Begin by tying the hook on to an 8" length of stiff filament using a knotless knot. Many people recommend using a whipping knot so that the length of the rig can be controlled, but I find this invariably damages the stiff filament. Once tied, pull the coils up nice & tight around the shank of the hook, then slide a micro swivel over the tag end of the filament, & feed it back through the eye of the hook to form the ‘D’. Trim the tag to around 5mm of the eye of the hook, and then carefully subject the tag end to the flame of a cigarette lighter to ‘blob’ it, taking care to avoid distorting the hooklink with the flame. Once this has been done, tie on the uni-swivel using a 2-turn grinner knot. Moisten the knot with saliva & carefully, but firmly tighten the knot down, aiming to get the hooklink around 1½ - 2" long. Trim the loose end from the knot, & then coat the knot with a small drop of EXP 15 rig solution. I then hold the whole rig under tension over the spout of a steaming kettle, to straighten the hooklink out. Once this has been done, again using the steam from a kettle, carefully form a slight bend in the hooklink to suit. Finally, make a small hole in a buoyant pop-up & insert the swivel, then tie the bait on using bait floss. Trim the ends of the floss & ‘blob’ the ends using the cigarette lighter. The leader I use is a low diameter leadcore leader, which I attach to the lead after removing the swivel from it with a pair of wire cutters. I like to use the tournament lead as it casts extremely well, & I prefer it to plug in the silt, increasing the resistance to a taking fish. A 20mm length of shrink tube is slid down the leader & fixed above the lead with superglue. A heli-sleeve is then mounted over the shrink tube & the lead loop. Finally add the hooklink, then fix a 10mm section of shrink tube into position, again using superglue, & slide a rubber bead over the top of this shrink tube section. The rubber bead will easily slide off the shrink tube section in the event of a breakage, making this a safe, & virtually tangle-proof presentation.

The 'D' Rig

To my knowledge the ‘D’ rig has been around since the late eighties, & I believe it was designed by Roger Smith, & subsequently publicised in Rob Maylin’s excellent first book – Tiger Bay. I think it is now somewhat underused & perhaps underrated with all the more ‘in-vogue’ presentations, but I suspect even Mr Smith didn’t envisage exactly just how effective this rig would become. Having played around with various versions of it, this is my interpretation of this famous arrangement, which has taken me an awful long time to perfect, & as my own experiences have proved, this rig really is the business - I've kept it very quiet up until now... It has many benefits over a normal style ‘D’ setup, In fact this presentation incorporates many of the properties of both the ‘claw’ rig (or ‘blowback’ rig) & the ‘D’ rig.

Take a 4" length of low diameter braid & double it up. Pass this through a rig ring (which has been made into an oval shape by crushing with pliers) then slip the formed loop in the braid over the point of a size 6 hook, trapping it against the shank. Thread the 2 loose ends of the braid through the back of the hook eye & set the length of the ‘D’ to be formed. Holding the shortest tag end out of the way, whip a knotless knot. Trim the loose tag end of the braid & apply a tiny amount of superglue to the knotless knot to seal it. Tie the bait on to the rig ring with bait floss then tie a boom section of 12lb mono to the hooking arrangement using a 3 turn leader knot. Add a wrap of lead wire just below the leader knot to ensure that the boom section doesn’t lift the braided section off the lake bed. Finally, slide an anti-tangle sleeve on to the mono & tie a small loop in the end of the boom section. This can now be slipped over the end of the quick-change heli-swivel for fast & easy hooklink changes. As a finishing touch, I cure a tiny amount of EXP15 over the leader knot & the whipping knot, just to tidy the whole lot up. This arrangement I have found to be effective wherever I have taken it, due mainly to the fact that it has increased chances of hooking on ejection. The benefit of this arrangement is that the ‘D’ collapses on ejection, giving the hookbait & hook an increased amount of separation than with a standard ‘D’ rig. It never tangles if employed correctly & there is no long hair to wrap around the back of the hook during the cast. I have also found that this set-up is equally as effective as a bottom bait or pop-up presentation.

 Short Braided Rig

Start by cutting an 8" length of braid & tie a small loop on the end of it. Using a baiting needle, slide a 12mm pop-up followed by a standard 10mm bottom bait onto the hooklink & put a small boilie stop into the loop. I prefer this type of presentation, as I can balance this out by either trimming the pop-up or adding small pieces of lead wire to the pop-up. Pass the end of the hooklink through the back of the hook eye & set the length of the hair, then tie a simple knotless knot. I find it is ideal to have the hair length to the bottom of the 10mm bait the same as to the point of the hook. Cut a 16mm length of shrink tube, then slide this down the braid & over the eye of the hook (so that the eye is in the middle of the tube length). The shrink tube can now be steamed over the spout of a boiling kettle. Once this has been done, tie the hooklink onto the loop of the heli-swivel using a 4-turn grinner knot, aiming to get the hooklink around 3" in length. At this point I add a small wrap of lead wire, mid way along the hooklink, & this is held in place by a small coating of EXP15 solution. The lead wire stops the short hooklink ‘looping’ up off the bottom which is common when using very short hooklinks. I modify the lead by removing the hard plastic insert, & trimming about 8mm off the wide end. I then fit this back into the lead & slide a shortened tail rubber over the protruding end of the insert. Push the discarded section of the tail rubber into the front of the lead, & this holds the swivel perfectly. By using a leadcore leader with loops spliced at each end, simply pull the leader through the lead using a baiting needle, then hook the heli-swivel onto the leader & pull it back into the lead. The use of the heli-swivel allows quick & easy changing of hooklinks without having to break the whole set-up down. Tie the other end onto the main line & you have a very simple, but effective rig.

Standard Bottom Bait Combi-Rig