Rig selector

5 arrangements suit

They are not ranked. The difference that usually decides it is where the resistance sits — see running and fixed rigs.

• Running leger

  A bottom rig in which the line runs freely through the weight, so a taking fish feels almost nothing.

  • Recorded for freshwater.
  • Fished from the shore.
  • Recorded as suiting rough ground, which covers what you described.
  • Recorded as working in still or almost still.
  • Presents a bait on the bottom.

  In the water: The weight settles on the bottom; the hooklength extends away from it in the direction the tackle was travelling or in the direction of any flow, and the bait lies at the end of it. Line is drawn tight from the rod to the weight. When a fish picks the bait up and moves, it pulls line through the weight rather than dragging the weight, so the resistance it feels is only the friction of line through the bore plus whatever the rod and reel add. That resistance is not zero, and reducing it — a smooth bore, an appropriate rod angle, a slack bow rather than a tight line — is most of the craft in fishing this rig.

  When it stops being the right answer: Where fish are cautious and takes are deliberate: chub and barbel in rivers, tench and bream on stillwaters, and any situation where a fixed-lead take would be dropped. It is also the correct choice in snaggy ground, because a running arrangement can be set up so the weight is shed if the line parts.

  What goes wrong

  • Omitting the buffer bead, so the weight repeatedly strikes the swivel knot during casting until it fails.
  • Fishing a line so tight that the fish feels the rod before it feels the lead.
  • Using so heavy a weight that friction through the bore defeats the purpose.
  • A hooklength so long that a bite is a metre of movement before anything registers.
  • Setting it up so the weight cannot be shed in snags, which leaves a broken-off fish towing it.

• Hair rig

  The bait mounted on a short link below the hook rather than on the hook — the single most consequential rig invention in modern coarse fishing.

  • Recorded for freshwater.
  • Fished from the shore.
  • Recorded as suiting mixed ground, which covers what you described.
  • Recorded as working in still or almost still.
  • Presents a bait on the bottom.

  In the water: The bait sits on the bottom with the hook lying beside or just above it, connected only by the hair. A feeding carp sucks in bait and water together; the hookbait travels in exactly as a free one would, and the bare hook is drawn in behind it. When the fish then blows out what it does not want, the hook is dragged across the bottom lip, the weight of the hook and the angle of the wide gape turn the point inwards, and it takes hold. Almost all of the hooking happens on the EJECTION rather than on the intake, which is the part that surprises people.

  When it stops being the right answer: Wherever fish are large enough and pressured enough to reject a hooked bait — which now means most carp fishing, and increasingly barbel, tench and bream fishing too. It is unnecessary for small fish and unsuitable for very soft baits that cannot be threaded, though bait bands solve that for pellets.

  What goes wrong

  • A hair so long that the bait tangles around the hook, or so short that the bait cannot behave freely.
  • Burying the hook against the bait so the point cannot turn.
  • A hook too small in the gape for the bait, so the point has no room to catch the lip.
  • Leaving the hook point blunt after dragging the rig across gravel; the whole rig depends on the point turning and biting.
  • Assuming the fish hooks itself on the take, and striking, which pulls the hook out of a mouth it has not yet caught.

• Method feeder rig

  A moulded feeder with bait pressed around it and a very short hooklength, so the hookbait sits in the middle of its own small pile of feed.

  • Recorded for freshwater.
  • Fished from the shore.
  • Recorded as suiting clean ground, which covers what you described.
  • Recorded as working in still or almost still.
  • Presents a bait on the bottom.

  In the water: The feeder lands flat side down — the shape is designed to do that — and the compacted feed begins to break down within minutes, leaving a low mound with the hookbait in it. Fish arriving to feed on the loose material take the hookbait among the rest. The moment the fish lifts and turns, the short hooklength comes tight against the feeder's weight and the hook is set. Nothing needs to happen at the rod, which is why method fishing produces such violent, unmistakable takes.

  When it stops being the right answer: Commercial stillwaters and any water where carp, bream and tench feed confidently over a bed of loose feed. It is at its best in moderate depths and at moderate range, and less suited to very deep water — where the feed disperses on the way down — or to very silty bottoms, where the whole package can sink out of sight.

