End Tackle According To... Ian Chillcott

The game-changing rig moment which altered everything for me, was actually discovering that the Hair Rig existed! At first, I was in no position to use this fundamental carp-angling moment, as my military life would just not allow it. However, by the late ’80s I was able to chase carp around, a fish that had dominated my angling thoughts and reading since I was six years old. The amazing thing about it all, is that rig mechanics have become a frightening subject, one designed to confuse the angler far more than any carp. The tackle we use can be improved upon, of course, but there is nothing, to my mind at least, which improves the ideology of hook and hookbait separation, other than Lenny Middleton’s original concept. It doesn’t really need to get any more complicated than that… unless, of course, you’re talking about tangles, but that’s another story!

The last rig-related item I bought and love is a green cigarette lighter. It’s not the most devastating of instruments with which to catch a carp, but not having smoked in twelve years, I don’t always carry one around. I employ it to blob the end of my braid when I’m attaching my pop-ups these days, and, of course, to blob my knots! 

On my wish list for future end tackle items is a pair of practical reading glasses, which takes away the frustration of wearing them in the first place. Let’s look at this realistically. I cannot see the reason for, or even the point of, inventing or developing anything else. The carp we fish for are supposed to be the most difficult to catch, not treated as trout are from a put-and-take fishery. With drones, fish finders, fifty-metre rig- and bait droppers, echo sounders and (I’ll have to spit after saying it) friggin’ bait boats, how much more pressure do we need to pour on these once respected and loved fish? Things will be ‘invented’, but I just cannot see what good they will do… or indeed, if I could ever understand them at all!

Who influences me when it comes to rigs? Hmm. Having thought about this for a moment, much of what I have done rig-wise (which isn’t a lot really) has been done by me… things that overcame the problems I found, and tangling would be the biggest of those thoughts. I could never sit there thinking about whether a rig had tangled or not. To that end, I simply found materials, and devices, which stopped it happening; thankfully, nothing more complicated than that. If I had to mention a name, then the one we should all mention but don’t because it’s not very carpy, is Lenny Middleton, God rest his soul. I doubt he could ever have imagined how the life-changing, money-making invention he created would shape the lives of millions. Thank you sir! 

I have an excessive collection of Edges Short Chod Rigs. Why? I hear you cry, especially as I never use a Chod Rig. Well, they form the ‘up’ section for my Stiff Link pop-ups, and have made such a perfect part of my version of this set-up. The irony of it all is that I never want anyone else to touch my rigs, not for a second. If they do, I change them straight away, no matter the cost. So why do I use them, especially when a Chinese lady has sat for hours tying them up? The answer is, that they are perfect in every way, including the fact that they are always exactly the same length, something I was never capable of achieving. Bless her heart, and I only wish she could become aware of the excitement she has caused!

Where are we regarding rig innovation at the moment? As far as I am concerned—and I’m not sure this carries too much wait with some rig-infatuated anglers—I believe we have reached the end of the line as far as rigs go. Yes, someone will extend a Hair by a millimetre, or shorten a little bit of shrink tube, and then call it something completely different—an egotistical effort, I might add, only to heighten awareness of the so-called inventor, rather than catch more carp for others. It seems to be easier to say that rigs are the most important thing in carp fishing, rather than tell people that it’s more important where you put it. But then, your name never gets associated with vital tactical points like that, so why should anyone bother? 

One small tweak I made to a rig which had a massive outcome? It’s never actually happened! I’d love to tell you how I did this or did that, and how it caught me so many fish… but I can’t. Yes, I probably fish my Stiff Link pop-ups at a slightly more aggressive angle than most, and my Hairs are probably fished a bit longer too, but they fit my personal requirements. I could never claim they were a thing which caught me more fish, but I often wonder how so many do just that. At the end of the day, what we have caught has been landed more in spite of what we did, than because of it… but many would never accept this, and that’s okay with me as well.

My preferred hooklink length has always been around six-inches. To be honest, I have little idea how I came up with such a length; it’s just something that’s stuck, lasting the test of time. I have to laugh when people try and pour scorn on others who use longer, or maybe shorter hooklinks, when all it does is emphasise how many carp are caught in spite of, rather than instead of it. I travel around a fair bit, and I come across many different environments, yet I seem to catch wherever I go. Maybe it’s the fact that I have so much confidence in what I use and how I use it; or is it because I pay a great deal of attention to where I put it? The truth is, we’ll never really know, and that, for me at least, is what continues to make carp fishing so exciting!

When it comes to hooklink materials it all depends on which one of the two rigs I use to fish on the bottom. If it’s a bottom bait, then Edges 20lb Camotex Soft Camo is my first, and usually my only choice. It gives the hook such freedom of movement, and has caught me countless carp over the years. If I am going to use a pop-up, then it’s going to be constructed with Edges 30lb Illusion Trans Khaki. It ensures my hookbait is carried as far away from the lead as possible, and it’s as tough as it comes. My carp-fishing world never (very thankfully) gets any more complicated than that!

Mounting hookbaits is a simple affair, too. My bottom baits are threaded onto my rather long Hair via a baiting needle, and a boilie stop is inserted into the loop at the end of the Hair; simple but effective. My pop-ups have recently had their attachment changed, and by a very young Bradley Walker from Fox headquarters. We were filming on the Pads Lake at Yateley one day, and I was just showing him how I tied my pop-up on to my stiff links when he let out a little giggle. Consequently, he showed me how to blob them on by threading a piece of braid through the eye of the micro swivel on the D-ring, then drawing the doubled length through the hookbait. All that was left to do was burn the two ends down with a lighter until it was blobbed on the top of the hookbait; simple and oh so effective… who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

My hookbait choice is simple, really. I have never felt the need to use bright hookbaits, after all, if carp are capable of splitting the atom and tackling other such mathematical conundrums, then why would they pick up a bright hookbait which resembles nothing they eat in the wild, or indeed, anything you have surrounded it with in the way of free offerings? I still attach what could be called a ‘sight bob’ by way of a Mainline Topper or piece of plastic, on a pop-up or bottom bait. I have never been bothered about what colour it is; they just work. Maybe it’s because they negate the weight of the hook; who knows? Whatever the case, it has always worked for me… no matter who says it won’t!

Hand-sharpening hooks is a great thing to promote, especially when someone is paying you a few grand to say it’s the way forward; simple as that, really. And one other simple thing to ponder about sharpening a hook is, how good are those hooks if you have to sharpen them as soon as they come out of the packet? Doesn’t it leave the customer worrying whether the hooks are of any quality, especially when they are being told to sharpen them? Leaves me wondering why those who promote such activity think so little of the people they are selling the idea to in the first place. If they were the best hooks they’ve ever used, even though they have said the same for several different companies in the past, why then, do they have to be sharpened? It’s probably the most bewildering twaddle I have come across, but hey, maybe I’m just being foolhardy. As it happens, I’d rather be a little foolish than a misleading one, but that’s only my opinion, of course…

I can see end tackle products only becoming more durable and versatile, rather than more effective at catching carp. As I said before in this piece, I believe we have gone as far as we can with rig wizardry. Many of the products we use never started their lives as a carp-fishing product anyway, so whilst others are messing around in their world of electronic engineering, digital dithering or mechanical mayhem, I reckon something will be ‘discovered’ from time to time.