When you're out carp fishing, one of the challenges you come across is telling the difference between a big liner and an aborted take.
A typical scenario goes like this: you are patiently waiting for a carp to pick up your bait, and all of a sudden you get a flurry of beeps from your alarm or maybe even the tip of your rod starts to nod and you think you have a fish hooked. You're sure the lead has moved and rushing to the rod you enthusiastically strike into what you expect to be a big carp but it actually turns out to be fresh air. You wind in, frantically hoping to make contact with the fish but to no avail, there is nothing at the end of your line. You then inspect the carp rig, inspect the hook and wonder what happened. I recently came up with a way to improve your carp rig that will tell you if you have had a big liner or an aborted take.
How to modify your carp rig
For some time it's been widely accepted that adding a piece of silicon tube to slide over the shank of the hook and capture the hair can be used as a telltale sign to indicate whether or not a carp has blown out the bait. Now that's all well and good, I've tried it but I've moved on. I'm very happy with the performance of my carp rig and I don't want to change the way it works. With my rig, as soon as the carp picks up the lead, shakes its head or moves off, the lead will fall off the silicon tube, slide down the line and become a running rig, thus preventing the carp from using the lead to swing out the hook and giving you good bite indication no matter which way it swims.
So what I started doing recently is leaving the tail that is left after I've tied the 5 turn double knot about 30-40mm long. I then slide the silicon tube over the end of the eye of the swivel which pushes the tail forwards towards the swivel. Once I'm all set and ready to go, I slide back the lead off the silicon tube onto the mainline. Then I take the long knot tail and poke it into the hole in the middle of the inline lead where the insert used to be. Holding the tail against the silicon tube, I gently slide the lead back down over both the tail and silicon tube to tarp the tail. Only do this hard enough so that the lead just grips the tube when held by the baits. This is how the rig will then fish, tail trapped ready for action. If a fish picks up the bait, shakes its head or moves off, the lead slides off.
Knowing you've had an aborted take
In this example, say that your hook wasn't sharp enough or the fish was only just nicked and the carp gets away with. A few seconds later, you strike into fresh air, reel in and inspect the lead. If the tail is now fully exposed, un-tucked if you like, you know that you've just been done and a rigorous inspection of the hook is required. What happens is this: when the lead slides back, the tail pops out and kicks forwards because the silicon tube bends its back towards the swivel. On the retrieve, the lead slides back down over the silicon and the swivel, and prevents the tail from re-entering the hole. So unfortunately, you've had an aborted take, but at least you can be virtually 100% sure that that's what it was.
Knowing it was just a big liner
In the next example, let's say a sturgeon or a large catfish picks up one of your lines with its pecs and gives you a spectacular mini take. The lead gets dragged sideways over the gravel because it's being pulled by the mainline. The lead does not lose contact with the silicon tube pushed over the swivel because it's being pulled onto it. You hit what you believe to be a genuine take only to feel no resistance. You wind in, inspect the lead and the telltale tail is still neatly tucked into the lead. Now you know that it was just a big liner, you've still got to redo the rod but you would have wanted to do that anyway after the lead and rig (especially the hook) have been dragged over the bottom.
The important thing is you know exactly what happened by looking at the state of the tail in the lead so give it a try next time you're out and remember: the lead never lies!
Matt Collins, carp angler, photographer and owner of Beausoleil, an exclusive fishing holiday venue in North West France. If you are interested in fishing for big carp and monster catfish in your own private 4 acre fishing lake, go to http://www.frenchcarpandcats.com where you will also find additional carp fishing tips.
If you want to see the Beausoleil lake and some of its big carp and catfish, go to:
http://www.youtube.com/user/frenchcarpandcats
http://www.youtube.com/user/frenchcarpandcats
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