  What goes wrong

  • A hooklength long enough that the fish is not hooked against the feeder — the mechanism simply does not operate.
  • A truly fixed feeder that cannot detach, which leaves a broken-off fish attached to it.
  • Feed mixed too dry, which breaks up on impact, or too wet, which never breaks down at all.
  • Casting to a different spot each time, so the feed is spread rather than concentrated.
  • Striking at the take. The fish is already hooked; striking pulls it out.

• Wire trace deadbait rig

  Two trebles on a wire trace, positioned in the outer flesh of a deadbait so the fish can be struck promptly and hooked in the jaw.

  • Recorded for freshwater.
  • Fished from the shore.
  • Recorded as suiting mixed ground, which covers what you described.
  • Recorded as working in still or almost still.
  • Presents a bait on the bottom.

  In the water: Fished static, the bait lies on the bottom with the trace extended, and the scent trail does the work. Fished popped up, a buoyant insert lifts the bait clear of silt where it is far more visible and where the scent disperses more widely. A pike takes the bait crosswise and moves off with it before turning it to swallow head-first; the whole point of the hook positioning is that the strike comes during that first movement, while the hooks are still near the front of the fish's mouth.

  When it stops being the right answer: For pike in cold and coloured water, at night, and wherever a static bait outfishes a worked lure. It is the primary alternative to lure fishing in the predator angler's repertoire and the more productive of the two through the winter.

  What goes wrong

  • Burying the trebles inside the bait so they cannot take hold until the bait is well inside the fish.
  • Letting a run develop before striking, which is the single largest cause of deep-hooked pike.
  • Using unkinked, damaged or rusted wire, which fails at the worst moment.
  • Fishing without long forceps and hook cutters to hand.
  • Leaving the rods unattended, so a taking fish swallows the bait unchecked.

• Pole rig

  A short fixed length of line below a pole tip, with the shock absorption provided by elastic inside the pole rather than by a reel drag.

  • Recorded for freshwater.
  • Fished from the shore.
  • Recorded as suiting clean ground, which covers what you described.
  • Recorded as working in still or almost still.
  • Presents a bait on the bottom.

  In the water: The rig is lowered rather than cast, so it enters the water without disturbance and settles almost vertically beneath the pole tip. Because the line from tip to float is short and nearly vertical, wind and drift act on very little of it and the float sits still on a spot instead of drifting off one. Bites register almost instantly — there is no slack to take up and no stretch of a long line to absorb them, which is why a pole shows takes that a rod and reel never sees. When a fish runs, the elastic comes out of the pole tip and continues stretching until the run stops; the angler ships back sections of pole to bring the fish within reach rather than winding it in.

  When it stops being the right answer: Stillwaters, canals, commercial fisheries and slow river margins where the fish are within pole range, where bites are delicate, and where placing the bait on the same spot repeatedly matters more than covering water. It is the wrong tool in strong wind, in fast flow, at range, over ground that snags, or where a fish may run further than the elastic can absorb.

  What goes wrong

  • Elastic too heavy for the hooklength, so the line parts before the elastic gives at all — the two must be matched as a system.
  • Elastic too light for the fish, so a good fish is played far longer than it should be, which is a welfare problem rather than a sporting one.
  • Shipping back through the sections too slowly with a fish on, letting it reach a snag the rig cannot be pulled from.
  • Fishing a pole at a length that cannot be held steady, so the tip moves and the presentation the rig exists for is lost.
  • Treating the short line as unbreakable and lifting a fish rather than shipping back, which is how hooklengths and top kits are broken.

What was set aside, and on which facet

• Waggler float rig

  It presents a bait held off the bottom, not on the bottom.

• Paternoster rig

  It is recorded for saltwater rather than freshwater.

• Drop shot rig

  It presents a bait held off the bottom, not on the bottom.

• Stick float rig

  It is recorded for moderate flow or tide or strong flow or tide, and you described still or almost still.

• Surface controller rig

  It presents a bait at or near the surface, not on the bottom.

• Uptide rig

  It is recorded for saltwater rather than freshwater.