Tag Archives: rig

I spotted this gizmo on a banner advert on the PAC website and one look was all I needed to know I had to try one out.  Wobbling for pike is great fun and on the right day very productive, but it can also be frustrating due to the number of lost and destroyed baits from simply casting and retrieving.  I’ve experimented with different methods of attaching baits to make them stay on longer but the best I’ve ever come up with involved threading a wire loop in through the mouth, out through the gill flap, straight through the flank and then back through the gills on out through the mouth.  It worked but it was as long-winded, fiddly and time consuming as it sounds to rig up!  So when I saw the concept of the Peak Pike Wobbler Rig, it seemed so intuitive that I couldn’t help but think the old cliché, “Why didn’t I think of that?”! The wobbler rig comes complete with everything needed for a snag-proof, effective method of wobbling deadbaits.  The only thing you need to add is a treble hook on a stinger wire, to your own requirements. The rig comprises a couple of …

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King of the Pond Terminal Tackle Range Reviewed by Andrew Kennedy I’ve recently been sent a new range of terminal tackle to review from a company called “King of the Pond”.  The company claims to focus on providing quality and value-for-money in its products, and based on the ones I’ve seen so far, I cannot dispute those claims in the slightest!  On the whole, the rig components are thoughtfully designed and of a very high quality.  I have briefly described and reviewed them individually, below… Swivels All of the King Of the Pond swivels are of exceptional quality. They are all extremely well finished off, with no visible joints or seams and no sharp edges. The swivels are also very smooth-spinning and very strong. There are four different styles of swivel available in the range; Rolling Barrel Swivels (£1.65 for 50), Quick-Change Link Swivels (£1.99 for 10), Quick-Change Helicopter/Chod Swivels (£1.99 for 10) – all of which are available in size 8, feature a matt anti-glare finish, have a breaking strain of 65lb and are compatible with their range of lead clips & buffer beads – and Micro Swivels (£1.25 for 20). The rolling swivels are the perfect all-round swivel …

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Roach fishing is something I very seldom do, in fact I cannot remember the last time I set out to specifically catch roach, except maybe to use as pike baits! Unsurprisingly, my roach PB has never been anything to shout about; I don’t know exactly what my biggest roach was, but it was certainly below 1lb. The positive of this was that there’s a lot of room left for improvement! Through the grapevine I heard of a local day ticket water which had produced a few large roach to pleasure anglers over the summer months. It was time to try for my first big roach and this seemed the perfect place to start. I remembered reading an article last year about the virtues of flavouring maggots with super-sweet flavours such as scopex, in helping to tempt winter roach to feed. So I got hold of some strong scopex bait spray and sprayed this onto my maggots, twice a day, for two days prior to the session. The smell was unbelievable! Despite being sealed in a large bucket inside the shed, you could smell scopex in the garden with the shed door shut! I met up with my good friend Kevin …

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Catfish are amongst the most difficult fish to target in the UK. Certainly in the East Midlands, not many fisheries are licensed to stock them and they can be sporadic feeders with a tendency to feed primarily after dark, and predominantly when the water is warm . Add to this the species’ abrasive pads lining the mouth and throat, along with a reputation as a strong fighter, and you have a highly prized and very worthy adversary. My previous two outings targeting catfish – both night sessions at Willowbank Fishery and Shatterford Lakes – had yielded me nothing. So when I saw a report on the Anglers Today website – detailing an unbelievable capture of 810lb of catfish and carp in a 48 hour session from Willowcroft Fisheries, near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire – I was more than a little intrigued! Upon contacting the fishery, I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the staff, who duly answered my (many!) questions about the fishery, its fish, its recent form, etc. As luck had it, the cats were feeding well following a recent warm spell, so a date was arranged. Accompanied by Craig Croft-Rayner I made the trek down to Wisbech for …

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Late Spring, into Summer is the perfect time of year to target tench, carp, crucians and bream in stillwaters. This gives me an excuse to use one of my favourite techniques – the humble “Lift Method”. Forget fancy anti-eject combi-rigs and the like; the lift method is simplicity itself. All the terminal tackle you need is a float, a hook, a swivel and some swan shot. The principle of the lift method is to over-shot your float and fish with all of the weight laid on the bottom. The float is set slightly over depth, so that when the rod is set up on rests, the float can be made to sit upright by simply tightening the line, so you can finely adjust how much float tip is visible. When a fish takes your bait, the shot is often lifted from the lake bed, which causes your float to lift out of the water, sometimes even laying horizontal on the surface! It is this action from where the method derives its name. Very often, however, you’ll notice knocks on the float tip before it disappears, just as you would with a waggler. Either of these bite indications are positive enough …

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