private lake. Being five acres in size and totally surrounded by acres of treelined meadow, it ensures that you are not overlooked by houses or roads.With its mainly gravel bottom and two natural water supplies feeding the lake, it makes the perfect habitat for big Carp and Cats.

In my 25 years of Carp fishing, I have seen too many lakes overcrowded, making fishing very difficult, so we have limited the maximum number of anglers to six. The lake opened in April 2004 and has seen a successful season. Bookings for 2006 already being taken so book early to avoid disappointment.

To compliment its original stock of between Two hundred and Two hundred and fifty Carp, we have added another ninety Carp with weights up to 30lbs. Fourteen catfish were also added up to 30 lbs

January 2005 saw an additional stock of carp introduced which consisted of 3 x 28.5 lbs, the rest were between 31 lbs up to 36 lbs +. Also added at this time were 6 Catfish between 41 lbs and 98lbs.

To make your stay with us more comfortable we have added an English shower and toilet block, with hot and cold water. We can now offer collections to and from Limoges Airport in our 11 seater mini bus, when booking Fly and survive.>

To read more about fishing at Etang De La Boissonie or to check availability and prices, visit Carp Anglers Dream's website at:

www.carpanglersdream.com

Submit a sale item:
UK Fisherman would be delighted to here from you if you would like to comment on any of our sale items. To do so, use the comment box below.

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